I was walking home and two guys from my school were behind me and started yelling, “Big ass!! big ass!!” and laughing and then they kept asking me for my number and it was really upsetting and degrading.

- Anonymous

Location: Cleveland Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA

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Cross-posted with permission from the Collective Action for Safe Spaces blog.

At Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), we have much love for each and every member of our active and informed community who contributes to the blog, engages with us on social media and rolls up their sleeves to lend a hand. Whether you’re an active contributor or a quiet supporter, we think you’re the bee’s knees.

As CASS prepares to launch RightRidesDC (modeled after New York’s award-winning RightRides program that has been operating successfully since 2004), we want to know about your transportation experiences, including public transit, private taxis, car services, and walking or biking late at night around DC! This information will be invaluable to our efforts to meet the safe, affordable transportation needs of our community.

The survey (scroll down the page) closes Tuesday, May 21st. Please, tweet, post on FB, send to your listervs and forward to friends, colleagues, strangers who live or play in DC! As a small gift for helping us out, at the end of the survey, you’ll be able to submit your email address to be included in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate.

ABOUT RIGHTRIDES

RightRides provides free, safe rides home to women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and gender non-conforming (LGBTQGNC) individuals on Friday and Saturday nights, from 11:59 P.M. to 3:00 A.M.  Rides are provided by friendly volunteer driving teams made up of a driver and a navigator (one of which identifies as female) to see riders home safely and help advocate for their increased personal safety.  All driving teams are pre-screened to meet high safety standards.

Since 2004, RightRides in New York City has driven more than 6,000 Riders safely home.  Last year saw a 51 percent increase in reported sexual assaults in DC, as well as over 40 reported hate crimes based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, we want to bring RightRides to DC. The RightRides motto puts it aptly: “Because getting home safely shouldn’t be a luxury.”

Visible tattoos are not an invitation to touch or talk to someone. Credit: Arthur Mola

By: Bridgette Sullivan, SSH Correspondent

“People think they can just come up to me and touch me ALL the time.”

“Girllll, you tatted up!”

“Damn girl, lookit dem tatties!”

“Did that hurt? How much did it cost?”

Having tattoos does not serve as open invitation for the general public to touch, discuss, ask questions about or comment on an individual’s body. A number of my female friends in Toronto who are tattooed have explained how this unique aspect of their physical appearance often makes them a target for street harassment.

“An Ikea delivery truck came to my house to drop off my mattress and one guy said, ‘Wow, you got a lot of tattoos. They’re all really nice. What I wouldn’t give to be that boy on your thigh though.’” She continues, “To be honest, I kind of hate going out in the summer because I know I can expect a ton of comments from people that make me uncomfortable.”

Another friend explains that strangers’ reactions to her tattoos are “one of the worst parts about summer”. She says it “takes way longer for me to get anywhere if my legs are bare. People always stop me and try to talk to me about tattoos.”

And in this submission to Stop Street Harassment, Jen from London, England writes that she believes her tattoos might have been part of the reason why she was targeted by harassers.

This type of street harassment sends a message that women should be confined to only certain representations of femininity, and any deviation from these norms, like tattoos, will be used as ammunition against them to invade their privacy and to essentialize and sexualize them. This is very wrong.

While visible tattoos do generate well-intended curiosity from some strangers, this interest needs to be kept in check with a strong respect of others’ right to privacy. For those unsure of how to appropriately and respectfully admire others’ tattoos check out this piece by Alli called “Tattoo Etiquette 101 — How To Appreciate My Body Art Without Making Me Hate You.”

Bridgette Sullivan is an elementary school teacher in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This afternoon I was prompted into thinking about how it’s pretty rare these days for construction crews to catcall (as opposed to the 70′s-80′s, when pretty much ALL construction crews harassed women/teens), but for some reason the roofers working on the new 4-plex out my back alley have no problem catcalling me, while I’m gardening in my own fucking yard, from their roof. This is not the first time this has happened to me either (in totally different parts of town). Now that it’s happened to me a couple times, I wonder how common this actually is? Are roofers the new “untouchables” when it comes to ‘street harassment’, just because they feel safe from criticism way up on their second-story perches??

- Lynnette B

Location: Edmonton, Alberta

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This is belatedly cross-posted from the Girls for Gender Equity newsletter, with permission.

The Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools (CGES) held a Youth Summit on Street Harassment on March 25, 2013 at the Urban Assembly Institute that exceeded our highest expectations!

We planned for 50 middle and high school students to attend this youth led event, but to our surprise 100 students showed up and convened in downtown Brooklyn for the CGES summit. These remarkable students and youth leaders chose to spend the first day of their spring break with us in a variety of workshops that examined street harassment.

In spite of the rain, students began arriving in droves at 10:00 am to register, eat breakfast and mingle. By the beginning of the program, the meeting room was filled beyond capacity and an overflow room had to be set up to accommodate participants.

Throughout the summit, youth leaders from Girls for Gender Equity, Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE), Right Rides, Sadie Nash Leadership Project and Girls Inc. emceed, facilitated, and supported their peers in an action packed, thought-provoking day of activities, dialogues and workshops.

The day opened with an enthusiastic welcome by GGE’s Youth Organizer, Nathania Fields and CAE’s Peer Educator, Mercy Carpenter, the emcees for the event. Nathania and Mercy set the tone of the day, encouraging participants to share their thoughts and listen to one other. They then introduced the Host Committee and organizational staff, who discussed the goals and purpose of the event.

The first activity, ‘The Roots of Street Harassment Tree,’ set the stage for in-depth conversations about why street harassment occurs at every level. Participants were divided up into groups of ten and given a large drawn tree. They were asked to fill out the roots of the tree with the roots of Street Harassment and the trunks of the tree with what supports street harassment aka customs, beliefs, attitudes and institutions.

The Roots of Street Harassment Tree

Towards the day’s end, the young people at the youth summit chose to write love letters to the 16-year-old high school rape survivor in Steubenville, Ohio. Unfortunately after the trial against two teen boys that were found guilty in this case, she had been bullied and blamed for their actions. The youth had a deep empathy for what she has been through and wanted her to know how brave an courageous she is.

    
The last activity of the day invited the young people to sign up for different events presented at a row of ‘Action Booths’ that lined the hallway outside the meeting room. All of these events prepared us for April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and and the Anti-Street Harassment Rally on Saturday, April 13.

By: Erin McKelle, SSH Correspondent

We all know that street harassment is a huge problem and that we must work hard to end it. Street harassment happens to (by conservative estimates) 80% of women and because of how prevalent it is in our society and around the world, it means that the issue is that much more important and that ending it is that much more critical.

So the question is, how can we take back the streets? Not just for ourselves, but for every woman who has ever been harassed? How can we make the streets safe for everyone and create safe public spaces? It’s obviously a daunting task, so how can we go about it?

The answer lies in activism and taking an active role as bystanders. We have to be willing to not let things slide that make us uncomfortable or that are clearly sexist. It’s about going against the grain and letting harassers know that what they are doing isn’t okay.

To give a better and more thorough understanding of this, here is a list of 5 ways that you can take back the streets, whether you are the target of harassment, seeing harassment happen to someone else or are just simply wanting to make a difference.

1)    Stand Up to Harasser’s…if you feel safe, of course. The best way to do this is to use strong and assertive body language and speech. Tell the harasser directly exactly what they did that that was offensive and to stop. Keep your composure and remain cool, calm and confident. If you don’t feel safe enough to directly stand up to your harasser, report your story to Stop Street Harassment and/or Hollaback! to raise awareness and indirectly stick up for yourself. You could also report the incident to the police (although you may or may not have success with this) and take a picture or video of the harasser with your cell phone.

2)    Be an Active Bystander and help others who are experiencing harassment. If you see someone being harassed, step in and try to diffuse the harasser and also look out for the victim. Depending on the circumstance, you could use a distraction to get the harasser’s attention away from harassing (for example, asking them for directions), pull the victim aside and ask if they are okay and need help or even directly call out the harasser in front of a crowd, which will probably shock them and cause them to stop. Just be mindful of safety, the situation and use your judgment to form the best plan of action.

3)    Actively Resist and take action to create social change. Hold a march or rally to protest street harassment, create a short film or vlog on the issue or even leave information about Stop Street Harassment in public restrooms, subway cars or sidewalks. Volunteer or write an op-ed for organizations that work to end street harassment. Do something to get other people’s attention and raise awareness about the issue. Be creative and use your imagination

4)    Be an Advocate and talk to people young and old about street harassment and start conversations with friends and family. By talking about the issue openly, you are creating a safe space for others who have probably experienced the same thing and are simultaneously educating and erasing the stigma around street harassment. You could also act as a mentor to young boys and girls and talk to them about why harassment is not okay and empower young women to stand up for themselves and know that they never deserve or are inviting harassment.  Also, think about starting a town hall at your school or work to get your colleague’s talking about the issue.

5)     Use Social Media: Tweet information, facts and statistics about street harassment on your Twitter or Facebook page. It’s a very easy way to get a lot of people to engage with this issue and to make others aware of what street harassment is and how to end it. If you want to tweet your harassment story, include the hashtag #streetharassment or #hollaback and it will be added to the @Catcalled @ihollaback and/or the @StopStHarassment Twitter thread.

Remember, no action is too big or too small and any and everything you do to take back the streets brings us one step closer to ending street harassment for good.

Erin is an e-activist and blogger based in Ohio. You can find more of her work here and here.

According to The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 99.3% of Egyptian women have experienced some sort of harassment.

We have sadly become numbed to these statistics because the simplest of verbal harassment is experienced on a daily basis. Taking action is rarely an option in a highly patriarchal society where most men would blame the girl for getting herself into such a situation.

Yesterday I was at a local mall with a female friend of mine and the usual lurkers were standing by escalators staring at women. Young single men walking around staring down women are common sighting in malls in Egypt. I never feared my safety as I usually just ignore and keep walking.

As we took the escalator to leave the mall two guys hissed at us. We ignored and they did it again so I turned to look at him and he nodded as to reaffirm he was directing it at me. Something at that moment told me I didn’t want to ignore it and go home frustrated as usual so I ran back up the escalators to give them a piece of my mind.

The confrontation started and so did their denial. As if I was completely delusional, they asked me if something was wrong.

“Who bothered you?”

“Did I direct anything towards you? huh? What did I say, tell me exactly what I said?”

“Do you think you look like a person I’d want to flirt with?”

The frustrating part is that most men don’t consider hissing or staring a sort of violation and this is why he kept asking me to repeat what he said but he didn’t actually SAY anything.

I then asked a vendor to call security and they came right away asking me what happened. I explained that this was unacceptable to happen in a mall and he proceeded to explain their security policy; I could either file a report at the local police station or let the Mall security office handle the situation. Considering it was late at night and I didn’t exactly know my legal right or the process I would go through, I decided to do the latter knowing that kicking them out of the mall would be enough. The security was very cooperative and was willing to help me out with filing a report by providing me with surveillance camera evidence.

The guys finally decided to apologize to me and my friend and it turned out one of them was actually a police officer! I thanked him for serving our country the way he did and left.

I’m sharing this story not because of the gravity of the situation but because this matter is taken too lightly. When a society has a problem defining sexual harassment and young men pass their time throwing ugly words at girls thinking it’s normal then it’s time to take action. Instead of thinking twice about what I’ll wear or where I’ll walk, it’s time to focus of changing the mindset of people and understanding your rights. The more we focus on how girls could avoid sexual harassment, the more it will keep happening.

I am also sharing this to encourage other people to share their story. It seems ridiculous to take action action but empowering once you actually do it!

- Dina Hosny

Location: A mall in Egypt

Share your street harassment story!