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Late June 2016 News Round-Up

June 21, 2016 By HKearl

BBC, “No woman ever turned down a barking guy? Right?”

“Women are using the hashtag #NoWomanEver to humorously highlight their not-so-funny experiences of wolf whistles, sexual comments from passing strangers and other street harassment.

Although the hashtag isn’t entirely new it’s been used more than 140,000 times in the last couple of days after an American social media user called Miss Black Awareness revived it to sarcastically applaud the actions of a man whose unwanted advances she had seemingly recently suffered.”

 

The Guardian, “Brazil and Argentina unite in protest against culture of sexual violence“

“While gender violence occurs worldwide, the problem has come to the fore in several countries in Latin America through the work of prominent feminist groups, many of which argue their region is particularly plagued by social insecurity and male-dominated traditions.”

 

The Guardian, “Jordan’s first self-defence centre for women boosts fight for rights”

“It started out as an ordinary day for Rasha Salih, a young woman who works as an accountant for a private trading company in the centre of Amman. Like most women in Jordan, she wears a headscarf and modest clothes when she goes out.

After a long day at work, the 26-year-old returned to her compound in the Shmeisani district at around 6pm and took the lift to her flat. A young man was already in the lift when she got in. He started to flirt with her, and before she knew it, he was trying to rip off her shirt. There was nowhere to escape, so Salih put her self-defence training to use by directing a few kicks to her attacker’s head and stomach.

She followed her attacker out on to the street when he tried to flee, and handed him over to the police. He was eventually sentenced to three years for attempted rape.

“I only recognised the value of self-defence training when I was struggling to escape at the hands of my attacker,” says Salih. “I felt I had a confidence that I hadn’t had before, I was able to overcome my fear and protect myself. It was an incredible feeling.”

Salih is one of more than 2,000 women who have been trained in self-defence at Amman’s SheFighter studio.”

 

International Business Times, “After Jo Cox’s tragic murder we need to stop ignoring death and rape threats to female MPs”

“We have created a widespread normalisation of the idea that women who dare to put their heads above the political parapet become legitimate targets for violent and sexual abuse; that they deserve to be silenced. Every time people have responded to death and rape threats and sexual abuse and harassment against female politicians by brushing it off, suggesting they should simply grow a thicker skin, or saying that it “comes with the territory,” they have incrementally contributed to the acceptance of such behaviour.

None of them has directly caused or condoned a physical attack like the one on Jo Cox. But that doesn’t mean that our attitudes towards the abuse of politicians, and in particular female politicians, don’t need to be urgently re-examined.”

 

Fusion, “A lot more NYC women are stepping forward to report sexual harassment on the subway”

“More New York City women are stepping forward to report what has been a longstanding problem on the subway: sexual harassment.

There have been 458 reported sex crimes, not including rape, in the subway through Monday, compared with 299 through the same period last year, NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Fox said in testimony before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. That’s a 53% increase, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Fox attributed the jump to an increase in victims reporting the crimes rather than an actual uptick in offenses…

In 2014, the MTA set up a website where victims can report incidents.

If current rates continue, the subway system is on track to finish 2016 with about 900 violations, a 22% increase from last year. Fox said the annual numbers had hovered around 600 offenses. In 2014, there 621 and in 2013, there were 647.”

 

RT.com, “Majority of female Israeli MPs faced sexual harassment – survey”

“At least 28 out the Israeli parliament’s 32 female members have experienced sexual harassment or assault, and at least two of the cases took place in the Knesset building, a recent survey has found.

The survey carried out by Israeli Channel 2 encouraged the lawmakers to speak openly about the challenges they have faced in their everyday life and at work.”

 

The Telegraph, “Three in four urban women have experienced sexual harassment in worldwide ‘epidemic‘”

“Three in four women have been subjected to harassment and violence in cities across the world, according to new research by ActionAid UK, which described the situation as an “epidemic”.

On average, 40 per cent of women who took part in the YouGov poll in Brazil, India, Thailand and the UK, said that they had been groped in public – the incidents ranged from being followed to sexual abuse.

The research has been launched ahead of the charity’s International Safe Cities for Women Day, in a bid to tackle the urban violence that women and girls struggle with globally. In light of this, ActionAid  is urging the UK to contribute at least £70 million from its existing aid budget to help protect vulnerable women over the next three years.”

 

The Guardian, “Jessica Valenti: my life as a ‘sex object’”

“When you catch a cold or a virus, your body has ways of letting you know that you are sick. But what diagnosis do you give to the shaking hands you get after a stranger whispers “pussy” in your ear on your way to work? What medicine can you take to stop being afraid that the cab driver is not actually taking you home? And what about those of us who walk through all this without feeling any of it – what does it say about the hoops our brain had to jump through to get to ambivalence? I don’t believe any of us walk away unscathed.”

Read an edited extract from Jessica Valenti’s memoir Sex Object, published by Harper Collins at £16.99. To order a copy for £12.99, go to the Guardian bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.

 

CBC News, “Skateboarders who stopped sex assault among Calgarians honoured for bravery at Chief’s Awards Gala”

“Four skateboarders received special recognition after they stepped in when a man was sexually assaulting a woman, scared him off, chased him down, and held him until police arrested him.”

 

CTV NewsVancouver, “Men suspected of attacking Good Samaritan on SkyTrain identified”

“Update: Three men suspected of attacking a Good Samaritan for intervening in sexual harassment on SkyTrain last week have been identified, according to police….

———

Previous story: Police are searching for three suspects who allegedly punched a Good Samaritan for telling them to quit harassing women on SkyTrain last week.

Transit Police said the trio of men boarded a train at Sperling Station around 11:20 p.m. Thursday and started making threatening comments to other passengers.

They told one woman they were going to “follow her home,” police said, and one of the suspects sat down beside another woman and “made jokes to his two friends about raping her.”

At that point, a Good Samaritan intervened and told him to leave her alone.

Police said the suspect became aggressive, swearing at the Good Samaritan and threatening to follow him off the train – which two of the suspects eventually did.

“At Lougheed Station, the man got off the train and was followed by two of the suspects who punched him in the face and upper body,” Transit Police said in a statement.

The assailants got back on the train, and the victim boarded another car to push the emergency strip and call for police.

One of the suspects found him and punched him in the face again before the trio ran away from the scene.”

 

Quartz, “Mayor Sadiq Khan has banned body-shaming ads from London’s transit system”

“In one of the first high-profile moves of his administration, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced on Monday (June 13) that body-shaming ads will no longer be allowed to appear on the city’s buses and underground trains.”

 

Mic, “This Agoraphobic Woman Had the Perfect Response to Street Harassment”

“‘Dear driver who yelled at me for taking a selfie on the sidewalk outside Trader Joe’s, I know what you thought you were seeing,’ Mae wrote. ‘Just a self-absorbed, shallow millennial, documenting a mundane task for no reason. ‘Stupid kid,’ you might have thought, ‘not every little thing has to be documented. Put your phone away and get on with your life.’ But here’s the thing. I also know what you were unable to see: I am agoraphobic.’

According to Mae, the driver yelled ‘nobody cares that you’re going to the fucking grocery store.’

But people did. Mae wrote she has not been out in public by herself for three years, due to her agoraphobia, and ‘even when going in public with loved ones, I can become wracked by anxiety, crippled by panic attacks where I could barely breathe or talk.’

‘This morning, alone in my apartment, I experienced a flash of strange courage,’ Mae continued. ‘For once, I didn’t wait around to see if it would stay … [going outside] felt powerful. I felt free.'”

 

Guardian, “For many women, metal is our home – so why don’t we feel safe at gigs?”

“That people like me, my friend or anyone else should have to avoid concerts for fear of sexual attack perpetuates the worst metal stereotypes, shuts out the genre’s diverse community and is contrary to the freedom that the music represents. Metal gigs offer us all the chance to release our aggression in a healthy way. But only with respect is this accomplished.”

 

Syracuse.com, “Downtown Syracuse accident caused by driver honking at woman: witnesses”

“A two-vehicle accident at North Salina and James streets this morning was caused by a man honking at a woman who was walking to work, witnesses said.

The man was driving a black Hyundai on Salina Street about 8:20 a..m. when he started honking at the woman, several witnesses said. The car then pulled out into the intersection and struck a pickup truck pulling a utility trailer, they said.

Minutes after the accident, the driver of the Hyundai lay nearly motionless in the road next to his car. Ambulances arrived within minutes and the man, who was conscious, was put on a stretcher.”

 

Medium.com, “The global street harassment myth that has to die”

“I recently realized that about ten years have passed since I took my first job in a women’s rights organization. I have learned many things over these years. Here is one of them: the oldest and most widely held myth about ‪#‎streetharassment is that women’s choices about their clothing determines whether or not they are harassed.

This is especially infuriating to me because I have been harassed in rural Faryab (that is in Afghanistan) while wearing a long dress and a large scarf that covered not only my hair but also my shoulders and chest and I have been harassed in Washington, D.C. while wearing a big winter coat, work pants and high rain boots. Also infuriating is that in both instances when I spoke up against the disrespect, my clothing was blamed.

Here is why the myth that women’s clothing leads to harassment has to die….”

 

The Frisky, “Ryan Gosling Thinks “Women Are Better Than Men” And Dropped Some Truth Bombs About Inequality”

“Asked about the enormous crush the female sex collectively has on him, and how he’s arguably objectified by the same crowd of people who want society to stop objectifying them, Gosling responded:

‘It’s our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick. I grew up with women so I’ve always been aware of it. When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory — a hunt.’

As Game of Thrones’ Kit Harrington recently pointed out, attractive men in Hollywood face objectification (ogling at topless pictures of Channing Tatum, or Kit Harrington, or Ryan Gosling — we’re all guilty of it). But of course, it’s worth noting that while men who strip down are often celebrated, women who do same face no shortage of slut-shaming.

At any rate, Gosling makes the good point that the “unwanted fuss” made by “women and gay men,” which the Evening Standard asked him about, is pretty different from the “unwanted fuss” men make toward women, which, in many terrifying cases, can be street harassment or stalking.”

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: Argentina, brazil, canada, jordan, politics, self defense, UK, usa

Mid-May 2016 News Round-Up

May 17, 2016 By HKearl

First Post, “Rainbows abound: How the world is celebrating International Day against Homophobia“

“They say there’s a pot of gold waiting at the end of every rainbow. As the world observes International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) on 17 May, the LGBTQ community stands unified, doused in rainbow colours, still waiting for its pot of gold.

While 30 countries have legalised same sex conduct, 75 countries still criminalise same sex relationships, 10 out of which condemn same sex relationships as punishable by death, according to Human Rights Campaign, which is a civil rights organisation working for LGBTQ rights in the US. Under such conditions, it becomes imperative that the world shows solidarity by acknowledging the violence and the discrimination that the LGBTQ community still faces, as well as celebrating the advancements.”

BBC, “French female ministers decry sexual harassment“

“Seventeen women who have served as ministers in France say they will no longer be silent about sexual harassment in politics.

All 17 signatories to the declaration are current or former ministers.

Among them is Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund and France’s former finance minister.

On Monday, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Denis Baupin, resigned over sexual harassment claims, which he denies.

In the declaration, the women call for a toughening of the law against sexual harassment, as well as specialist desks set up in police stations to deal with such complaints….

Women must be allowed to work, be out in the street, take transport without having to be subject to comments or wandering hands. We shouldn’t have to say it again and again. We shouldn’t have to write this declaration.”

Huffington Post, “Making it Easier to Report Sexual Harassment Isn’t Enough“

“After construction workers sexually harassed women passersby at a 22-acre site in Prospect Heights, New York, the four companies employing them have taken an unusual step. The employees will each wear a different colored hard hat to coincide with their company and they have new badges and hard-hat stickers to make it easier for harassed persons to identify and report their perpetrator.

It is encouraging to see a company take street harassment seriously. But one of the downsides to this plan is that it places the onus on the harassed person alone; they have to take time and use emotional energy to pay attention to what was said or done and by whom and file a report and deal with whatever happens once a report is made.

Making it easier for a harassed person to report is very important, but in general, companies need to do more, especially if they know that some of their employees are harassers.

It’s been 25 years since professor Anita Hill’s testimony during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made workplace sexual harassment more visible, but sexual harassment is still widespread, including in astronomy, the National Park Service and Hollywood.

While 98 percent of companies have a sexual harassment policy and many hold employee trainings, new research shows that policies and training videos may be doing more harm than good. For example, in one study, men who took sexual harassment training were more likely to blame the victim of sexual harassment and less likely to identify certain inappropriate behaviors as sexual harassment. In another study, employees were more confused about what sexual harassment entailed after the training than before. Gender perceptions of sexual harassment and how it is defined by a company’s policy can play a role in its effectiveness, too.”

DCist, “Sexual Harassment In Bars Is Pervasive, But A New Project Offers Help“

“A new project will help bar patrons figure out which establishments have trained their staffers to intervene in instances of sexual harassment and assault.

Safe Bars has been two years in the making, and is a collaboration between Defend Yourself and Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

“You can just see why bars are the perfect place to intervene,” says Lauren Taylor, co-director of Safe Bars and founder of Defend Yourself. “It’s such an important nexus for dealing with unwanted sexual touching, harassment, or assault.”

Many people, especially women, have had the experience of feeling uncomfortable or even scared at a bar. But it’s not because aggressors are too drunk to know better. Studies have found that people target others who have been drinking. The research concluded that “Prevention needs to focus on addressing masculinity norms of male patrons and staff who support sexual aggression and better management of the highly sexualized and sexist environments of most bars.””

Ahram Online, “Art Alert: Matigi exhibition explores street harassment at Darb 1718“

“Darb 1718 is displaying work by Sayed Arafat, titled Matigi (Won’t you come) and opening on 17 May, where he explores gender roles in Egypt’s patriarchal society and street harassment women are exposed to through his series of monoprints.

The term “matigi” is a suggestive invitation, though it holds many unwelcome connotations on the streets when used as a catcall.

Inspired by personal experiences of the artist’s female friends, the work “captures how women find themselves the objects of gawking, whistles and cat calls from random males in the streets of Cairo,” according to Darb 1718’s description.”

Daily Life, “We need to talk about ‘fatcalling’ – not just catcalling“

“I have been ‘fatcalled’ several times. ‘Fatcalling’ is a term I came up with to describe the abuse fat people, typically women, have hurled at them on the street. In my experience, the mainstream feminist narrative surrounding catcalling doesn’t allow much room for experiences like mine. Instances where I haven’t been objectified because the harasser considers me physically attractive, but instead where I’ve been denigrated because the harasser has decided I am not. Instead of “hey sexy”, I usually get “hey Jabba” (as in Jabba the Hutt, who is the boss of everyone so thanks for saying I’m powerful!!!) or “you’re a whale/hippo”, both of which are extremely cute animals that could crush a human being if they wanted to.

Like many other women, I’ve been dealing with this from a young age, right after I started puberty. Where other women learnt that men saw their bodies as objects of desire, I learnt that men found mine repulsive. Both catcalling and fatcalling are most definitely street harassment, but I’ve found that fatcalling has been discussed less in feminist circles, perhaps because it’s less about sexualising women and more about stripping them of any sexuality whatsoever.”

Las Vegas Informer, “I’m not your shorty“

“More important than criminalizing catcalling, however, is changing the way men are taught to view and talk about women. We need to teach young men that hollering at women just isn’t OK. That a genuine compliment is always nice, but a litany of adjectives to describe women’s anatomy shouted from across the road is not. That they might feel quite cute when they compete with each other to offer up new harangues, but that women do not find them at all witty for doing so.  We need to teach young men that true power isn’t about making women fear you. Such conversations need to happen in homes, schools, churches, and other institutions.  And they need to happen often, starting at a young age.  It’s time we put some more focus on the daily microaggressions that women must endure, rather than treating them as if they’re an inevitable fact of life if you were born with a vagina.”

VICE News, “Women in Mexico City Are Fighting Back Against Rampant Public Sexual Harassment“

“Last month the capital’s authorities decided it was time to show they care about stopping rampant sexual harassment against female commuters in the Mexican capital by flooding the subway system with 1,200 police officers dressed in pink vests. The city government said the force is being deployed at stations throughout the network during the morning and evening rush hours.

“Groping usually takes place during peak times,” said a spokesman at Mexico City’s Public Security Secretary. “Our aim is to stop these uncomfortable situations for women from taking place.”

The new special anti-groping force on the subway was announced after thousands of women took to the streets on April 24 to demand an end to gendered violence of all kinds.

Many wore purple, some carried pink crosses, and others wore clothes with simulated blood stains. The main slogan was “We want to stay alive.” Banners proclaiming “No means no,” and “If one of us gets armed, all of us will respond,” were common.”

My News LA, “Sex hassle on Metro train or bus? Crackdown works“

“The percentage of Metro transit riders reporting sexual harassment on buses and trains continues to decline, Metro reported in releasing the results of the latest survey of transit passengers.

Of the 15,000 customers surveyed in March, 88 percent said they were satisfied or very satisfied with Metro service, while 85 percent said they felt safe while waiting for transit and 88 percent felt safe while riding. The number of passengers who said they had experienced sexual harassment was 18 percent, down from 19 percent in October and from 22 percent in fall 2014.

“Safety is Metro’s highest priority and it is gratifying to see the results of our heightened efforts to train, educate and engage law enforcement and passengers on how we all must do our part to improve the safety of the system,” Metro board chairman and county Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “We will not rest on our laurels, but instead redouble our efforts to enhance the positive experience for our riders.””

Fembot Magazine, “How I went from being a catcall apologist, to an anti-harassment activist“

“Internalizations are one of the strongest factors when it comes to street harassment – but they are completely understandable. It is so much easier to accept the hegemonic story that, “nice tits baby!” is a harmless comment rather than something darker, or something that could even get us killed over if we dare protest against. Even harder is confronting your own problematic behaviours. Forgiving yourself for continuing objectification because its comfortable.

I’m thankful for all the fish swimming upstream against public harassment because it gives women and other gender (non)identifying folk a reason to speak up and learn about the deeper causes of catcalling without playing the blame game. It unites us in talking about something that happens on a daily basis.

We only believe the colour purple is purple because we wake up everyday told that’s the way it is. We only believe catcalling is a compliment because, every damn day, we’re told that’s how it is. But, not anymore.”

Revelist, “A disturbing history of getting catcalled as a mixed woman in front of my white mother”

“When puberty hit, I suddenly became an object for sale with various bidders letting me know of my best — and, upon rejection, worst — attributes.

As a woman, my mom wasn’t surprised that my sister and I were being catcalled. But as a white woman (who is also short, very petite, pale and freckled, with green eyes and blond hair) with biracial children (I’m average height and curvy, with dark hair and eyes and light-brown skin), she was unprepared for a new reality — one in which her kid is constantly catcalled in front of her, because people don’t realize I’m her kid at all.”

Tyburn Mail, “Anger at ‘sexist’ ad of woman’s rear“

“The huge ad features a close up of a woman’s rear with the text: “We’re getting ready to reveal our fabulous new rear..! (entrance)… Pert and perfect by June.”
University lecturer Charlotte Barlow says: “This type of campaign objectifies and sexualises women, encouraging them to be viewed as sex objects, and should not be tolerated.

“The fact that the model’s ‘rear’ is the only part of her body that we can see reinforces the status of women’s bodies as objects for the male gaze.”
Dr Barlow lectures in Criminology at Birmingham City University. “Campaigns like this arguably perpetuate street harassment and sexual harassment”, added Dr Barlow.

“Street harassment is a daily reality for many women and this objectification of women’s bodies reinforces the idea that this is acceptable, when such behaviour should not be tolerated and rather viewed as part of a wider continuum of sexual harassment and ‘everyday sexism’.”

“I recognise that there is also a male ‘rear’ that is featured as part of the campaign, but as there is only one such image and four images of women, the sexualisation of the female body is clearly the key focus of this campaign.””

Legal Solutions Blog, “Is Street Harassment A Crime?“

“Amid this increasing focus on women’s rights, the debate surrounding the criminalization of street harassment is unlikely to dissipate.  As women continue to suffer indignity and disrespect (and death), and as foreign nations continue to pass new laws, there will be increased pressure on the U.S. to legislate against what is tantamount to gender hate speech.  It appears Washington, D.C. is already on the right path.”

Timeline, “The panic over potty politics didn’t start with the transgender issue“

“Centuries later in London, no one thought to build public bathrooms for women because no one really expected women to be in public all that much. When women did venture outside the home, it was usually for a short enough time, that they were expected to just hold it. (Molotch calls this sociological phenomenon the “urinary leash.” ) But in case they couldn’t, Sheila L. Cavanagh writes in Queering Bathrooms, adventuresome London ladies of the 1700s carried around “urinettes” made of glass, leather, or ceramic — essentially portable chamber pots. Urinals for men, however, were conveniently located throughout the city.

“One way of dealing with the issue of women’s elimination was to just not acknowledge that women had a public life,” he said.

Gender scholars call this the “separate-spheres ideology.” In early 19th century America, for example, trains included one car for women — it was always the last car so that if the train crashed, they stood the best chance at survival. When public libraries opened in the mid-1800s, women had separate reading rooms. Hotel lobbies were built to include women’s resting rooms.”

Quartz, “The “bystander effect” keeps catcalling alive. Let’s train ourselves to take action“

“In sum, research suggests that bystander intervention is one of the most promising ways to combat street harassment and the sense of powerlessness that it cultivates in communities.

“When street harassment is common, all women will be on edge, worried, and wondering if they’ll be next,” Fairchild says. “The mental energy spent on vigilantly looking out for possible harassment and steeling oneself to ignore it takes away from our creativity and drive. Active bystanders can be wonderful allies to help make the streets more welcoming.”

The Conversation, “We want men to stop honking their horn at women because they respect them, not for fear of punishment“

“Ensuring street harassment is included within government policy and prevention efforts addressing gender-based violence could help to shift perceptions of this behaviour as “not serious” and actively locate it as a form of harm.

Given many of my participants’ experiences were inflected with elements of homophobia, transphobia, racism and ableism (discrimination against people with disability), this suggests that we need to look beyond gender-based inequality if we are to prevent all forms of street harassment.

We know from other violence prevention and anti-bullying work that a whole-of-community approach works best in shifting cultural attitudes and behaviours. While efforts such as the London campaign and hotline are a good start, these types of actions cannot occur in isolation if they are to be effective.”

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Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: Australia, bystander, Egypt, fat-calling, france, laws, mexico, offensive ads, subway, transit, UK, usa

“Come here gorgeous”

April 17, 2016 By Contributor

I was walking home from a friends house when I was about 13 and I was in my school uniform; shirt, trousers and blazer, when two middle-aged white men came up behind me and started talking about my arse. They started getting closer to me until they were right behind me and they were trying to touch me. Needless to say, at 13 I was terrified, having never dealt with this before, and not in an area where I was familiar, and so I started walking faster, turning every time I could, but they continued to follow me.

I then ran down the street and ended up knocking into a lady walking home with her shopping bags and asked her for directions back to my school so that I would know where I was going to get home. This made the men behind me drop back and eventually I got away from them.

I then arrived on the road opposite my school and as I was walking down (it was a dual carriage way) a man in a van started yelling at me from his window and leaning half of his body out of it, trying to grab at me saying, “Come here gorgeous”.

That was the first time I was ever harassed on the street, but from the age of 11, men I didn’t know catcalled me.

Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

It depends on how you feel at the time. At first I was too scared to do anything and so I ran away, but when it was boys from my school doing it, I reported it to my head of year. The next time it happened on the street I kicked the man and ran away because he had his head in my boobs. After a while you get used to having to deal with it, but the best you can do is to report it to someone who can actually do something about it.

– SKA

Location: London, UK

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea
.

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: school uniform, teenager, UK

Watch: “I Smile Politely”

April 16, 2016 By HKearl

Newly released this week, check out Ness Lyon’s spoken word piece “I Smile Politely,” performed by actress April Hughes. Director of Photography & Editor: Luke Bartlett.

Ness wrote about the back story for The Pool, here is an excerpt:

“I’d been harassed in the street personally as a young woman, and professionally I’d handled sexual harassment cases as an employment solicitor, but it wasn’t until I experienced street harassment in my role as a mother that I felt compelled to publicly speak out.

Last year, on a family holiday in Southeast Asia, the part of the world I grew up in and which I adore, a man in the street made a sexual remark to my 10-year-old daughter that left her feeling terrified. I asked her how she reacted to the man’s comment and she answered, ‘I just smiled politely and quickly walked away.’ I felt a surge of anger: how dare that man make my child feel she had to respond to being sexualised with a polite smile. I told her that if someone made her feel uncomfortable, she shouldn’t feel she had to smile. But then I hesitated, remembering the times in my teens and twenties when I’d been subjected to humiliating, provocative and threatening comments by strangers. Sure, sometimes I’d sworn or glared in response. And on one memorable occasion, merely responded with a look of pure disbelief when a man shouted at me to “smile love for God’s sake, it might never happen’…. when I was in a hospital. ON CRUTCHES.  But a lot of the time, I too had simply smiled politely, not wanting to offend….

I wanted to explore this issue the best way I knew how: by writing about it. I started by having lots of conversations with a diverse group of women, hearing about the various ways they all ‘smile politely’.

I wrote a spoken word piece about it, performed by actress April Hughes (at WOW Festival and in a video to mark Anti-Street Harassment Week)….

My daughter’s phrase of ‘I smiled politely’ was a refrain echoed by nearly every woman I spoke to about street harassment. I want us to change that conversation: why, when we talk about politeness in these situations, is the word usually in relation to the woman in the scenario, and not the man? Instead of expecting us to simply smile, men need to learn to ‘speak politely’.

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, Resources, Stories, street harassment Tagged With: spoken word, UK, young age

Women Should Not Be Harassed at UK Clinics

April 15, 2016 By Contributor

Earlier this week, author and Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates spoke at an Abortion Rights event in Parliament on protecting women from harassment and abuse at UK clinics. She gave me permission to share the speech here, as part of International Anti-Street Harassment Week:

UK parliamentLet’s be very clear –this is not a debate about abortion. That debate already takes place, vociferously, elsewhere, from our parliament to our media to our universities to our streets.

This is not about freedom to have a conversation that is already happening widely. This is about harassment. It is about the aggressive, intimidating, upsetting experience of women being harassed at the point of access to a wide variety of different healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare.

This is not about protest, which could take place anywhere, it is about bullying women, making them feel anxious, creating a hostile and unpleasant environment for both service users and healthcare workers.

This is not a debate about abortion.

Because anybody who wants to have a real impact on abortion recognises that place to do so effectively is not at the point of access, but in and outside parliament, where policy is debated, not outside clinics where women already have the legal right to access services and should be able to do so without fear, harassment and intimidation.

The impact on women at what may be a very vulnerable, private and personal time must not be underestimated. Harassment doesn’t have to include shouting, threats or abuse to be deeply impactful and upsetting. Simply being shown some of the extremely graphic and sometimes inaccurate images protesters often hold, being filmed against one’s wishes at this private time, or being made aware that somebody is actively praying against you can cause huge emotional turmoil and distress. When a United Nations Delegation on human rights visited an abortion clinic in Alabama and experienced anti-choice protesters outside, they described it as “a kind of terrorism”.

Writing about their experiences of clinic harassment on Twitter, women said:

It made me feel like I was taking the walk of shame

It made me feel sick

I’ve never seen anything like that in real life

The protesters scared me

One woman wrote:

I used to work at an abortion clinic. Now I’d be too scared.

There is no reasonable argument that such harassment is necessary or effective, because there can be no reasonable argument that any woman reaching the point of attending an appointment with an abortion provider hasn’t already heard the arguments against abortion – because we live in a society where these arguments are everywhere. No woman grows up thinking of her control over her own body as complete and unchallenged, because we do not live in a society where that notion goes without loud and vigorous debate, and indeed, because we live in a society where our sisters in Northern Ireland, for example, are still denied such basic rights.

In fact, women are forced to hear other peoples’ opinions about abortion throughout their lives, as these Everyday Sexism Project entries show:

“While in year 10 my science teacher felt it appropriate to share his views on how he believed abortion was too flexible and should not be allowed up to 24 weeks. After telling him that I believed that it should be allowed up to 24 weeks he looked at me in disgust and told me that ‘those’ women should not be allowed to have children at all.”

“A male colleague told me men should decide about abortion law and time limits because women are too emotional and have a personal bias which is why we have 24 weeks which he says is “really late” and puts too much focus on “what the woman herself wants”.”

“In my 1st year at University I remember a young man standing up and announcing: “I would never date a woman who has had an abortion, this is disgusting, these kind of women are damaged goods.”

“My husband said that a women should be able to decide to take her top off for men if she wants to that she should have control over her own body but that a woman should not be able to have an abortion because that is murder”

“I was watching a discussion of abortion on a political panel show. There was one woman who kept trying to speak up while the men around her loudly spoke against abortion. She even tried to start sentences like ‘well since this is an issue that particularly affects women…’ but the man next to her said ‘hold on a second, let me finish’. The show went to commercial and moved on to a new subject before she got to speak at all.”

Across society, the voices we hear least in debates about abortion are those of people who have actually had one. Women are shouted down in these conversations because a lot of these conversations are driven by thinly veiled misogyny. The sexist idea that bearing children is a woman’s sole purpose and responsibility. The patriarchal notion that society has a greater right to dictate what happens to a woman’s body than she does herself. The misogynistic idea that women’s lives are less important.

That’s why it is so vitally important that at the point when a woman is accessing the reproductive healthcare which is her legal right, she is, in that moment, at the very least, able to do so safely, without harassment, bullying, shaming or intimidation.

This is not a debate about abortion. It is about harassment, misogyny and bullying.

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, public harassment Tagged With: abortion, bullying, everyday sexism, harassment, laura bates, parliament, UK

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