Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

16 Days – Day 4: A Dad Stops a Harasser

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Each day across the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we will highlight a 2018 activism effort undertaken to stop street harassment or a personal story about stopping harassers!

Day 4: A Dad Stops a Harasser

When a dad in California noticed a 29-year-old man start videotaping his 15-year-old daughter in a Target and crouch by another woman to take footage up her skirt, he kicked away the phone and then, when the man ran, tackled him in the parking lot. Then the dad called the police and got a photo of the man’s license plate number as he drove away. The man was later arrested for “invasion of privacy.”

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Upskirt Recordings Ruled Legal in Georgia – But They Shouldn’t Be

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Here’s an excerpt from my article for TIME Magazine:

“Taking cellphone pictures or videos up a woman’s skirt without her consent is perfectly legal in Georgia, a Georgia Court of Appeals ruled this month.

A Georgia man confessed to taking cellphone video up a woman’s skirt in a grocery store. Yet the state’s voyeurism law did not prohibit his actions. Instead, the law prohibits such recording only if they “occur in any private place and out of public view.”

Typically, voyeurism laws like this were passed to protect people from non-consensual filming in private places like homes, dressing rooms and locker rooms—not in public spaces like a grocery store. In Georgia, the ruling came down to the interpretation of “place.” The court was divided, but ultimately, the majority opinion said that “place” referred to a physical location, not an area of the body, and thus the non-consensual photos taken were legal…

Some may wonder why it is important to prohibit such behavior, especially if many women are unaware that they are being recorded. Taking recordings up someone’s skirt, especially to share online or use in other ways for sexual gratification, does not add anything productive or positive to society. Instead it can make women as a whole feel less safe and comfortable in public spaces just knowing that they could be the target of such actions. If they have been recorded before or know someone who has, they may feel violated, upset and distrusting while in public spaces.

Upskirt recordings are a form of gender-based street harassment, and street harassment is a widespread problem in the United States, ranging from sexual comments to following and groping. It affects at least 65% of women and 25% of men (for the latter, the harassment mostly takes the form of homophobic slurs). Street harassment can make people feel less safe, affect them emotionally, and be re-traumatizing for survivors of sexual abuse.

Why do we need a law against upskirt recordings? While there are pitfalls to laws — including how hard it can be hard to enforce them and how the legal system is often fraught with racism, sexism, and victim-blaming — they can set the tone that certain behavior is not OK. Further, it is incongruent to have such recordings be legal in one state but not in the next.

I am not naïve enough to think a law will deter every upskirt recorder. But it may deter many.

And even if a law doesn’t deter everyone, there are other actions we can take to try to stop future violations. Just as people everywhere have been taking a stand against street harassment in recent years, there are a growing number of women who will not stay silent about upskirt photos and have used the power of social shaming and turning their devicesback around on the man as a way to find justice.

Bystanders can play a role, too. If you see someone taking an upskirt photo and you feel safe to do so, call them out, videotape them, or take some other type of action that lets them (and everyone else nearby) know that this behavior is not OK. Social shaming can be a powerful deterrent.”

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Calvin Klein and the glamourisation of sexual harassment

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Cross-posted with permission from SallyOReilly.com.

OffensiveCalvinKleinAd-May2016
“Upskirt” shot Calvin Klein ad

You’ve probably already heard about the new Calvin Klein advertising campaign. It’s worked, that’s for sure, in that Twitter and Facebook can’t get enough of complaining about it. And of course the pro-sexism and creepy factions can’t get enough of defending it and lashing out at people who recognise it for what it is – blatant sexist glamourisation of and dismissal of sexual harassment.

It’s so depressingly predictable. I almost didn’t write about it because I don’t want to give the advertisers my attention when I have better things to do right now – like eat lunch for example.

However, I’m incensed. I’ll be brief (that’s not a pun).

This new campaign features butt selfies, dodgy slogans, curiously vagina-like grapefruit and ‘upskirt’ shots of a girl who is not only not annoyed but is kind of, pleased looking. Because it’s flattering to have an upskirt shot taken right? At least that’s what they want us to think. They want us to think that women should be pleased to be objectified, and that being available in this way is what female sexuality is about. That this is erotica (yes ..they’ve actually officially called it “Erotica”). After all, women are the target market – right? (!!??)

“Eat_in #MyCalvins”

#RollsEyes

This shot, despite vast amounts of complaints (which I’m THRILLED about) is still live on their Instagram account as I type.

It is appalling, and utterly lacking in awareness and basic empathy, that womens’ experiences of sexual assaults and sexualisation are being normalised and packaged as ‘Erotica’ in this way.

Erotic for whom exactly? Well, I think we can answer that..

But that’s Calvin Klein for you. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but if you have a teenage daughter who has recently insisted that you buy her CK underwear there is a very real chance that on her Instagram there is now a shot of her in said underwear, possibly with some sideboob showing and a host of ‘likes’ from strangers, hashtagged #MyCalvins or #meandmycalvins.

This is grooming.

At ‘best’, teenaged girls are being trained to view themselves as sexual objects without desires of their own. At worst the brand is encouraging underaged girls to pose in ways that will attract sexual predators and who will grow up to believe that their function is to look and be sexually available and to be OK with , indeed to like with being viewed as such. How is that erotic for them?

And now, these predators can feel more OK about it, after all the ads have gone viral and teens themselves are hashtagging away, blissfully unaware of the sinister side of their online activities.

I’m concerned, very concerned.

Please engage your teenagers in a conversation about this when you get a chance and consider signing any online petitions you can find. While there is the irritating reality that we are giving CK more publicity here, there is a more positive reality too – people are beginning to see how very real the threat of advertising is to the self esteem and sexuality of our women and girls. And people power is a real thing.

Meanwhile – #NotBuyingIt.

Sally O’Reilly is a psychologist, psychotherapist & clinical supervisor based in East Cork, Ireland. She holds the European Certificate of Psychotherapy from the EAP and is a graduate member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. Visit her websites and follow her on Twitter, @psychosal.

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