http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/
This website is dedicated to, wait for it... stopping street harassment. It offers information to educate yourself with, resources for combating different types of behavior, and ideas about how to defeat street harassment once and for all.
What is this street harassment thing? The website discusses that thusly:
Overview: Street harassment is any action or comment between strangers in public places that is disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening and/or harassing and is motivated by gender. In countries like India and Bangladesh, it’s termed “eve teasing,” and in countries like Egypt, it’s called “public sexual harassment.” Street harassment is a human rights issue because it limits women’s ability to be in public as often or as comfortably as most men.
Types: It ranges from leers, whistles, honks, kissing noises, and non-sexually explicit evaluative comments, to more insulting and threatening behavior like vulgar gestures, sexually charged comments, flashing, and stalking, to illegal actions like public masturbation, sexual touching, assault, and murder.
Gender-based street harassment can intersect with racism, homophobia and transphobia, classism, and/or ableism (as explored in Chapter 3 of the Stop Street Harassment book) to create multi-layered harassment.
Street harassment is a huge problem, specifically because people don't see it as such. It has happened to my friends and I have friends that have done it. But not until I visited this site did I realize how widespread it is and how I had been complicit in its happening. Let me show you with an example:
I was standing on a sidewalk with a female friend of mine, and we were discussing what so-and-so did with such-and-such the previous weekend, or something. A truck drives by, and a man leans out of the window and shouts "GIT R DUN" while his buddy laughs. My friend is visibly disturbed by this, and I urge her to ignore it. She looks rather upset as the truck stops at a nearby red light and the men inside continue to laugh. I give them no attention whatsoever, feeling that in such situations the best solution is to pretend nothing is happening. Eventually, the truck drives away. My friend got over this event quickly (at least to my knowledge, which is admittedly limited) but I still remember the look on her face to this day.
What I did was wrong. Let me repeat that, just so we are all clear. I was wrong. In ignoring those men, we allowed them to think what they were doing was okay, an amusing annoyance to us at worst. While I was able to shake off the negative effects of such an experience with ease (all credit sarcastically given to male privilege), I wasn't the one being objectified in this scenario. I was complicit in the oppression of my friend when I encouraged her to remain silent and not to speak out against such an attack on her person. I apologize for that sincerely and I would act differently now. That link I posted up there gave me one tool I shall certainly take advantage of in the future: when you hear street harassment you should respond with a simple statement such as, "Stop harassing women." Another good one is, "Show some respect."
I urge you to go to this website and look around. Chances are, you'll learn something.
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