Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Winners of the Hey, Shorty! drawing + help fund Hey, Shorty! book tour

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I’m trying to be more interactive-y so I filmed the drawing of the names of the people* who won copies of the new book Hey, Shorty! A guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets and a copy of the Hey…Shorty! documentary, both from Girls for Gender Equity.

(If you watch the drawing, you’ll notice something I didn’t while filming… one of my dogs is licking himself on the couch behind me. Whoops, sorry about that folks! But I can’t redo a drawing, so you’re getting real, unedited life. You can also spot my second dog on the couch on the other side of me. At one point I smile at her.)

I hope everyone who didn’t win will check out the Hey, Shorty! book. You can read one of its latest book reviews on the Ms. blog today.

Also, one of the authors of the book, Mandy Van Deven, needs your help as she works to fund a national book tour. Please consider donating to the book tour so that more people around the country can learn about the important issues the book covers. Mandy and I will co-speak at any of the events that are in my area, so if you’re on the East Coast, you may get to hear from authors of two of the only books that address street harassment! Learn more and donate.

*Jeff Stutsman and Sara Cannon won copies of the book, Dienna Howard won a copy of the documentary

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Hey, Shorty!: Book giveaway, event, review

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Guess, what? There’s a fantastic new (and very affordable) book you can check out that addresses street harassment, Hey, Shorty!: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets.

I’m excited because in my book about street harassment, I note the need for more books on the topic and here is one! And I’m also excited because the book comes from one of the groups I featured in my book, the New York City-based organization Girls for Gender Equity (GGE).

Hey, Shorty! is an essential, much-needed resource for students, teachers, parents, and any community member who wants teens to be safe at school and on the streets. Because the book is so important, I’m giving away a free copy of Hey, Shorty! in a random drawing. To have your name included in the drawing, put your name in the comments of this post or e-mail stopstreetharassment AT yahoo DOT com by April 19.

[4/15 UPDATE: I’m giving away TWO free copies of the book and also a free copy of the Hey…Shorty documentary. The additions are courtesy of one of my AAUW coworkers who got them for me without knowing I already own both :)]

If you live in New York City, you can go to Bluestockings Bookstore tonight, April 13, at 7 p.m. for the book launch event. Authors Joanne N. Smith, Mandy Van Deven, and Meghan Huppuch will talk about the book and the work of GGE (Smith is the founder of GGE and Deven and Huppuch work or worked for GGE). Several GGE youth organizers including Nefertiti Martin, Ariel Natasha, Veronica Tirado, Cyndi Yahya will read passages from the book. Books will be available for sale and signing.

Hey, Shorty! provides readers with two types of resource. First, in the main portion of the book, Smith, Van Deven, and Huppuch take readers through the 10 year history and work of GGE and their efforts to create an organization that empowers teenage girls to address issues that impact them and also to have schools address the widespread issue of sexual harassment (which, by the way, they are required to do by law under Title IX of the Educational Amendment of 1972).

The authors share personal experiences, thoughts, struggles and successes with designing programming, working with teenagers, learning from teenagers, and creating outcomes. The chapters are interesting and provide a model for action through the example of their work, in particular the model of prioritizing youth leadership on issues that relate to youth because, as Smith notes, they are the experts on these issues and they are the main stakeholders.

Two of the teen-led projects shared in the book that I have first-hand experience with are the Sisters in Strength Street Harassment Summit and Hey…Shorty documentary (available for purchase for $20 from the GGE website). I attended the Summit in 2007 as part of my master’s thesis research and I own the documentary. Both the summit and documentary were phenomenal and I was very impressed by the vision, articulation and hard work of teenage girls around the issues of street harassment.

Second, in the appendix, there are guides for students, school staff, and parents about how to prevent and also deal with sexual harassment. There is information about how to respond to harassers as the person being harassed or as a bystander and how to report harassers. Additional materials readers can use are a sexual harassment quiz and survey questions GGE used in their survey about sexual harassment in schools. These guides are easy to read and understand and are very important resources for anyone who cares about this issue. Soon you can add workshop curriculum to your list of resources, which GGE is developing with the help of 67 middle and high school students.

Lately I’ve been giving a lot of talks about street harassment, particularly to members of the nonprofit organization I work for, the American Association of University Women. Many of the people in attendance are current or retired teachers and are eager for information and resources they can use and they are very happy to hear about Hey, Shorty!

I hope you will read Hey, Shorty! and if you are a teenager, a parent of one, or work with teens, I hope you will consider using some of the materials in your own lives and work. GGE will celebrate 10 years this September. I look forward to seeing what they will achieve in the next 10 years!

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Support anti-street harassment efforts this holiday season

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Lately, I’ve been inundated with e-mails and letters from every organization I donated to during their year + their best friend organizations, asking me to donate again. As much as I obviously care about most of those organizations if I’ve already donated to them, my end of year giving is going to two organizations that do anti-street harassment-related work, RightRides and RAINN. You may be interested in donating to them, too.

  • Right Rides for Women’s Safety: For more than six years RightRides has been giving free rides home to women and male members of the LGBQT community on Friday and Saturday nights in New York City. This free service is particularly helpful to people who cannot afford a cab and are reliant on buses and subways and feel unsafe waiting for or taking these late at night. RightRides has a page about the many ways you can become involved. A new feature is recurring gifts. $10/month can cover rides home for 12 people that year and $25/month covers about 30 people’s rides home. Any amount helps.
  • RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): Individuals across the United States can seek immediate assistance and advice if they or someone they know are survivors of rape and sexual violence via RAINN’s national phone hotline and online chat feature. While most people know their attacker, about 25 percent do not, and many of those cases are strangers in public places who harass and attack them. When too often survivors of sexual violence are blamed for it and thus are silenced and don’t know what to do, RAINN’s services are very important. RAINN also works on prevention legislation and programming. If you donate by Dec. 31, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar, so you can make double the impact.

Here are additional suggestions for organizations whose work makes public places – and the world in general – safer for women and girls. Not only could you do end-of-year giving to them, but you could make a gift out of donating in honor of family members and friends who care about ending and/or are impacted by street harassment.

  • Blank Noise – Support work in India to raise awareness about and end eve teasing/street harassment through performance art and online activism
  • Defend Yourself – Support the work of a Washington, DC organization that holds community workshops and classes that teach skills to stop harassment, abuse and assault. They particularly focus on girls, women, and LGBQT folks.
  • Girls for Gender Equity – Support a NYC organization that empowers teenage girls and has tackled street harassment through surveys, documentaries, conferences, and books
  • Helping Our Teen Girls – Help fund the programs of an Atlanta, GA, organization that empowers teenage girls and has tackled street harassment through workshops and music.
  • Hollaback – Support the NYC-based organization so they can  fund new Hollaback websites around the world
  • The Line – Help fund programs to raise awareness of healthy sexual boundaries, important work that can help prevent street harassment and sexual assault.
  • Men Can Stop Rape – Support rape prevention programming in middle and high schools and colleges that focuses on providing boys with a safe place to talk about masculinity issues and learn healthy definitions of manhood.
  • The White Ribbon Campaign – Support an international organization that works to educate young men and boys about gender equity, respect and healthy relationships.
  • Women for Women International – Help fund programming that helps women in war-torn areas gain skills and resources necessary to rebuild their lives and increase their safety in their community. You can also sponsor an individual woman as a sister.

And are you looking for other last-minute gift ideas? I can suggest a few:

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Weekly Round Up March 7, 2010

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Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

In the News:

  • Politics Daily ran an article called, “‘Eve Teasing’ in India: Fighting for Change as Sexual Violence Grows”

Announcements:

Resource of the Week:

  • The documentary “Hey…Shorty” by Girls for Gender Equity: Watch a 2 minute overview and purchase the 20 minute documentary.

    “This youth-produced documentary focuses on women of color’s experiences with street harassment and men of color’s ideas about and intentions behind the behavior. It exposes the frequency with which street harassment occurs, dispels myths about who it happens to and why, and examines the root causes of why men feel it is their right to approach women, in ways both friendly and violent, in public spaces. Young women share stories of bottles being thrown at them, older men grabbing their hand, and other examples of how street harassment creates a hostile environment for women that perpetuates a culture of violence and the fear of men. Men show off their ‘holla’ skills, give advice to women on how to respond to their advances, and are challenged to think about street harassment in a new light, one that resonates with them in a profound way.”

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Street Harassment Round Up – June 21

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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.

  • On this blog, women in Chicago and Hawaii talk about being fed up by the volume of street harassment they face on a daily to weekly basis.
  • On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor wrote a post about having a TTC subway employees flirt with/harass her when she was paying her fare. The Director of Corporate Communications for TTC saw the post and wrote to HB Toronto with information about how passengers can file complaints about employees. This post was followed by one from another contributor telling about a time a TTC employee made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Harassment on public transportation is global!
  • On Holla Back NYC, a contributor tells about getting oogled by men at a community pool, but they complained to the pool management and then men had to leave.
  • Holla Back DC! has a contributor post from a woman who was asked “how’d you get that cute ass” by a man who then turned very angry when she asked him not to harass her.
  • Two years ago Blank Noise Project asked readers to submit their list of things they wished they could do in their city (for example, smile when they wanted, not have to think about who’s watching them, be able to go out at night and be safe…) and this past Saturday afternoon, they invited people to come to Cubbon Park to live out their wish list, including wearing something they wished they could wear but never had for fear of harassment.

In the News:

Upcoming Events:

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

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