By: Erin McKelle, SSH Correspondent
Street harassment, unfortunately, is a universal experience for women. In an informal survey conducted by Stop Street Harassment, 95% of women reported being leered at and having been honked or whistled at while 81% have been the targets of sexually explicit comments and 82% reported being the targets of vulgar gestures. This tells us that street harassment happens to virtually all women. Women are being violated in our streets every single day.
For some reason, we don’t seem to be all that concerned. Street harassment is not well recognized as a problem and is even talked about as being a reward for beauty or attractiveness. Recently, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City was quoted as having commented on a woman he found attractive at a holiday party, stating “Look at that ass on her.” Also, in 2001, a book was made as a kitschy present for Bloomberg’s 48th birthday which featured some of his most infamous quips. One of those was in regards to street harassment “ I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesn’t get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one.”
The fact that a highly respected figure can make comments like this and be revered for them by co-workers is astounding. Do you think comments like this would ever be tolerated in regards to rape or abuse? Why is street harassment treated so differently, as if it’s a joke or comic relief? There is nothing funny about women experiencing harassment as they are simply going about their day-to-day lives. There is nothing funny about women having to endure such behavior.
All of this comes back to the fact that women are seen as sexual commodities. Their bodies are men’s to behold and if you’ve got it, well, you deserve it. It doesn’t matter that you have a turtleneck sweater on; because you have large breasts its men’s right to gawk and make lewd comments…at least that’s what society says. Society tells men that women’s bodies are there to be ogled and that objectification is completely normal and even part of being a man! Reducing women to their body parts (especially the sexual ones) is how men are; they are visual, after all!
It’s attitudes like these that perpetuate street harassment. It’s also attitudes like these that perpetuate sexism, sexual violence and degradation. When we reduce women to a part of their body, we take away the human part of them. They no longer become a person worthy of respect and human decency; they become a mere object to be played with. Their feelings, emotions, thoughts, ideas and convictions don’t matter because they are no longer viewed as fully human.
Because objectification is such a cultural norm (just take a look at some advertisements), these attitudes are normal. And because these attitudes are normal, street harassment is the norm. It’s also because of this normalcy that we don’t see the issue as a problem. That’s really at the heart of why we don’t talk about it. It can be made light of because it’s not seen real issue. That is why we have to work to call out injustice that we see and not tolerate it. This also means we can’t tolerate objectification and sexism in the media.
If you are interested in calling out advertisers for sexist and objectifying advertisements, then join Miss Representation on Super Bowl Sunday for their #NotBuyingIt Twitter campaign, in which they are going to be calling out sexism in ads that will be running in between game time. Simply watch the game, pay attention to the ads and when you see something you feel is sexist, send out a tweet to Miss Representation and the company with the hashtag #NotBuyingIt.
Campaigns like this are inspiring change in our world! Join in, take part and use your voice to end the attitudes and normalcy that cause street harassment to be silenced!
Erin is an e-activist and blogger based in Ohio. You can find more of her work here and here.
