Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
A group of friends in Minneapolis, MN, who were tired of street harassment recently formed the Design Bitches Collective and they’ve been taking suggestions for stickers against street harassment. Check out some of the forthcoming designs!
Twyla is a student at South High School in Minneapolis, MN. For her humanities finals she did a “ripple effect” project where she choose something that’s important to her and do something to make a difference about it. She chose sexual harassment in Minneapolis, MN. Her group and she created an informational website about how street harassment effects their community and ways to stop it.
I’m sharing this for our ally Cards Against Harassment:
“Have you ever experienced street harassment in Minnesota? A Minneapolis-based activist is gathering stories (however brief, however general) to help inform upcoming anti-harassment initiatives in Minneapolis.
If you can, please take a minute and either in the comments on this post, or in an email to cardsagainstharassment@gmail.com, describe your experience(s) with street harassment in or around Minneapolis. If you want to share details of your experiences, please do, but your post or email does not need to be specific, dramatic, or seem notable to you; a simple “this has happened to me and here is how it affected my me or my behavior” will suffice. The preliminary goal is to simply gather samples of experiences, and ideally some detail on street harassment’s impact on people who live, work, or have visited Minneapolis.
If you do share details, please don’t include narrative concerning perceptions concerning the economic status or racial or ethnic identity of your harasser, or coded language accomplishing the same. The goal is to help increase respect, not prejudice.”
Once, I was walking home from class, and a man in a car starting making cat calls at me. Then, he followed me in his car, pulled over, got out and started calling after me some more. This was in the middle of the day on a busy street.
I took my cell phone out and dialed 911, but never called the police. I walked home as quickly as possible and called my mother to tell her what happened. I was terrified that he saw where I lived and would come back to hurt me. I thankfully never saw him again.
– anonymous
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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.