japan Archives | Stop Street Harassment

Chariots for Hire, No Groping Buttons and Other Ways to Make Transit Safer

April 13, 2016 By HKearl

The ride-sharing service Chariots for Women will be launching nationwide on April 19 as an alternative to Uber and Lyft. In this model, all drivers and customers will be women to “ensure safety, comfort, and pleasure.”

Since stories about sexual violence of women at the hands of male Uber and Lyft drivers and taxi drivers are not uncommon, it’s understandable that there is a market for such a service. Indeed, I’ve supported a similar but free service called RightRides in both New York City and Washington, D.C. On select nights, women and LGBQTI-identified people can receive a safe, affordable late-night-ride home.

In San Francisco, a similar service called Homobiles offers rides that are free, with a donation suggested, to members of the LGBTIQQ community, who similarly may feel unsafe or discriminated against by drivers or be unable to pay for expensive taxi fares.

I understand why these services exist and many countries offer some form of women-only public transportation. But I do not believe that these kinds of women-only or LGBTIQQ-only services should be the ultimate goal. They are problematic for many reasons. Namely, they do not address the root causes of harassment and sexual assault, and they place the onus on these communities to keep themselves safe.

But there are no quick-fixes and easy answers for making public transportation (or any public spaces) safer, and I applaud those who are at least trying. And lately, there have been many groups that are trying. These are four examples, just from the past few weeks:

JAPAN:

In Japan, men groping women and girls on public transportation is a problem, but it’s challenging for them, especially girls, to speak out in the moment when it happens.

A female high school student in Tokyo who was regularly groped by men on her ride home from school (and reported it, but that did not stop it) and her mother designed a button that said “Groping is a crime” and “I won’t let the matter drop” which she attached to her school bag. The buttons seem to be a deterrent, and no man has groped her since she put them on her bag.

Her success inspired others. Recently, thanks to a fundraising campaign (“Stop Chikan Badge Project”), the Chikan Yokushi Katsudo Center expanded on her idea and mass produced buttons. The designs on the buttons were also selected through crowdsourcing – there were 441 submissions and five designs selected. Recently, volunteers from the organization distributed 500 of the buttons at the JR Shibuya Station, with plans to distribute them at other stations. Not only did girls and young women take badges, but adults took them too to distribute to their daughters.

MEXICO:

In early April, twenty women wearing dark clothing across their body and faces held a flash mob protest against sexual harassment on the transit system in Mexico City. They were organized by the group Information Group on Reproductive Choice after one of the women’s colleagues was attacked. A 2014 study found that more than 60 percent of women in Mexico City and faced sexual abuse while riding public transit.

The women demonstrated at various stations and on the subway itself. Both metro authority staff and passengers were respectful and many women passengers stopped to thank them for raising awareness through their demonstration.

UK:

Transport London conducted a survey in 2013 of their riders and found that around one in seven women had experienced unwanted sexual behavior on public transit. In response, they launched Project Guardian in conjunction with the British Transport, Metropolitan and City of London police forces and local advocacy groups, to raise awareness and train employees. But even still, few people reported harassment when they experienced it.

One year ago, they released the Report It to Stop It campaign. The video captures the way harassment can escalate and a voice asks at various points, “Would you report it?”

This month, one year later, Siwan Hayward, TfL’s deputy director of enforcement and on-street operations said there’s “not enough data yet to say it’s a trend” but “we are beginning to see what we hope is actually the prevalence of sexual offences falling.”

Notably, the video has been viewed nearly five million times and 36 percent more people are coming forward to report harassment, resulting in a 40 percent increase in arrests. As Ellie Violet Bramley wrote for the Guardian, “the real win is the cultural shift this signals – women won’t accept this behaviour as routine any more, and neither will the authorities.”

USA:

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has been working in collaboration with Collective Action for Safe Spaces and Stop Street Harassment on an anti-harassment campaign that has included station-wide awareness posters, an online reporting form, the training of employees, and outreach days at Metro stations. All of these efforts set the tone that sexual harassment is unacceptable and is taken seriously.

Over International Anti-Street Harassment Week, the three organizations released the results of the first-ever survey on the system. This is the biggest study of its kind for any transit system in the United States.

In the 1,000 person-regionally representative survey conducted in January 2016 by Shugoll Research, 21 percent of riders had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with verbal harassment being the most common form. Women were three times more likely than men to experience sexual harassment.

In positive news, 41 percent of the riders were familiar with the latest anti-harassment campaign and those who were familiar with it were twice as likely to report their experiences of harassment. Based on the findings, WMATA, CASS and SSH are currently working on a new awareness campaign that will be released in a few weeks.

Find ideas for how YOU can help make public spaces safer.

Harassed on the way to school

September 14, 2009 By HKearl

As the news reminds us almost daily with abduction stories like Jaycee Dugard’s, most Americans realize children are at some risk for abduction from strangers and, as a result, fewer parents allow their young children to go to school alone (though the figure of abductions is smaller than people may realize: 112 children are kidnapped by strangers per year). I don’t think people realize, however, how many girls and young women are followed, verbally harassed, and touched by boys and men as they wait for a school bus, walk, or ride the subway to and from school, particularly once they reach puberty.

Last fall I conducted an informal online survey about people’s experiences with street harassment and over 900 people responded. In an open-ended question where people could share a story, many females mentioned the harassment they had or do receive en route to or from school.

“When I was a freshman in high school a girlfriend and I were followed home by a car of teenage boys who shouted remarks and the occasional lewd comment. We veered off our route and onto the campus of the elementary school where we went to a former teacher’s classroom and asked her if we could stay for a while, until we felt sure those guys were gone.” – 20 -29 year old Anglo American young woman in Murfreesboro, Tennessee

“One day in 8th grade (when I was 13), I was running late. The train was crowded, but I had to get on. As I shoved myself in, a fat man suddenly came out of nowhere and wedged himself in behind me… He started rubbing his crotch against my leg and panting. I was so scared, I didn’t know what to do or say. When the train reached the next stop and a lot of people got off, I tried to get away from him. He followed me and continued rubbing his crotch against my leg … He didn’t stop until more people got off and I finally found a seat.” – 13-19 year old Asian American young woman in New York City

Of the 811 females who took my survey, 22 percent said they were first harassed by men in public when they were ages 0-12, 40 percent said ages 13-15 and 25 percent said ages 16-19.

Unfortunately, harassment of girls on the way to and from school is a global problem, from England to Italy to Brazil to Mexico to Egypt to Mauritius to India to Japan to Canada.

For example, in large cities in Japan, men groping women on the subway is a huge problem. According to a recent article in The Japan Times, last year in Tokyo alone there were 2,000 reported groping cases (and it’s a vastly underreported crime). Most of the attacks occurred during morning rush hour and almost half of the women targeted were in their 20s and more than 30 percent were teenagers. To combat this problem, there are women-only subway cars and PSAs telling men to stop groping.

Another example is in rural areas throughout African. A recent news story detailed how only an estimated 20 percent of children who enter primary school in rural Zambia complete Grade 12, in large part because of the long distances that they must travel (up to 13 miles) which is tiresome and also places them, particularly girls, at risk of assault and rape. To enable more school attendance, Chicago-based World Bicycle Relief is donating bicycles to children in Africa to help them stay safe as they travel to school.

In the U.S., to combat parents’ fear of child abductions, SafeRoutes works to enable children to more safely travel to school by foot or on bus in an effort to reduce traffic congestion, etc.

I think, however, people need to pay more attention to how boys and men are treating older girls going to and from school. My research has shown that street harassment impacts females of all ages but, the harassment of teenage girls upsets me the most because I believe they are the most vulnerable to believing this is how women are supposed to be treated and the least likely to know how to respond or protect themselves.

And it should not be girls’ responsibilities to have to protect themselves; boys and men must stop preying upon and harassing young women. I’m currently writing a book on this topic which will explore ways to accomplish this goal. In the meantime, here are suggested strategies to share with the young women in your life about dealing with harassers and, if you are a parent or in a position to mentor youth, please especially note #7 for ways to help stop harassment overall.

(cross-posted at AAUW’s blog)

High rates of subway sexual harassment in Korea and Japan

August 17, 2009 By HKearl

Two weeks ago The Korean Times reported that sexual harassment on the subway in Seoul is up 26 percent since last year.

“The incidents include male offenders trying to grope women or take pictures up their skirts.

A total of 345 cases were reported in the first half of this year. In April, when unusually high temperatures hit the nation, such offenses reached a high of 78 and since then, more than 50 cases have been reported each month, police said.

Most of the offenders said they did it out of curiosity.

The actual number of cases might be higher than the published data because many women are afraid of reporting the incidents, a police spokeswoman said.”

I wonder if there were unusually low reports of sexual harassment last year to make the 26 percent jump this year or were reports indeed higher this year than in years past?

At the end of 2007, The Korea Times reported that women-only subway cars were to be reintroduced in Seoul in 2008 as part of an effort to curb sexual harassment of female passengers. Two cars of each subway train on all lines were designated just for women. The current article doesn’t address the women-only cars and whether or not that has had an impact.

Speaking of countries with women-only subway cars, The Japan Times just published an article about subway groping in Tokyo. Last year in Tokyo alone there were 2,000 reported cases of men groping women! From the article:

“According to an MPD study last year, most attacks occurred on trains, primarily during morning rush hours.

Almost half of the victims were in their 20s and more than 30 percent were teenagers.

Last year saw police process 2,169 ordinance violations — the lowest number in the past four years. Police attributed the fall to the 2005 introduction of female-only train cars.”

The article goes on to cover information like “how can someone avoid being a victim?” and “can innocent people be convicted?” without any information about the men who engage in this behavior and how to make them STOP! Because guess what, women wouldn’t have to avoid being a victim and innocent men wouldn’t be falsely accused if there was no groping!!

Street Harassment from NY to France to Japan

June 2, 2009 By HKearl

Exploring the blogosphere, I came across the following street harassment post on the blog Pomp and Circumstance:

“Heat and mating season make New Yorkers let it all hang out. I am pro sex yet have always had mixed feelings about street harassment. A woman whose weight fluctuates from average to a little extra, a globe trekker approaching 30, I’ve developed an international view on the issue.

Growing up in Philly after I lost my baby fat and had a growth spurt I got a lot of attention on the block. I chuckled, flinched sometimes. After a few years, I took “White is right!” “Can I get a ride? and “Pssst, snowflake” for granted. Yet I was always self-conscious, wearing overalls over my miniskirt to waitress one summer.

In France, I starved myself more to almost French size, sticking out only to my matronly host who said I was a little plump. Still, I was the victim of both friendly Bonjours and a teenage ass grabber.

I moved to Japan and gained 20 pounds. My teenaged students shouted ‘I love you,’ and girls grabbed my breasts in clubs. I was the victim of chikan-subway molestation. A crime so common authorities told me to carry hatpins.

I moved to New York five years ago. In the big city, women and men, cultivate the blank, sidewalk face, which I wear more often than I’d like. Sometimes, a ‘God bless you, beautiful’ is a relief.

-A”

An interesting and global take on street harassment, huh? Do you feel glad to hear from people on the street sometimes?

I’m also interested in how she perceives the role her weight plays in the kinds and volume of street harassment she experiences. Have you ever felt your weight impacts the type or volume of harassment you experience?

Video Game Allows Subway Groping & Worse

March 11, 2009 By HKearl

Perverts on public transportation get their way in a Japanese video game called RapeLay. Trigger warning… Leigh Alexander at Slate.com wrote the following about the game:

“The game begins with a man standing on a subway platform, stalking a girl in a blue sundress. On the platform, you can click “prayer” to summon a wind that lifts her skirt. She blushes. Once she’s on the train, the assault begins. Inside the subway car, you can use the mouse to grope your victim as you stand in a crowd of mute, translucent commuters. From here, your character corners his victim—in a station bathroom, or in a park with the help of male friends—and a series of interactive rape scenes begins.”

I see no point in making light of a crime most women fear and too many have experienced. I’m reminded of the real life rape of a young woman in New York at a subway station and the knowledge that much of the harassment girls and women experience is on public transportation (see various article on the Stop Street Harassment website), including in Japan.

A 2005 study in Tokyo found that 64 percent of young women in their 20s and 30s had been groped on trains, subways, or at transit stations, leading to the creation of more women-only cars. I don’t know if the high rate of groping in real life make the Japanese game more or less disturbing…

The game has been banned from Amazon and Ebay and isn’t sold in any stores in the United States, but the Slate.com author found that it only took 30 seconds of Internet searching to find an illegal downloadable game.

[Note: During later research about harassment & assault on public transportation, I found out about Japan’s “Train Cafe” another gross form of entertainment that capitalizes on groping women.

“The cost to ride is 5,000 yen (~$42US). Once each hour, Train Cafe holds an ‘all aboard’ event, where the paying male members ‘board’ the train together with the girls and engage in simulated ‘chikan’ (groper) play. Each 20 minute ride allows gropers to grabs any girl’s behind or breasts. Upskirt grabs aren’t allowed and will result in a violation.”]