Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Harassment Hotline

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Should employers be responsible if their employees harass women in public, while the employee is on the job?

Recently I read Deborah Thompson’s article “‘The Woman in the Street:’ Reclaiming the Public Space from Sexual Harassment” (a 1994 article in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism) and I like her ideas on this topic.

“While Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination] was never intended to apply outside the workplace, its hostile environment principles provide a useful framework from which to develop a liability regime to protect all women who are street harassed by ‘men at work.’

This regime would hold employers vicariously liable for public sexual harassment by their employees if the employer failed to warn workers that street harassment is intolerable, failed to implement as system by which members of the public could formally file a complaint, or failed to take remedial action when members of the public complained about harassment by their employees.

It would be relatively easy to develop a complaint procedure for street harassment. For example, instead of signs on the back of company trucks that read, ‘How’s my driving, call 1-800-555-1212,’ trucks and taxis could display signs that read, ‘If the driver of this vehicle harasses you, call 1-800-555-1212.’

Similarly at construction sites, there should be a number for women to call to complain about harassment by workers. Such a ‘Harassment Hotline’ would be a first step in ending the hostile environment of outdoor workplaces.

It would send a valuable message that a particular company cares about its image and does not tolerate workers who invade and bombard communities with sexual harassment…

In sum, the societal interest of promoting the privacy, safety, mobility, and equality of women should outweigh the desire of employees to engage in recreational sexual harassment while on the job.”

What do you think?

Here are two stories submitted by contributors who were able to report a harassing man or men to the employer and meet with success. And it would be even easier to make these kinds of reports if the number to call regarding harassment was prominently posted.

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"I'll bet next time he buys marshmallows"

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Today I’ve been writing my street harassment book chapter on ways women can respond to harassers in the moment – if they feel safe enough to and wish to – and success stories illustrating those ways.  The stories come from my informal survey and from stories submitted to this blog and other anti-street harassment blogs. The Street Harassment Project has a whole depository of great stories and I got a nice laugh from the stories from one contributor in particular. (I don’t condone violence or insulting harassers and I’m not including either of these stories in my book, but it’s hard not to feel some vindication at the outcomes of the stories when too often men get away with this kind of crap)

“Construction sites are full of men who hoot & holler, make rude gestures, etc. They feel safe in doing so, because they’re behind fences, on scaffolds, and with thier buddies. Cowards!

I had to walk past one such site at least twice a day. I’d heard comments, but none of these men had ever actually addressed me. Until a specific afternoon, when one of these guys hollered, “Hey lady, come up here and suck my dick!”

I’d had enough. I have a smart mouth anyway, and before I even thought about it I yelled back “Well maybe I would if I could FIND it under that fat gut of yours!” Jeez. Even I was embarrassed, but his buddies on the scaffolding nearly fell off laughing, and the women near me cheered.

From then on, when I walked past that site, all these guys would dare holler at me was “Hi lady! How ya doin’? Nice day huh?” with big grins on thier faces. And I never heard another lewd commect from ANY of them to ANYONE the whole rest of that remodel. I felt like Wonder Woman!

….

A friend of mine worked nights at 7-Eleven and a creepy little guy browsed around the store until he was the only customer, then brought a can of creamed corn to the counter. She turned aside a bit to ring it up, and when she turned back, he’d taken his willie out and laid it on the counter. She panicked, and did the first thing that came to mind…she smashed it as hard as she could with that can of creamed corn. Split it down the middle. She called 911, totally freaked, and one of the policemen said to her, as they hauled this pervert away in the ambulance, ‘You did a good thing here. Don’t feel badly, he had it coming. I’ll bet next time, he buys marshmallows!'”

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“I’ll bet next time he buys marshmallows”

By

Today I’ve been writing my street harassment book chapter on ways women can respond to harassers in the moment – if they feel safe enough to and wish to – and success stories illustrating those ways.  The stories come from my informal survey and from stories submitted to this blog and other anti-street harassment blogs. The Street Harassment Project has a whole depository of great stories and I got a nice laugh from the stories from one contributor in particular. (I don’t condone violence or insulting harassers and I’m not including either of these stories in my book, but it’s hard not to feel some vindication at the outcomes of the stories when too often men get away with this kind of crap)

“Construction sites are full of men who hoot & holler, make rude gestures, etc. They feel safe in doing so, because they’re behind fences, on scaffolds, and with thier buddies. Cowards!

I had to walk past one such site at least twice a day. I’d heard comments, but none of these men had ever actually addressed me. Until a specific afternoon, when one of these guys hollered, “Hey lady, come up here and suck my dick!”

I’d had enough. I have a smart mouth anyway, and before I even thought about it I yelled back “Well maybe I would if I could FIND it under that fat gut of yours!” Jeez. Even I was embarrassed, but his buddies on the scaffolding nearly fell off laughing, and the women near me cheered.

From then on, when I walked past that site, all these guys would dare holler at me was “Hi lady! How ya doin’? Nice day huh?” with big grins on thier faces. And I never heard another lewd commect from ANY of them to ANYONE the whole rest of that remodel. I felt like Wonder Woman!

….

A friend of mine worked nights at 7-Eleven and a creepy little guy browsed around the store until he was the only customer, then brought a can of creamed corn to the counter. She turned aside a bit to ring it up, and when she turned back, he’d taken his willie out and laid it on the counter. She panicked, and did the first thing that came to mind…she smashed it as hard as she could with that can of creamed corn. Split it down the middle. She called 911, totally freaked, and one of the policemen said to her, as they hauled this pervert away in the ambulance, ‘You did a good thing here. Don’t feel badly, he had it coming. I’ll bet next time, he buys marshmallows!'”

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"Catcalls nearing extinction" ?

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There are fewer catcalls from construction workers because more women complain about them and there are more women working in construction, according to the Miami Herald.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t been harassed by construction workers in years. I always get upset when I see them continued to be stereotyped in commercials, tv shows, and movies as the only street harassers because in my experience, it’s the random guys passing me in cars or standing on the street that harass! Men on public transportation are also a big pain, especially when they grope you or start masturbating in front of you. So reducing the ugliness of street harassment to a few whistles from construction workers trivializes something that is a big problem for a lot of women and does nothing to help educate people about its pervasiveness or the negative impact it can have on women’s lives.

What have been your experiences with construction workers? Have you reported them if you’ve been harassed? Do you think they still deserve to be stereotyped as harassers?

And, as always with articles condemning street harassment that allow people to leave comments, there are some real “gems” following this one. For example, these two:

“People that complain about catcalls are spoiling one of the few opportunities for a bad looking gal to raise their self steem [sic] and feel good about her looks. Gernerally, [sic] the complainers are people that want to express their disatisfaction [sic] with life, in other words they are sour and disgruntled.”

[like women really want to be judged “poor looking” and then get shouted at out of pity. thank you for your charity mr. god’s gift to women.]

“As American President of NACHOS, National Associaton of Catcalling Hardhatted Ogres, I demand our right of free speech. When women dress they way they do then get mad at the result its time to look at the real problem here.”

[poor man, the real problem appears to be that he has no control over his mouth and loves victim blaming]

Oiye oiye oiye … so much education is needed!!

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“Catcalls nearing extinction” ?

By

There are fewer catcalls from construction workers because more women complain about them and there are more women working in construction, according to the Miami Herald.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t been harassed by construction workers in years. I always get upset when I see them continued to be stereotyped in commercials, tv shows, and movies as the only street harassers because in my experience, it’s the random guys passing me in cars or standing on the street that harass! Men on public transportation are also a big pain, especially when they grope you or start masturbating in front of you. So reducing the ugliness of street harassment to a few whistles from construction workers trivializes something that is a big problem for a lot of women and does nothing to help educate people about its pervasiveness or the negative impact it can have on women’s lives.

What have been your experiences with construction workers? Have you reported them if you’ve been harassed? Do you think they still deserve to be stereotyped as harassers?

And, as always with articles condemning street harassment that allow people to leave comments, there are some real “gems” following this one. For example, these two:

“People that complain about catcalls are spoiling one of the few opportunities for a bad looking gal to raise their self steem [sic] and feel good about her looks. Gernerally, [sic] the complainers are people that want to express their disatisfaction [sic] with life, in other words they are sour and disgruntled.”

[like women really want to be judged “poor looking” and then get shouted at out of pity. thank you for your charity mr. god’s gift to women.]

“As American President of NACHOS, National Associaton of Catcalling Hardhatted Ogres, I demand our right of free speech. When women dress they way they do then get mad at the result its time to look at the real problem here.”

[poor man, the real problem appears to be that he has no control over his mouth and loves victim blaming]

Oiye oiye oiye … so much education is needed!!

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