Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“Mmm those look delicious”

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I was at a Borders in Cleveland in the cookbook section because I love cooking and this gross old man goes, “Mmm those look delicious.” I was bent down and he was looking right down my blouse.

I said, “That’s awkward,” and he said, “Sorry but i thought i would tell you…”

He walked away and I Was like WTF. Why do I always feel like a piece of meat?

– Tanya P

Location: Borders in Cleveland, OH

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The “Don’t Call Me Baby” Project

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Are you looking for ideas for anti-street harassment activism?  University of Southern California graduate student Lani Shotlow Rincon has plenty. In this interview, she shares what she’s been up to on her campus.

Stop Street Harassment (SSH): What’s your three sentence bio?

Lani Shotlow-Rincon (LSR): I’m a multiracial woman, navigating my way through graduate school, working towards building my knowledge of intersectionality, gender based violence, and technology. I research as much as I can, while making time to read historical romance novels. Currently, I’m searching for a way to be impactful in the world.

SSH: Tell me a about your street harassment project.

LSR: The “Don’t Call Me Baby” project was created for my class on designing public campaigns. My project outlined how an effective campaign could be created for the USC Campus area. It included both entertainment education tactics with a web series focused on 3 college women experiencing street harassment, an art exhibit (inspired from the blank noise project) with donated clothing that has inspired street harassment, a flash mob occurring during high traffic times on campus, and PSA components created to publicize and give a name to harassment most women experience in the area. Overall, my project created an action plan to address street harassment comprehensively in the USC campus area.

One of Lani's graphics

SSH: Sounds amazing!. What inspired it?

LSR: I was inspired to focus on street harassment for my project based on my personal experience with it. Culminating in the summer of 2010, I was harassed repeatedly over a few days so relentlessly that I became utterly frustrated. Exasperated I started googling my experience…and this led me to the stopstreetharassment.com website. It felt so great to finally put a name to that awful experience…street harassment. Since then, I have become increasingly focused on the subject.

SSH: Related, how has street harassment impacted your life?

LSR: Since the age of 12 I have been harassed in public. It usually occurred twice a day as I walked to elementary, jr. high and high school. When I hit puberty and began to develop, the harassment and attention I received in public became excruciatingly uncomfortable for me. I internalized the harassment and became very self-conscious about my body and my appearance. In large part, my low body self-esteem led to being diagnosed with an eating disorder a few years ago. Now, I’m currently in recovery but every time I am street harassed I struggle with it. Being an advocate against street harassment has helped me channel my hurt around it, helping me cope with its effects.

SSH: Your experiences sadly show why it’s so important for society to acknowledge and address street harassment! I’m glad you’re being able to turn personal frustration into action. What was the outcome of your campus project?

LSR: Although my project created much interest in my class and with my professors, the respondents who I showed my creative PSA advertisements did not respond strongly to the messaging. I believe that the public needs a deeper understanding and awareness of street harassment. More campaigns are needed “to name the harm” for other women.

SSH: You are so right. What do you plan to do next regarding street harassment?

LSR: I want to use my upcoming thesis to understand how violence against women can be combated through new technologies. I believe this is especially relevant to the fight against street harassment, as mobile apps like those created by ihollaback, are increasingly showing the scope of public sexual harassment.

SSH: Do you have any advice for someone dealing with street harassment and/or for someone who wants to address it in their community or campus?

LSR: I believe the best advice for someone dealing with street harassment is to take the course of action they feel most comfortable with. Whether that be cursing at the harasser or walking right on by. The important thing is to cope actively with the harassment by acknowledging its impact at some point during or after the harassment.

Thank you for your insight, Lani! I can’t wait to see what you do next.

Another one of Lani's graphics
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Harassment of women business travelers

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If you’re a woman who has traveled alone, especially for business, you’ve probably thought a lot about how to stay safe and unharassed.

Joe Sharkey at the New York Times devoted his weekly business travel column today to harassment while traveling and how women deal with it. I’m very grateful. It’s a well written article (full disclosure, I’m quoted in it) and it brings this important women’s issue and important business issue to the attention of the general public.

His article made me remember how often this topic came up when I was researching public harassment for my book. At a very basic level, I read many stories about how harassment and feelings of unsafety impacted women’s eating habits. Women shared stories about going to a restaurant alone and having to deal with men harassing and propositioning them (even men with wedding rings). Because of those experiences, going forward, crackers and candy in a vending machine or expensive room service became necessary alternatives for dinner.

Crazy, right? And that’s on the lesser end of the spectrum of changes many women make while traveling.

Last April, I went on my first business trip. For part of the trip, I was safe and secure, staying with an aunt and cousin who lived near where I gave a talk. But during the second half of the trip, I was in an area I’d never been, staying alone in a hotel. I went running soon after I arrived at my hotel and a scary harassment experience I faced led me to write one of my first op-eds. It also made me feel really unsafe as a woman traveling alone, especially as my hotel room was on the first floor, less than a mile from where the man harassed me.

I had to talk myself into not being frightened. I had to convince myself that the statistics for being attacked were in my favor – it was more likely I’d get hurt in a car crash than that a man would break into my room and attack me. And the self pep-talk worked. Mostly.

I travel a lot now to give talks about street harassment and I continue to make myself be brave. To go out running alone. To explore the city if I have time in my schedule. To not eat all of my meals from a vending machine. I remind myself that I have every right to be in public and I have every right to travel alone without restrictions.

Are you a woman who has traveled alone for work? Do you have any strategies for feeling safe?

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“A male ally in the construction industry!”

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I live in Sydney, Australia, and for 98% of the time I can walk the streets feeling very safe. I’ve never had more than a drunkard say, “Woah, look at them breasts!” but have never been physically threatened/touched. And at my 5ft height, that isn’t a hard thing to do. However, I always get the good mornings and hellos from groups of men that my gut instinct says are up to no good, with that long and lingering glare while they look at my body. I feel violated.

When construction for a new apartment building began next to mine, I felt ill. Each morning walking to the train station I’d walk as fast as I could. I’d wear jackets even if it was too warm to do so just to give the men less to look at. Then the “Good morning’s” started by two particular groups of men. I’d cross the road if I saw them and they’d simply laugh knowing they got to me, so a couple of times I stopped and stared them down. It worked, for a few mornings, until they got the guts to wave back as I stared.

One morning I had enough, I was furious so I wrote a letter of complaint to the development company. That was last Friday afternoon, and this Monday morning I was stopped by the foreman and he politely let me know that he will speak to the men and have them stop the harassment and that if it happens again to seek him out or contact the company again. He was very gentlemanly, well-spoken and non-threatening and I repeatedly thanked him. A male ally in the construction industry!

I wondered how I could complain about men simply saying, “Good morning,” and then laughing as I ignored them… how do you complain about a hunch that they are not respecting me?

After finding this website and global movement, I was given the confidence and words to use to strongly construct a good letter. I had obviously done it though, and I hope my morning walks to the station can be enjoyable once more! I will let you know how it all goes.

– Anonymous

Location: Sydney, Australia

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“I felt like at any moment he might pounce on me”

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I was waiting for a bus after a business meeting in Midtown one morning and I was wearing a pencil skirt and heels. A short but respectable-looking middle-aged man in a suit walked up to me and, practically panting, said, “You know, you have really nice legs…” as he lecherously looked me up and down.

I just gave him a disgusted look and hoped he would go away, but instead he sidled up really close to me and continued asking questions. “What’s your name? How tall are you? You’re really tall.”

I tried to ignore him and whisper one word responses in hopes he would just leave me alone, since I wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation. Finally he said, “We should really have lunch sometime,” and when I replied that, “My boyfriend really wouldn’t like that,” he finally left me alone, of course muttering as he walked away, “He’s a really lucky guy.”

It’s not so much what this guy actually said, but the way he said it – I felt like at any moment he might pounce on me, which was nauseating. He invaded my personal space and privacy and just didn’t know when to back off. What a pathetic old creep.

– Anonymous

Location: 45th & 6th Ave., New York

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

 

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