#harassmentis

[wechalkwalk-blog]

"anche quando sono ubriac* non hai il diritto di molestarmi"

"even when i'm drunk*, you do not have the right to harass me"

Hollaback! Italia. Torino, Italy. (Source)

[wechalkwalk-blog]

#lemolestiesono quando mi fischi quando mi rivolgi gesti a sfondo sessuale quando commenti il mio corpo quando ti strusci sui mezzi pubblici quando ti masturbi davanti a me in uno spazio pubblico **

#harassmentis when you whistle at me when you make sexual gestures

when you comment on my body

when you rub up against me on public transport

when you masturbate in front of me in a public space Hollaback! Italia. Torino, Italy. (Source)

[callipygiancacomixtle]

Tell your street harassment story. Don't stay silent.

There are tons of websites and online communities to share your story about street harassment, from "minor incidents" like verbal abuse to more serious incidents such as rape.

Hollaback! These stories are recent encounters with street harassment from around the world. Click the “I’ve Got Your Back” button under each one to anonymously show your support. 

StopStreetHarassment.com - share your story for the blog here.

The Everyday Sexism Project and this TED talk by Laura Bates.

[callipygiancacomixtle]

Why street harassment is not a compliment:

Street harassment isn't a compliment, it's about power and control.

It's basically guys letting you know that they run the streets, that if you're wearing a short skirt or you're walking alone or its late at night, they could do whatever they want to you and society will blame you for it.

It's a sad fact but gender inequality is still totally a thing, and because of that, as a woman Im forced to feel unsafe and vulnerable when I'm walking around in public. I never know if something scary might happen to me--a few weeks ago a man grabbed my arm as I was walking by and leered at me, and how much further would it take to get to legitimate assault or rape?

The fact that I've had to deal with this makes it so I see any man coming up to me on the street as a potential threat, especially if he's commenting on my appearance, and especially if he won't leave me alone.

Maybe in another world where women aren't harassed and raped, it could be "just a compliment" but right now it's a stranger I don't want to deal with, who has no rights to my attention, demanding that I listen to him commenting on my body.

[callipygiancacomixtle]

street harassment puts me in a bad mood all day... when some guy tells you to "fuck off" because you don't respond to his "compliment" about your body that he follows you down the street to yell at you...

[sorayachemaly]

Today  on Twitter Hollaback organized a Tweetup using the hashtag #harassmentis. The topic of harassment has spurred a number of vibrant and illuminating hashtags in the past year, #fasttailedgirls and #shoutingback among two of the most notable. Today's panel brought together a diverse group of activists to talk about the role race plays, everyone's race -- harassers and harassed alike --  in street harassment. ntil women are able to move freely without the ubiquitous threat of gendered violence in public space, we cannot engage fully in public life. This is true offline and on. It's part of a near universal safety gap. To understand street harassment you really have to put it in the context of how violence against women, members of the LGTBQ community, and people of color is institutionalized and broadly expressed. It is the normalization of gendered violence that manifests, on our streets every day, racist, sexist status quo ideas about rights, hierarchy and power.  #Harassmentis...

#1: Harassment is infused with dominant ideas about race, gender, sexuality and power and how those ideas relate to the identities of the harassed and the harassing. 

#2: Ignored or misrepresented as an "over there" problem in media. 

#3: Harassment is expensive and inhibiting. 

#4: Street harassment enforces heteronormativity, which is also an expression of patriarchal dominance. 

#5: Harassment is often not only ignored and tolerated by the police and people with authority to confront it, but often involves the them.

#6: Harassment is a global problem for girls and women. While men, particularly gay and transgender men are targeted in high proportions, it is usually by  men. Girls and women are generally not harassing people, grabbing their bodies or otherwise threatening them in public -- muttering obscenities, making pornographic suggestions, touching people they don't know in intimate ways, lurking on stoops, staring from benches, and following girls in cars. 

#7. Harassment is not flattery and "compliments" don't scare people or make them uncomfortable. 

#8: Harassment is something everyone's silent about, even thought it is a public issue.

#9: Street harassment has nothing to do with what a person is wearing.

#10: Street harassment gets its power from the threat of violence. 

See entire post with embedded tweets about all of these here. 

[harassment-is-blog]

#harassmentis becoming hunchbacked to hide your curves and avoid catcallings.

[harassment-is-blog]

Can't take a compliment.

#HarrassmentIs when a guy stands behind me in Union Station, Washington, DC, murmuring about my looks and, when I turn around and tell him to back off, he yells at me that I can't take a compliment.  When I tell him to leave me alone or I'll get the police, he starts to follow me yelling at me that I'm crazy and that women today don't know how to take compliments, and that's what's wrong with us today.  I took his picture in order to show police or law enforcement, and he became agitated and angry.