Raising Awareness

One important way to help end street harassment is raising awareness that it is a problem and speaking out against it. At an individual level, doing so can be as simple as sharing your story in person or online, or it can be as involved as raising community awareness through running an anti-street harassment website, holding a local event, producing a documentary, or creating an art project. One’s involvement also could be somewhere in between, such as helping with those projects or donating to them, attending, or participating in them.

Sharing stories in person:

For women, raising awareness by sharing your stories can be as simple as telling the men you trust about your experiences. Tell them each time a man harasses you or each time a really scary or frustrating incident happens. Or tell them about how street harassment makes you feel and the impact it has on your life. Through an informal online questionnaire I conducted in late 2009, 95 percent of 85 male allies said “Having women in their life talk to them about street harassment and share their stories/how it makes them feel” would be the most effective method to raise other men's awareness about street harassment.

Sharing one’s stories and experiences with other women also raises their awareness. Since men often street harass women who are alone, women may not realize how often it happens to other women and instead blame themselves for its occurrence, including by internalizing that it is a compliment prompted by their appearance. If a woman realizes that most women are harassed at some point, she is less likely to engage in self-blame or self-objectification and more likely to respond assertively to the harasser and speak out against that behavior. Plus, women who are upset by harassment may find comfort in realizing there are other women who have similar feelings and they can support each other.

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Online activism:

One of the most successful ways to raise awareness that street harassment is a problem has been through online methods, notably through HollaBack websites, which encourage women to post pictures of their harasser and a story about what happened. Do you want to help raise awareness about street harassment online and/or add your voice to online anti-street harassment movements? Here are some ideas.

Street harassment event:

Another way to raise public awareness, as well as to educate people about street harassment is through an event on the topic. A few examples of such events include:

• A street harassment summit in New York City by Girls for Gender Equity at which community members viewed anti-street harassment documentaries and participated in small discussion groups on the topic.

• An art-focused event in Asheville, NC, where people could browse through previously submitted pieces of art relating to street harassment and select pieces they would like to use. Music, community dialogue, and harassment stories were shared during the event, too.

• An annual "Don't Grab My Ass" discussion at University of California at Santa Barbara, during which attendees discuss gender roles and street harassment, role play harassment scenarios, and brainstorm ways to deal with the problem.

• An INCITE! day-long community event in Washington, D.C., during which girls and women had the opportunity to share their stories, read their poetry, and participate in drumming and chanting about street harassment. Martial arts and self defense trainers gave presentations and taught attendees basic self defense moves to help them feel more confident in public. Lastly, attendees learned about ways they can respond to street harassment and practiced role playing various strategies.

• An annual anti-street harassment self-defense class by Defend Yourself each April in Washington, D.C., during which attendees discuss street harassment, learn assertive ways to respond to harassers, participate in role playing, and learn basic self defense moves.

Here are ways you can be involved:

• Hold an event on street harassment in your community, including at the local community center or YMCA/YWCA, at a high school or college campus, or hold a rally in a local park.

• Help organize, fund, advertise, or donate in-house contributions (like a space to host it or food for attendees) for an event.

• Attend an event and invite friends to attend, especially men.

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Street harassment films and documentaries:

Viewing street harassment, seeing women talk about its impact on their lives, watching men who harass explain why, and hearing men who do not harass speak out against the behavior, can drastically raise awareness about this problem. Of note, 51 percent of 85 male allies I surveyed felt that viewing a documentary was the best way to raise awareness among men that this is a problem. Also, media outlets love having video clips with their stories, so having some available can make street harassment a more marketable story, and of course, being covered in the news helps raise awareness.

This resources page includes a number of examples of documentaries and home-made films people have made to address street harassment.

Here are ideas for what you can do if you’re interested in using film to raise public awareness:

• If you have access to a video recording device (including on a cell phone), consider creating an informal clip and adding your voice to the growing online collection of videos. Across various social networking sites there are dozens of home videos by young women talking about their street harassment experiences. Some women, such as Women’s Studies students at Pennsylvania State, have produced mini-documentaries. For a class project in 2007, the students made a seven-minute documentary interviewing male college students about sexual harassment. Unexpectedly, during the filming, men admitted they harass women walking by and they even harassed women while being filmed. The filmmakers also interviewed women about how harassment makes them feel.

• Try interviewing people you know and/or conducting “person on the street” interviews. See if you can capture street harassment live. Post your video online or screen it at a street harassment event or community film festival.

• If someone you know is making a documentary on street harassment, volunteer to participate! The more voices—women’s and men’s—captured on film speaking out against this issue, the more powerful the movement can become.

• If you are planning a street harassment event, consider including a screening of a documentary. There are documentaries that range in length from less than ten minutes to 76 minutes, so there are options that can fit any event.

• Support documentaries by donating money or time to their production and attending screenings. Invite people to attend who do not know about street harassment.

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Visual and performance art:

Art of all forms has the power to move people and creative portrayals of street harassment issues can help raise community awareness that it is a problem. The art may be visual and on display in a museum exhibit or the foyer of a school or conference hall, or it may be performance-based and occur on the streets near your home.

Examples:

• A multimedia art exhibit on catcalling by Jenga Mwendo in New York City in the early 2000s.

• Public demonstrations and a clothing campaign by Blank Noise in India.

A public art campaign with giant silhouette cutouts of men and recordings of men's real vulgar comments by graduate student Sarah VanDenbergh and HollaBack NYC.

Ilona Granet's street signs (click on link that says "street signs"), which were posted in various locations in New York City in the 1980s.

If you would like to use art to raise public awareness, here area a few ideas: