Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“I just can’t…can’t leave this spot without a smile”

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I was sitting at the bus stop in front of the San Francisco Main Branch Library with my boyfriend. Another gentleman was sitting, reading, next to me. We had just missed the bus so we had about ten minutes to wait.

A short, (possibly) homeless man with devil horns tattooed on his forehead slowly wandered in front of the bus stop, laughing to himself. He wandered over, standing too close to my boyfriend, still laughing and laughing. He gestures to my boyfriend and calls him “Prince Charming,” and says some other things I couldn’t understand. He was kind of wandering in and out of laughing to himself and annoying my boyfriend, until he started talking to me. First, “Happy holidays, merry Christmas, God bless ya,” which I responded to with, “You too.”

Then he stopped wandering around, stopped far too close to where I was sitting, pointed to me and told my boyfriend, “You know…I can’t leave this spot…can’t leave this spot without a pretty smile from her.”

I rolled my eyes and my boyfriend told him to leave. “I just can’t…can’t leave this spot without a smile,” he says to me.

I told him, “No. You don’t get to demand things from me on the street just because you feel like it.”

He protests and I tell him that he doesn’t get to demand things from women just because he’s drunk and feels like it. He starts to protest loudly and at this point the man next to me and another man nearby were staring at the offender. The offender noticed them staring and started to walk away when I used the phrase “public sexual harassment” and by that time everyone was staring at him.

He must have felt intimidated because he made a punching gesture at me as he left.

– Jen M.

Location: San Francisco, City Hall

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

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Weekly Round Up – July 19

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Stories:

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

In the News:

  • The Chicago Sun Times had a front page (online) story about how women activists in Chicago prompted changes to the sexual harassment policies of the Chicago Transit Authority!
  • A group of women in Sudan were arrested and several were flogged for the crime of wearing pants in public.
  • An article in the Miami Herald about changing attitudes in policies in Saudi Arabia highlights the attitude that if women were allowed to drive, they would experience more sexual harassment in public, so it’s better not to let them drive.

Announcements:

  • In partnership with local activist, including the facilitators of Holla Back DC!, I am helping to organize a free, one-day summit on street harassment, to be held in October 2009 in Washington, DC. We are holding a photography contest right now for photographers who capture or depict street harassment, particularly in the DC area. Selected winners will have the chance to show/sell their work at a reception the evening before the summit.
  • RightRides in NYC recently has expanded their services of a free ride home from Saturday nights to include Friday nights too! They offer this service from 11:59 p.m. – 3 a.m. in 45 neighborhoods across four boroughs. To call for a ride, the dispatch number is (718) 964-7781 OR (888)215-SAFE (7233).

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Gardner, Carol Brooks. Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995).

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