Men who care about equality or who care about a daughter, mother, sister, aunt, cousin, girl friend, spouse, or friend should care about street harassment. Women should not have to be the ones who work on this issue alone. We need men’s collaboration.

Educating Boys & Men | How to Talk to Women | Bystander Tips

Male allies regularly give advice to other men during a weekly series on the Stop Street Harassment Blog:

“If you want to compliment random women, sign up for speed dating. Harassment is never about complimenting women, and it never has been. You may respond, “But I’m not trying to bother her, just be complimentary.” In that case, see above; it doesn’t matter what your intent is, it matters how what you do is received by her. This can be hard for us as men to hear, but intent doesn’t matter in this case.” Read the full post

By: Joe Vess, Director of Training and Technical Assistance, Men Can Stop Rape

“While most men I encounter on a daily basis, to my knowledge, do not harass on the street, most that harass are men. As men, our silence is deafening and we continue to ignore the canary in the mine which says our community needs to deal with issues of gender and power. Until we see street harassment as the problem that it is, we’ll continue to live in our neighborhoods like the miner who labors in a mine with a dead canary, until it’s too late to get to safety.” Read the full post.

By: Dr. L’Heureux Dumi Lewis, Assistant Professor at the City College of New York

“Irrespective to what your ‘friends’ think always question your own double standards and attitudes. Avoid laughing at sexist jokes simply to humor them reminding yourself you might offend someone. Do not repeat what your fathers did. Believe me there is no place in the Men’s community for perverts.Your attitude towards strangers reflects your upbringing at home. Besides you wouldn’t want your mother or your sister to go through the exact same thing.” Read the full post.

By: Mohnish Moorjani, founder of  Shoot At Sight

“[Street] harassment isn’t about sexual attraction to women. It’s not something women invite.  And it’s not something usually intended to elicit a positive sexual response from women. It’s about one thing: impressing other men.  The cat-callers in the car are using the woman on the sidewalk as a glue for male-bonding, as a way of affirming their masculinity to each other.  That masculinity is so fragile that having it validated is, for many young men, better than sex.” Read the full post.

By: Hugo B. Schwyzer, Ph.D, Professor at Pasadena City College