Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

2018 Plans for DC-Area Anti-Harassment Transit Efforts

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WMATA, CASS and SSH Staff at a 2018 planning meeting

It’s been nearly six years since we started working with Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on efforts to address and prevent sexual harassment on the transit system. Today, Chantal from CASS and I attended a 2018 planning meeting at WMATA HQ and we are looking forward to various forthcoming projects:

1) Audio announcements letting people know how to report harassment they experience or witness will start being played on Metro trains this month and on buses in the spring. They asked if one of us would record them and I ended up being the one who did. So if you’re in the area, listen for my voice on Metro!!

2) During International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 8-14), we will partner together for our annual outreach day at various Metro stations. We’ll have new flyers, bracelets, and perhaps other giveaways, so stay tuned. We’ll also be looking for volunteers to help distribute information (date TBD but likely during evening rush hour on April 10 or 11).

3) Currently the third wave of print PSAs are up on the system. They are gorgeous! But if they’re up too long, people get used to them and don’t notice them anymore. They went up in Nov 2016, so it’s about time for new ads. We will work on a new set of ads over the summer.

4) We began a discussion about doing a follow-up survey of some kind to the 2016 ridership survey on sexual harassment to see how the latest print ads have been received and to see if people’s experiences with harassment have changed at all.

Those were the main updates. We are grateful that WMATA continues to dedicate time and resources to making the transit system safer.

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“Rub against me and I’ll expose you”

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Phase Two of the Ad Campaign

Last February, during a DC City Council Hearing, several brave Washington, DC commuters shared their experiences of being sexually harassed on the Metro buses and trains. At the same time, many of us – led by Collective Action for Safe Spaces – pressured the Metro into taking action on this issue (with lots of support from area blogs). Thankfully, the DC transit authority responded to the stories and campaigning. Among the many changes they’ve made, launched an anti-harassment public service announcement campaign in April.

At first the ads were on buses and subway platforms. Now they’re also on Metro cars and tonight, on my way home from work, I looked up and saw one! New ads will continue to be rolled out every few months to keep the content fresh.

I am very excited that commuters can see this ad and know that sexual harassment isn’t tolerated on the Metro system and that there is a way to report incidents that happen.

The Reports Are In

Here’s another piece of news about the campaign — One change we suggested the transit authority make was to start tracking ALL types of sexual harassment, not just types deemed criminal offenses (e.g. sexual assault). They agreed to do this and even created an online form to make it easier for people to report harassment incidents.

Recently, they released information about the number of reports they’ve received through September: there were 78 reports, including 39 incidents that were criminal. It’s impossible to compare numbers to the previous year since the tracking criteria and system is different but we now have a starting point to which we can compare future numbers.

I think this is all great progress and I’m really grateful I live in an area where I can look up during my commute and know that action is being taken to make the Metro system safer for everyone.

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You’re NOT Alone – Street Harassment PSA

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“I could be wearing a potato sack and I’d still be harassed,” says Ileana Jiménez, a faculty member at the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) in New York City, in a video PSA recently created by her high school students.

The PSA was made as part of a minimester at LREI that was focused on fighting back against street harassment using activism and media. LREI’s tradition of offering mimimesters allows faculty to offer short three-day courses on topics of their choosing. Throughout their three-day mimimester, students were visited by various street harassment activists, including leaders from Girls for Gender Equity and Hollaback! to learn more about the issue.

Jiménez, who is also a blogger at feministteacher.com, partnered with her colleague and media teacher, Stephen MacGillivray, to help the minimester students create this PSA, which she told me, was entirely directed and produced by students.

It’s wonderful to see a teacher addressing this issue in the classroom and providing students with the space and tools to explore the issue themselves. We need more teachers like Jiménez!

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“Asking for it” – new PSA by Temple University sophmore

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Read the background story from PSA creator Kara Lieff:

‘Asking For It’ was made for those who believe that there is a definitive connection between a woman’s clothing choice and her sexual availability. Many people think that women who dress a certain way are asking to be, or wouldn’t mind being, bothered, but this satirical take on street harassment shows that what a women really wants does not coincide with her attire.

This video was created for a class, and the assignment was to make a video that would get viewers to accomplish a certain action. I knew that I wanted my video to be a conversation starter – for my viewers to discuss street harassment, their experiences, why it happens, who is to blame, and what can be done to combat this problem. By featuring college-aged adults, I especially hope to reach out to my peers early on.

My sister Megan not only helped me develop this project, but over the years she has been a huge influence in my life, helping to develop my ideas about women’s rights, safety, and representation. Through her, I have learned that we need to focus on the source of the problem, not placing blame on the victim.

Just the other night while waiting for a few friends outside, two men decided that because I was wearing a short dress and tights, it would be appropriate to call out to me. As, unfortunately, I’m sure many of you reading this know, it’s not a good feeling when you walk down the street from where you live and are made uncomfortable for simply being there. Street harassment is a huge problem, and any method used – whether it be talking back, writing, art, or videos – to fight back is a step in the right direction.

Kara Lieff is a sophomore studying Film & Media Arts and Women’s Studies at Temple University. She loves to bicycle around Philadelphia, cook with friends, and watch TV and movies, while (somewhat successfully) making enough time for schoolwork, her job, and clubs. She hopes to one day have a career dedicated to creating and maintaining positive messages and visibility for women in media.

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Why Hate the Player?

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I  love this! Young women in Canada have spoofed street harassment by making a PSA about the problem of women who harass men. They’ve got the stereotypical male harasser’s body language and attitude down to a T. For example, a young woman stands on a street corner and says:

“Sometimes we make a game out of it, see how many men we can pick up while standing on a street corner…What?…” Then she turns and shouts at someone outside the screen shot, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Pssst,” and then half under her breath, “Sexy.”

Think they’ve been harassed much? ….

(As usual, sorry wordpress won’t let me embed youtube. Follow the link)

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