Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Weekly Round Up: September 19, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • PiperYAnderson Wearing tights for the first time in over 10yrs. Stopped wearing shorts or tights after a traumatic experience. #streetharassment
  • lillyheart: Decided: I would rather tithe to @iHollaback than the church until it recognizes my humanity.
  • accostherwilde A new taste of street harassment: dudes holla-ing @ me from their cars as I sit on my porch. Now they know where I live
  • MissNabokov Men probably don’t realise what a big issue street harassment actually is (unless they’re the ones doing it). It really needs addressing.
  • gyraff Why tweet abt st. harassment? Was told all my life to feel “grateful” and “appreciated” for getting catcalls . Actually, it feels yucky.
  • mgeils One of the many things I don’t miss about public transit/busing/walking is street harassment and catcalling #fuckyou #shutup
  • Mdotwrites DC streets be quiet on Redskin Sundays. Mean less street harassment for me. Ain’t THAT some shit.
  • CTrouper Had my eyeballs on a copy of glamour mag. Q&a on street harassment article on summer of mainstream misogyny. Heart.
  • smanamana I also hate this RT @karennattiah: Street harassment is one thing I hate about New York
  • clembastow Here’s a hint, guys: street harassment does not make women want to “spend some time” with you.

Resource of the Week:

Check out these new button, stickers, and magnets you can use to declare your dislike of street harassment and to brand/shame street harassers!!

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New method for reporting street harassers

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In Egypt, individuals are developing a HarassMap to allow women to report harassers via SMS messaging. It will map the location of the occurrence and help track where harassment is occurring and its frequency.

My good friends at HollaBackNYC and RightRides (who also are the lead coordinators for New Yorkers for Safe Transit) are taking this idea new places. This is their plan:

“We want to create an online map where women can ‘Hollaback!’ directly from their cell phones. Quick, 140 character stories can be submitted through three easy portals: a) text it, b) tweet it, and c) submit it through a ‘Hollaback’ mobile phone app. Once submitted, harassment and assault data will be mapped and later analyzed in an annual ‘State of Our Streets’ report which will be sent to the police, public officials, and the media. Automatic email alerts noting real-time harassment will also be available. Local citizens and policy makers can sign up for alerts on incidences in their own communities, or review our HARASSmap to see harassment hot-spots. Once we launch in New York City, we want to take it worldwide.”

As you may imagine, implementing this project takes money. They’ve applied for funding and they now need YOUR HELP to vote for their project!

For almost a year now I’ve been advocating (mostly silently though – lol) for a system that allows women to easily report the harassment and its location so I am thrilled to see them working to make it a reality. There are a lot of deterrents to reporting harassers now (including the fact that in most places you can only report people who are threatening or touching you) and it’s making the pervasiveness of the problem of gender-based street harassment largely invisible to mainstream society and to policy and lawmakers. This tool could change everything and make it easier to report harassers and it also could  show us where there are the most harassers so we can target those areas to end it.

Please go vote for the mapping/reporting tool – it’s really cool and has the potential to be a gamechanger in the fight against street harassment!!

Please also spread the word to your networks. Cut and paste this to your facebook, twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn pages:
Vote for Hollaback 2.0 http://bit.ly/14Egc2 then repost to end street harassment!

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Applauding Activists in Egypt and India

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In recognition of International Women’s Day, here’s a taste of the latest street harassment activism occurring in Egypt and India.

The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights has been engaged in a widespread campaign to end the sexual harassment of women in the country, including on the streets (street harassment). Last year they conducted and published a study about the high rate of harassment that made headlines around the world and, combined with two high profile street harassment cases last year, may lead to better laws this year. Currently, they are preparing to launch a HarassMap project later in 2009:

“This project will implement a system in Egypt for reporting incidences of sexual harassment via SMS messaging. This tool will give women a way to anonymously report incidences of sexual harassment as soon as they happen, using a simple text message from their mobile phone. By mapping these reports online, the entire system will act as an advocacy, prevention, and response tool, highlighting the severity and pervasiveness of the problem.”

When my life settles down some, I’d be very interested in trying out something similar in the U.S.! take-back-the-night-3809

In India, where street harassment is also a huge problem, Blank Noise activists have been engaged in various forms of activism against street harassment for years. Tonight they are holding a Taking Back the Night event:

“We are Taking Back The Night because we want to feel safe in our city. We are taking back the night because for too long our relationship with our city has been fear based. We Take Back the Night with you…Take Back The Night invites individuals, organisations, collectives, groups all to reclaim their city streets at night….Join us to intervene in the neighbourhoods where recent attacks on women took place. Pick a neighbourhood and call the coordinator for location details. Volunteers will hand out testimonials; engage with the public in discussion examining how we can act against violence (bystander ‘polls’ have been made and printed already to trigger discussion); drive people to the street theatre performances by Maraa in the Indiranagar, Ulsoor locations.”

I applaud both organizations for their amazing work to make public places safer for women in their countries.

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