Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

17-year sentence

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A man in San Francisco sexually assaulted a woman and – thankfully – now will be serving a 17-year, 8-month sentence (the maximum) for the crime. DNA evidence has linked him to the rape and strangulation of another woman in 2007 though no charges have been filed. Both women are transgender prostitutes, and, sadly, it seems we can add them to a long list of women targeted for assault and murder because (at least in part) of their occupation and to a long list of people targeted for assault and murder for being transgender.

The fact that the assailant is being charged is evidence of some social change though because I’m not sure he would have been in years past – or maybe he wouldn’t have been today in a less human-rights oriented city.

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15-year old girls help nab groper

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Here’s a bad story with a good ending. In Edmonton, Canada, a man groped two teenage girls on different occasions on a bus.

“In the latter case, the alleged groper slipped his hand onto the victim’s seat as she sat down, Tabler said. The girl told a friend about the incident, who recognized the man as someone who had touched her inappropriately at an earlier date. The girls both took pictures of the man with their cellphones and then called police.”

A few hours after the police released the man’s photo, he was arrested and charged with one count of sexual assault (not sure why it’s not two if he assaulted both of them on separate occasions). The man is 52 years old, the girls are both 15. What the hell.

(In an unrelated incident, the article reports that another man groped a 24 year old woman on the bus last week in the same town.)

What is great about this story is how the girls worked together in an empowering way, took photos of and reported the harasser and now he’s being held accountable for his unacceptable and illegal behavior. They are inspirational!

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From Australia to Canada: taxi drivers assault passengeres

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Periodically I check the news for sexual assault stories and inevitably I find one related to taxi drivers sexually assaulting female passengers. Here are two I found this week about the topic, one about a woman assaulted in Whitehorse, Canada and another about how women in Sydney, Australia are being urged to report taxi drivers who engage in “sexual misconduct.” A quote from the latter article:

“Women have reported sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances by taxi drivers, with one saying a driver tried to kiss her, and another complaining she was constantly touched on the arm, neck and shoulder during her journey.

Three drivers were accused of exposing themselves, while a number were alleged to have groped their female passengers, News Ltd said.

Mr Campbell described such behaviour as ‘absolutely unacceptable’, saying he would try to involve police in future investigations.

He also urged women to keep reporting sexually inappropriate behaviour, so the government could stamp out dodgy drivers.”

I’ve come across at least two other incidents of taxi driver assaulters in Australia alone (one and two). I’m glad that the current approach in Sydney is to get rid of the assaulting drivers, rather than move to women-only taxis…

Has a driver of your taxi ever engaged in sexual misconduct? What happened?

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“Ha ha ha JK Bitch”

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As a relatively low trafficked blog, I’ve had the luxury of dealing with few rude people. It looks like that may be changing. Earlier this week I received a fake story that simply said “I got raped hahaha jk.” Not funny. Today I received three prank stories in a row. Two of them sounded like legitimate stories until the last sentences. Both posts ended with a “ha ha ha ha jk bitch.”

I love how the internet lets people who may not otherwise have a voice have one and lets us find obscure stories, up-to-the-minute news, and people with similar interests. I don’t like how the internet facilitates bullying and harassment and allows people to anonymously write rude, demeaning, sexist, homophobic, racist, classist, abelist comments to news stories and articles and in messages to people who have their contact info online.

I expect when my book on street harassment comes out in a few months I’ll receive a lot of hate mail and a slew of hateful comments that will make these “story submissions” look tame and sweet. Honestly, I’m dreading it.

I don’t know what these people want to accomplish by sending fake stories and calling me a bitch, but if it is to spur me on to continue speaking out against street harassment and sexual violence and providing people with a place to do so, then good, they are accomplishing their goal.

Street harassment and sexual violence impede women’s equality to men and limit their access to public spaces. Women too often are told to ignore such behavior or that it is complimentary or that it is their fault because of how they look or what they wear. Men who harass and assault are at fault. Men must stop. Our society must stop supporting aggression and violence and rape jokes and must take sexual harassment and violence seriously.

Share your (real) street harassment stories. How does street harassment make you feel? How does it impact your life? Help raise the societal consciousness that this is a widespread and unacceptable problem. Talk about it. And men, don’t harass.

Note: I’m home from work now and can see that the forum “men are better than women” (a site blocked at my office) encouraged people to send me fake stories. thanks guys. i’ve enjoyed reading your 9 stories (and counting).

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Bus Slap

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I had caught a bus in Manchester (UK) in the evening with a friend of mine and we sat near the back of the bus. A couple of stops later two young men got on and approached us and sat down behind us. One of them leaned forward and tried to start a conversation. I tried to be polite but indicated I didn’t really want to speak to them. He then asked if he could go with us to wherever we were going and where we lived. I told him I was obviously going to say no and my friend, who was panicking, asked if we could get off the bus suddenly so they wouldn’t have a chance to follow us or know where we lived.

As I got up to leave, the one who had been speaking to me slapped me on the backside and laughed. At the time I was just glad to be getting off the bus but found the whole thing very intimidating. My friend wanted to run home in case they got off at the next stop, which clearly showed how intimidated she was as well.

When I look back on the situation it makes me angry to think that he thought he had a right to touch me. I’d like to say I would deal with the situation differently if it happened again, but I can’t say I would know what to do.

– Hannah

Location: Manchester, UK

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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