Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

UK: UNmuted’s Vlog Part 1 – Talking Street Harassment at Young Feminists London

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londonNess Lyons for UNmuted Productions, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

On Sunday 6th November, myself and new UNmuted Productions member Nicola Bland had the pleasure of performing poetry and leading an audience discussion at a fab event hosted by Young Feminists London. There were several wonderful other poets and speakers taking part and it was a real joy to talk feminism – and womanism – with such a great group of women and men.

After Nicola performed the full-length version of my spoken word poem “I Smile Politely“, (including sections that are not in UNmuted’s short film of the same name), we asked for volunteers from the audience to answer some questions on camera about the themes raised in the piece. We made these interviews, together with a few snippets of Nicola performing ‘I Smile Politely’, into a two-part vlog for Stop Street Harassment.

This is Part One, with funny, thoughtful and smart answers to the questions:

• What’s the most ridiculous catcall or unwanted chat-up line you’ve had?
• What does street harassment mean to you?
• When (if!) you’re ‘smiling politely’ in response to unwanted sexual attention, what are you actually thinking?

Watch here and please share!

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Ness Lyons is a playwright, filmmaker and spoken word poet. She runs UNmuted Productions, is a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and is currently developing a script with an award-winning production company. Follow her work at: nesslyons.net and on Twitter: @lyonsness

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Video: Let’s Talk about Street Harassment (Montreal)

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What is street harassment like in Montreal, Canada? Women in Cities International, in collaboration with Lucie Pagès and Noémie Bourbonnais, took to the streets to find out over International Anti-Street Harassment Week. Here is the video highlighting what they found out, in both French & English!

Parlons du harcèlement de rue//Let’s Talk About Street Harassment from Women in Cities International on Vimeo.

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Video: Push My Button

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Here’s a new video about street harassment by Heather Arnett, her latest in a series called the Cat Call Choir.  She writes that the series is “a somewhat sardonic, slightly scornful, but non-violent, songful response to street harassment.”

Push My Button from Heather Arnett on Vimeo.

“In this week’s Cat Call Choir experiment we added the Staples Easy Button with “sing” written on it to encourage people to stick around to listen for a verse and perhaps engage in a conversation about street harassment.

What do you think? Should we just sing to people so there’s no option to get away from unwanted attention very much like when women are harassed on the streets, in parks, on trains and at work? Or is there value in encouraging the conversation?”

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OCAC Chile Supports an Anti-Street Harassment Law

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Sharing via an e-mail from OCAC Chile:

“By sharing an impactful video, OCAC Chile (Chilean Observatory Against Street Harassment) aims to promote a bill for preventing street harassment. In a non-expected way, the video shows that girls start being harassed in public spaces when they are 10 years old. The organization is calling on civil society from all around the world to sign a petition to support the local bill. The petition can be signed here.

The Respeto Callejero bill was recently approved by the Chilean Citizen Security Commission of the Lower House and now will be discussed by the Constitution Commission.”

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Video: #JuventudSinAcoso: Nuestra generación puede erradicar el acoso callejero

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Slavery used to be considered normal. Now it’s not. Women not having the right to vote used to be normal. Now it’s not. Street harassment used to be normal…. oh wait, it still is! But we can stop that. With our generation we can change things.

This is the powerful message conveyed in a new PSA by OCAC Chile. English subtitles and sign language interpretation are available. #JuventudSinAcoso

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