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Guardian Tackles Online Abuse on Their Site

April 26, 2016 By HKearl

Most people, especially women, who write about feminist topics like street harassment and rape culture have dealt with unpleasant and even harassing comments, tweets and emails in response to their piece/s. I know I have.

Fortunately now there are many efforts underway to address online harassment, and one of the latest is at the Guardian. Earlier this month, they started an initiative to make their comments sections better:

“We need to do more to facilitate respectful discussions and constructive debate everywhere on the site, as well as to protect our staff from the abuse and harassment that has become a routine part of writing for the internet for too many people….

We are going to be implementing policies and procedures to protect our staff from the impact of abuse and harassment online, as well as from the impact of repeatedly being exposed to traumatic images. We are also changing the process for new commenters, so that they see our community guidelines and are welcomed to the Guardian’s commenting community.”

The Guardian also examined their 70 million comments and found that 2%, 1.4 million, have been blocked for violating the Guardian’s community standards. Among the other findings (full info here), they found that articles written by women consistently attracted a higher proportion of blocked comments than articles written by men.

I find their efforts really encouraging and I hope other outlets follow suit. My dream is that one day, we will not have to fear reading the comments section.

Related:

1) How some women are tackling online harassment;

2) Eight things not to say to someone facing online abuse.

 

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Filed Under: online harassment, Resources Tagged With: guardian, online harassment

Stop the victim-blaming

February 16, 2010 By HKearl

The Internet is a-buzz over the findings that a majority of men and women in a survey of 1000 people in London believe some rape victims should take responsibility for “what happened” (ie, an illegal, traumatic, horrible action).

First of all, I am not surprised. Unlike most other crimes, people tend to blame those who are victims of rape, sexual harassment, and street harassment instead of, you know, the people who do those things.

In my forthcoming book on street harassment, I explore how street harassment – and rape – take place in the context of gender inequality and a rape culture and how victim-blaming seems to be one outcome of that horrible mix. I look at how the victim blaming of women who are street harassed is inappropriate and wrong, as some simple research and logic can attest.

For example, men in countries where women are completely veiled and otherwise wear “conservative” clothing harass women, too. The problem is not women’s clothing or how much or how little skin they are showing; it is the ignorance, disrespect, and arrogance of harassing men.

Also, not all men rape or harass, nor do most women, so it is not innate human behavior. It is learned behavior and it is behavior that thrives because people focus the blame on the victims, not the perpetrators.

Second, the other question is why are there so many women blaming other women for “being” rape (and I’ve heard women blame other women for experiencing street harassment)? Cara Kulwicki gives a great response to that question in a Guardian article:

“Women are given further incentive to blame victims of sexual assault through the myth that if they follow ‘the rules’ – don’t go out alone at night, don’t get too drunk, don’t wear anything too revealing, don’t flirt too much – they themselves are safe from becoming victims.

Most women are told how to avoid sexual assault from the time they start going through puberty (if not sooner), in ways that men are not. We’re careful about how we dress, we monitor our drinks, we make sure to have our keys out and ready before we reach the car, we use the buddy system. The idea that we do all of these things because we were taught to, and yet are only provided minimal protection by them (the vast majority of rapes being committed not by strangers but by people victims know and already trust on some level) is both humiliating and infuriating. The fact that women who do all of these things are still raped can also be downright terrifying.

So many women reason, albeit probably unconsciously, that if rape victims have done something ‘wrong’ which makes them responsible, they themselves are protected. If rape victims are viewed as stupid and irresponsible, every woman who thinks of herself as smart and level-headed is reassured that she won’t become one of them.

Reasons why women might be more likely to blame rape victims aside, all of this talk on the subject has a sinister result. When headlines blare that ‘more than half of women’ blame rape victims, we overlook that almost as many men responded the same way. When we say that women are less ‘forgiving’ of rape victims, we ignore that being raped is not something for which one needs to be forgiven. And while being blamed for your own rape is an incredibly traumatising experience, we forget in this discussion that there would be no victim to blame if there wasn’t a rapist committing assault first.

Here, we draw ourselves back to where the high rates of victim-blaming begin: the idea that when it comes to rape, women’s behaviour is more interesting and important than that of male rapists. In the process, we forego the more worthwhile conversation about why there are so many rape victims whose behaviour we can discuss.”

Exactly. The focus should be on answering why people rape, sexually harass and street harass others. The scary reality that many people do not want to face is that no matter how hard women try to “avoid” being raped or harassed, we are never guaranteed safety or peace. Safety and peace only will be achieved once we live in a world where no one is a rapist or a harasser, or at least once we live in a world where those crimes are taken seriously and the blame is placed appropriately.

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: guardian, rape blaming, rape study, sexual harassment, street harassment, victim blaming

Harassing women on bikes

July 7, 2009 By HKearl

Jessica Reed asks in a blog post on UK’s Guardian website: “What is it about a woman on a bike that attracts such unwelcome attention? From catcalls to lurid comments, should you shout back, or just ignore them? Any tips for those who will not give up their skirts?” You can read her entry in full to learn about the extent of harassment she’s experienced while on her bicycle.

I haven’t been on a bicycle in over a decade (wow!) and I don’t recall being the target of any gender-based harassed as an adolescent in my neighborhood when I did ride one. In response to the Guardian blog post, Holla Back DC! notes that they haven’t received submissions from anyone about being harassed while on their bicycle in DC though some contributors have said that men on bikes have harassed them.

From my research, I’ve read stories from women who are often harassed on their bicycle and stories from other women who were relieved to find they were not harassed while on their bicycle. Here’s an example of one story illustrating the former from my anonymous, informal online survey from last fall:

“Once I was riding my bike down the street and this guy over on the sidewalk who thought he was clever shouted at me, “Hey, don’t you know pedaling (peddling) pussy is illegal?” I didn’t feel unsafe just because he said that, but I did feel sort of unwelcome, and even though I was angry I didn’t feel safe in confronting him.” – a young woman from Louisville, KY

Off the top of my head, two incidents come to mind when I think about this topic. First: one of my cousins lives in Arlington, VA, a close suburb of DC, and she told me that a man yelled “whore” at her one time when she was riding her bicycle home from work! Second: when I interviewed the founder of HollaBack Chicago over two years ago, she said a harassment incident she experienced while she was bicycling inspired her to start the blog.

Have you been harassed while on a bicycle or do you feel more immune to it than when you are on foot?

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: bicycle harassment, guardian, sexual harassment, street harassment

"Upskirt" photography filed under "life & style"?

February 25, 2009 By HKearl

In the last year or so I’ve read a few articles about men taking photos up women’s skirts or down their shirts in public places, usually without the woman’s knowledge. Last September I wrote about a victory against this crass behavior in NYC when a man there got arrested for taking a photo up a woman’s skirt at a subway station.

Upskirting is gross, a violation of privacy, but not often illegal (laws aren’t keeping pace with technology). A recent article in the Guardian says it’s also a problem in the UK (unsurprising). Go read it if you’re unfamiliar with “upskirting.”

Tonight as I read the article, I particularly was struck by its placement: in the women’s section of “Life & style.” Since when does men taking photos up women’s skirts without their permission or without their knowledge qualify as “stylish” and why should it be something that women have to put up with in their “life”? Other categories under life and style include fashion, food, fitness, crafts, family, and relationships. “Soft” news categories. Why isn’t this considered “hard”  news? Because it’s a “women’s” issue? Guess what, men are the ones doing it so it’s a men’s issue too. Put it in the News section. I bet not many men go to the “women’s” section of the “life & style” section of the news website and they need to read these stories.

Me being upset over this placement may seem silly but it reflects how important the harassment of women in public is to the people in charge of the news – not very. I’ve found articles on other forms of street harassment relegated to these sections too. “Living” and “Style” … Thanks for letting only women know they’re being violated, harassed, and assaulted in the streets (something many already know from personal experience) but also for making sure they realize their problem is only a “soft” news issues of no major concern. So yeah, even though men are perpetrating it, don’t talk to them about it; they must focus on “manly” things instead in the hard news section…

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Filed Under: Administrator Tagged With: guardian, London, photography, street harassment, subway harassers, UK, upskirting, violation

“Upskirt” photography filed under “life & style”?

February 25, 2009 By HKearl

In the last year or so I’ve read a few articles about men taking photos up women’s skirts or down their shirts in public places, usually without the woman’s knowledge. Last September I wrote about a victory against this crass behavior in NYC when a man there got arrested for taking a photo up a woman’s skirt at a subway station.

Upskirting is gross, a violation of privacy, but not often illegal (laws aren’t keeping pace with technology). A recent article in the Guardian says it’s also a problem in the UK (unsurprising). Go read it if you’re unfamiliar with “upskirting.”

Tonight as I read the article, I particularly was struck by its placement: in the women’s section of “Life & style.” Since when does men taking photos up women’s skirts without their permission or without their knowledge qualify as “stylish” and why should it be something that women have to put up with in their “life”? Other categories under life and style include fashion, food, fitness, crafts, family, and relationships. “Soft” news categories. Why isn’t this considered “hard”  news? Because it’s a “women’s” issue? Guess what, men are the ones doing it so it’s a men’s issue too. Put it in the News section. I bet not many men go to the “women’s” section of the “life & style” section of the news website and they need to read these stories.

Me being upset over this placement may seem silly but it reflects how important the harassment of women in public is to the people in charge of the news – not very. I’ve found articles on other forms of street harassment relegated to these sections too. “Living” and “Style” … Thanks for letting only women know they’re being violated, harassed, and assaulted in the streets (something many already know from personal experience) but also for making sure they realize their problem is only a “soft” news issues of no major concern. So yeah, even though men are perpetrating it, don’t talk to them about it; they must focus on “manly” things instead in the hard news section…

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Filed Under: Administrator Tagged With: guardian, London, photography, street harassment, subway harassers, UK, upskirting, violation

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