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Metro Anti-Harassment Skit

September 12, 2012 By HKearl


Sadly, sexual harassment on the subway is not that unusual, yet few people (outside feminist circles) talk about it. For that reason, Collective Action for Safe Spaces & Voices of Men rode the Washington, DC, Metro and collaborated to perform a skit about harassment to bring attention to the issue. I played the role of the harassee.

The metro riders were pretty surprised because theater/performance is very rare on the DC system, but there were a lot of supportive comments each time we finished the skit. We did the skit about 10 times on several different subway cars.

Taking collective action like this is an important way to show that street harassment is not okay in your community. It’s also a great way to include new people in the work. One of the bystanders in our skit, John, was brand new to feminist activism and was an enthusiastic participant in speaking out against street harassment.

This skit can easily be replicated on other subways, metros, and buses. Reach out to either group for information:

Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
www.collectiveactiondc.org

Voices of Men
www.voicesofmen.org

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Filed Under: Activist Interviews, male perspective, public harassment, street harassment Tagged With: collective action for safe spaces, DC, metro harassment, sexual harassment, voices of men

He kept looking back toward me

April 16, 2010 By Contributor

Last night I had a pretty uneventful ride home on the Red Line, until I was close to my transfer at Metro Center. At Farragut North, some kid boarded the train. He clunked down next to some woman across the aisle from me, but immediately got up and sat next to me, asking if he could sit next to me after he did. I don’t own the train and people can sit wherever they want, but I knew this boy had different intentions. I immediately got up and said “I’m getting off at the next stop,” which was true, but even if it weren’t I didn’t want this kid sitting next to me.

As I waited near the door to exit, that boy would not stop grinning at me. Even my giving him dirty looks and rolling my eyes didn’t give him the hint that I was not interested.

He then started singing loudly, not realizing how annoying he was. Then I noticed him walk to the opposite end of the train car—I knew he was going to get off at Metro Center also! I started watching him like a hawk.

At Metro Center, I noticed he was walking slowly and kept looking back towards me. I came to a standstill because I did not want to walk past this kid. He finally started walking again, and when he was far enough ahead of me I proceeded again.

The kid was still in the vicinity and he wouldn’t leave people alone. I caught him checking out one woman, he hovered around another woman, and he stood next to the escalator, seeming to be waiting for me. In retrospect I wish I would’ve spoken up when I saw what he was doing, but remembering how people reacted the last time I called harassers out I did not want to go through that again.

I think he had some kind of mental issue because I sensed a cluelessness about him in his actions, but regardless, he freaked me out.

– Tired of Being Harassed

Location: Red Line, Washington, DC

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.

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: metro harassment, strete harassment

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