Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

In India, New Opportunities for Women = Abuse from Men

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The Washington Post has an article by Emily Wax about how attitudes toward women in India aren’t necessarily keeping pace with the progression of rights of Indian women. Street harassment or eve teasing is an example they give – more women are in the streets as they go to work and school and men are harassing them. Tellingly, a women who is part of a theater groups that educates the public about issues like street harassment and sexual assault says she regularly gets harassed when she is going home from performances. Another example:

“Chaudhry is one of the brightest students in her working-class district. But since several local men started following her to class, she sometimes stays home now. She has friends who have been raped or are constant victims of “Eve teasing,” when men on the street spew lewd comments or aggressively paw women’s bodies.”

Pretty horrible, right?

In the US this has also happened. An example that comes to my mind is the sexual harassment women faced when they were allowed to be integrated into traditionally male (and high paying) jobs because men were not happy to have them there on equal terms.

Do you have other examples?

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I let myself down

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I haven’t been street harassed in a while but I got harassed a few times this past week and I let myself down in how I reacted.

Last Sunday I was on vacation in Utah with my family. My partner was flying in that evening from a conference to spend the last few days of the vacation with us. I had been wearing running clothes the whole time but thought I’d wear some nicer clothes to get him at the airport and maybe they accentuated my “lady parts.” Before going to the airport, I stopped at a gas station to fill up the gas tank and clean the car an uncle was letting me borrow. My credit card wasn’t working at the pump so I had to go inside to see the cashier. You would have thought I walked in there naked or something – all these men inside stopped what they were doing and leered at me. I felt sooo uncomfortable. Then when I was vacuuming the car, a car full of guys at a red light near by were hooting and hollaring out of their windows at me. When I looked up they got louder and I quickly looked away and walked to the other side of the car. I later cried about these instances because I felt so humiliated and also so mad at myself for not doing anything – even though I’ve read, written, talked, blogged about street harassment so many times and know plenty of ways I could have reacted. I also hated that in the back of my mind I was thinking how if I had stayed wearing my running clothes maybe I wouldn’t have gotten harassed even though in the past I’ve gotten harassed the most while running in running clothes.

Then yesterday I got harassed when I was walking from my office to the metro on my way home from work. A couple of guys were sitting together in a park I had to pass and one of them said, “Hey, smile, you’re beautiful” and then when I didn’t make eye contact or say anything, he said, “okay, frown then.” Of course this is pretty benign, but it’s still an invasion of my space and a way to mark me out as a sexual object. Again I did nothing and was just fuming when I got to the metro at the men and again at myself. And again, I thought, geez, I wear a tight shirt to work and look what happens. Even after all I’ve learned about street harassment, that still went through my brain!!

Anyway, I’ve resolved to create my own business cards to hand out to harassing men because confrontations are so hard for me but I think I could be brave enough to hand them a card that says don’t harass women and maybe in time I can get up the courage to tell them.

– holly

Location: Salt Lake City, UT and Washington, DC

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Street Harassment in Oakland

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My name is Teresita and I have been living in Oakland, CA since i was born, and I really loath it when i’m just mindin my own business and some random guy thinks it’s ok to put his hands on me to stop me in my tracks. I’ve been having that problem for quite some time now. I just feel that a women shouldn’t have to change the way she dresses because it will give guys the impression she “wants him”. Women shouldn’t have to be afraid of what to wear or even afraid to go outside her house! A strategy i use is that i listen to my ipod….i’m lucky at times to get away with it. Unfortunately, it does not always guarantee that the random will leave me alone. If my ipod method doesn’t work, the guy will always end up blocking my path ( I’m talking right in front of me!!!) or him grabbing my arm. Also, the guy will happen to follow me if i don’t answer. Then when i ignore him (which is what i do most of the time but doesn’t always work either) he’ll get pissed off and prefer to call me names like “lesbian”, “bitch”, or “fuck you skank”.

I want to be able to let the stranger know that i have no intentions of giving my number or trying to get to know him at all! I want to let the guy know that i want to be left alone with out conflict or it ending up in me spraying his face with mace and then shooting him with a tazzer gun consistently. I really want to be able to say something instead of being silent about it.

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NYC will roll out anti-sexual harassment subway campaign

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A few weeks ago, there was talk that the New York City MTA was deciding not to launch their planned anti-sexual harassment subway ad campaign for fear it would encourage more groping. Among the anti-street harassment community, there was an outcry and demand that the campaign continue.

Good news, it’s set to launch next month.

The first 2,000 posters will be distributed throughout the system and should remain up for at least three months to “assess its impact,” said NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges.

The campaign was sparked by a report last year by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer that found 10 percent of women surveyed claimed to have been sexually abused and 63 percent reported having been sexually harassed.

I have to say that I’m thrilled this issue is being taken seriously and I hope that it will deter subway harassers and encourage those being harassed to report it. I take pride too in the fact that I wrote to MTA asking that they run the campaign so maybe our voices got heard 🙂

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Blank Noise Spectator Survey

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The wonderful anti-street harassment activists in India over at the Blank Noise are holding a special survey/discussion on their site through August 15th about being a spectator of street harassment. Of their website visitors who take their poll, 13% reported being a spectator of street harassment.

This is what they ask: “Blank Noise Spectators Special asks members of the public, both men and women, to share what they witnessed. What was your first reaction? Was it to intervene? Was it to ignore? What did you do? What would you rather have done? Can you share your thoughts about being a spectator. If you have been a ‘special spectator’ , that is, intervened in the situation, please tell us how! Was it with wit and humor? Or did you physically assault the ‘perpetrator’? Did you walk away? Or call the cops? Or gather a crowd? Or see another spectator take charge of the situation and participate in any way?”

I admit I’m not much of a confrontational person and it’s something I’m working on but there was one time I almost did say something. I was on the Washington, DC metro (I live in the DC area and take it to/from work etc) on a weekend and it was crowded and there were two young women standing near me dressed to impress and on my other side were a bunch of young men pointing and whispering crude things about the women. The women had their backs to the men and seemed oblivious of what was happening and that is what kept me from intervening. I think if the women had noticed I might have intervened. However, I wish I had anyway because they were being extremely crude and just talking about the women like they only consisted of body parts etc.

Anyway, check out Blank Noise and also feel free to leave your comments on this blog if you’re so inclined 🙂

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