Hollaback! has a new campaign geared towards encouraging bystanders to intervene when they witness street harassment.  We are partnering with The Green dot to encourage people who see street harassment to fight back with us.

A green dot is just a moment in time when you make a choice to be actively and visibly intolerant of street harassment. A green dot is your chance to show that street harassment sucks and isn’t OK with you, to show targets of street harassment that you’ve got their back, and to show everyone in your life that you expect them to do their part to make the community safer.

Here are some ideas for “green dots” you can use if you witness street harassment taking place:

• “Hey knock it off”
• Tell the person you will call the cops if they don’t put that thing away.
• “Are you ok”
• Go stand next to the person being targeted so they know they are not alone.
• Ask the target, “Are they bothering you?”
• Take a picture with your phone
• Look disapprovingly at the person doing the harassing behavior
• Offer to get off at the next stop with the target and catch the next train together.
• “Get away from her/him”
• Don’t join in or laugh.
• Loudly say “ugh, that is so gross”
• Talk to your friend later about why you thought what they did or said was uncool
• Ask the target if there is anything you can do to help
• Tell the harasser you saw some cops on the corner and you are worried they will get in
• trouble if they don’t stop.
• Tell the target that the harassing behavior wasn’t ok and you are sorry it happened.

*Image from: http://livethegreendot.com

Well, one evening I was walking down 6th avenue going to class when I noticed an odd figure following me. There were other people around, so I dismissed it and went into class, and pretended like nothing happened. But the next day, I was out again and noticed him following me again. It was hard to get a good look at him because he stayed far behind and was hiding behind buildings and around corners. But throughout that whole week I noticed him following me.

Finally, I got a good look at him one time, when I turned around suddenly just outside of a McDonalds on 6th. He was dirty, unshaven, and had short, scraggly, unwashed-looking hair. His clothes were very dirty and he appeared to be homeless. He had a big, orange backpack on. As soon as I saw him he turned around and lurked off in the other direction. I went back to my dorm that evening and called the police. They said they’d send a squad car out to look for him and call me back.

I got a phone call about 20 minutes later, saying that they had sent one car out to look, and they had driven up and down a couple roads in the area looking for the man and didn’t find him. They gave up.

That was it. 20 minutes was all they had spared for trying to find my stalker. After that I saw the man around town but always went into a building when I saw him. It’s ridiculous that I had to do that just to be safe on my college campus.

On this particular day, I needed to get to the Greyhound station from downtown, and I missed the MAX. Unfortunately, walking to the Greyhound station from downtown Portland means walking down 6th, across Burnside and through Chinatown.

As I was waiting for the light to change so that I could cross Burnside, a couple of guys walked up to me. I tried to ignore them, but one of them got in my face to ask me what my name was. I told him and he said “I’ve always wanted to meet a ‘Lauren’. You know why? Because Laurens are faithful.” (I don’t think I ever got this guy’s name, so I will just call him “the guy”.) At this point I was visibly uncomfortable, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The light turned green and he ran to catch up with me. He motioned to the other guy, who fell back and then went another way.

The guy, after managing to fall into step next to me, asked me to be his girlfriend. I said “no”. He asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said I did. He seemed discouraged, but kept walking next to me. At this point, he got around to telling me that he was both very drunk and had just gotten out of eleven years in prison. He complained about ex girlfriends, demanded to know if I were manipulative or a cheater, told me about how he was a tattoo artist, and then proceeded to tell me that after he got out of prison, he spent hours online learning how to “please women sexually”.

At this point, he asked me some very forward, very intrusive questions about sex and went on to offer to have a secret hook-up sex relationship “for my sake”.

He asked me how old I was. Usually between my age and having a boyfriend, people decide to leave me alone, but being 18 and half his age didn’t sway him.

At some point, he asked me if I wanted him to leave me alone… but I was so uncomfortable, and I have dealt with (and dated) enough crazy people and enough drugged out people to know better than to start any kind of conflict with someone who is drunk and just out of 11 years in prison for some unnamed crime.

Once I got to the bus station, he sat down next to me and spent a good five minutes talking about my boobs, practically ripped his shirt off to show me his tattoos, and pointed at his visibly erect penis. This time he noticed the visible discomfort, but he laughed.

The bus finally loaded, and he asked for my number, at which point I panicked and left him with my boyfriend’s number (he has not called).

From running into this guy to getting on the bus lasted over an hour and not one person said anything, tried to make eye contact with me, or even looked remotely concerned.

I have lived in Portland since August 2011, and I have been harassed so much that I am moving to Corvallis on Thursday (March 22).

A great post on feministing by Holly Kearl about what you can do this week during International Anti-Street Harassment week!

http://feministing.com/2012/03/20/what-you-can-do-to-help-end-street-harassment/

1. How did you get involved with street harassment and harassment in schools?

My involvement with street harassment began when I wrote my master’s thesis on the topic in 2007. There was an information gap and so I started to fill it in different ways, first with my website and blog, then with my book, and now by organizing International Anti-Street Harassment Week and giving talks across the country on the topic.

For my day job, I work at AAUW and addressing and preventing sexual harassment in schools and the workplace is included in their area of focus. Because of my work on street harassment, I had the opportunity to co-research and write a national study on sexual harassment in schools with AAUW’s director of research, Dr. Catherine Hill.

2. Why do you think street harassment is so pervasive in our culture?

Some of the root causes for street harassment include societal disrespect for women, the objectification of women, homophobia and transphobia, and unhealthy definitions of masculinity that encourage men to harass not only women but also other men, particularly men who do not seem to adhere to traditional definitions of masculinity. Some days it feels like everything in our culture reinforces and supports these behaviors. I know the media gets a lot of blame for things but they truly are prime examples, from marketers that use women’s bodies to sell products, to industries that value women’s looks more than their brains or talents, to commercials that tell men what “real men” do or don’t do.

I also see a lot of reinforcement of these ideas from generation to generation. From older women or mothers who tell girls that the harassment is a compliment or that they should just learn to avoid it or ignore it, to men who harass women in front of their sons or try to bond with sons or younger brothers over objectifying and harassing women.

Over and over I encounter people who believe street harassment is a compliment or no big deal or “the way things are,” and these attitudes reinforce street harassment, silences people who experience it, and give harassers a free pass to continue to do it.

3. What do you think are the best ways for someone to respond when they are harassed on the street?

Unfortunately, there is no one “best” way to respond to street harassment in every circumstance, in either public places or the workplace. Harassed persons must decide for themselves based on what is happening, where, and by whom, which response will make them feel both safe and empowered. However, the more informed people are about options for responding, the better they can be at making that decision.

Most people know how to ignore or avoid a harasser, but many may not know how to have an assertive response. Learning assertive responses is very important because those are often the most effective kind for holding the harasser accountable for his or her actions and deterring future harassment and because it usually feels empowering to the harassed person.

Here are five suggestions for assertive responses, informed by advice by former DC Rape Crisis Director and anti-sexual harassment trainer and author Martha Langelan, Defend Yourself founder Lauren R. Taylor, and sexual harassment expert and “godmother of Title IX,” Dr. Bernice Sandler.

a) Name the behavior and state that it is wrong. For example say, “Do not whistle at me, that is harassment,” or “Do not touch my butt, that is sexual harassment.”

b) Tell them exactly what you want. Say, for example, “move away from me,” “stop touching me,” or “go stand over there.”

c) Make an all-purpose anti-harassment statement, such as: “Don’t harass me” or “Stop harassing people. I don’t like it. No one likes it. Show some respect.” Speak it in a neutral but assertive tone.

d) Turn what they say or do around into a joke or make a clever statement in response.

e) Identify the perpetrator: “Man in the yellow shirt, stop touching me.” (This is especially useful if other people are nearby).

Reporting harassers to police, transit workers, store owners, and their employer (if they are clearly harassing on the job) are other viable options.

4. Other than responding in the moment to street harassment, what can we do to help fight it?

Share our stories to bring more attention and understanding to the issue. People care about issues that impact the people they care about…so I think more people would care about this issue if they realized how it affects their loved ones. Mentor and educate youth to know appropriate and respectful ways to interact and what their rights are if someone harasses them. Create awareness-raising initiatives at the community level. Campaign for concrete changes, like city ordinances, harassment studies, and awareness-raising public service announcement.

5. How do you think street harassment fuels the oppression of women and LGBTQ folks?

Street harassment causes many women and LGBTQ individuals to restrict their lives in different ways to try to be safe and unharassed. This limits their mobility and ability to do things like attend night classes, go to networking events, and freely walk around their city. The harassment reinforces and reminds them of their second-class citizenship and the way they are devalued in our society.

6. What is international street harassment week and what do you hope it can accomplish?

Amazing activists and ordinary individuals around the world work hard year-round to make public places safer…but there is strength in numbers. During the third week of March, the 18-24, everyone will join forces to collectively raise awareness that street harassment is a global problem and work toward solutions.  There are 6 options for how people can participate and together we can bring more attention to this pervasive problem and help facilitate time/space to brainstorm community solutions.

December 7, 2011
Contact: Emily May, Executive Director
Emily@ihollaback.org
Phone: (347) 889-5510
 
 

HOLLABACK! GROWS TO 45 CITIES INTERNATIONALLY
New locations in India, Colombia, and Chile join the movement against street harassment
 
 
December 7, 2011 (New York, NY) – The movement to end street harassment takes another giant leap forward today as an additional 11 Hollaback! sites launch internationally, adding to an already vibrant network of 34 sites across four continents. Each site is run by a team of local advocates who are deeply committed to working on-line and off-line to end street harassment in their communities.
 
“I decided to start a Hollaback! because I wanted to be a part of a collective of dedicated and passionate activists fighting to make the streets safe for women all over the world,” said Hollaback! Palo Alto Founder Viviana Arcia.  The organization is now in 45 cities across 16 countries, with leaders speaking more than nine different languages — each with the same message: street harassment must be put to a stop.  New locations include Bogota, Colombia; Boston, MA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Chennai, India; Dusseldorf, Germany; Minneapolis, MN; Montreal, Quebec; Palo Alto, CA; Portland, ME; Santiago, Chile; and Winnipeg, Canada.
 
“What we tend to forget is that preventing sexual harassment in the long run is about changing our attitudes, not just ensuring physical safety. This is where we come in with Hollaback!” said Hamsini Ravi, Project Coordinator Hollaback! Chennai. 

Local Hollaback! site leaders run their local blogs and organize their communities through advocacy, community partnerships, and direct action. Site leaders are as diverse in their backgrounds as they are in their experiences of harassment. Hollaback! reports that 44% lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer, 33% identify as people of color, 76% are under the age of 30, and 90% are women.
 
 “Women and members of the LGBTQ community have always been taught that street harassment is inevitable and something that we need to accept, smile at, or ignore,” says Cara Courchesne, Director of Hollaback! Portland, Maine. “Hollaback! changes that storyline.”

Hollaback!’s international sites are already having an impact. In Querétaro, Mexico, site leaders have developed a workshop to promote cities free of harassment for all people. In the last two months, 600 young people have taken part. In Baltimore, MD, the site leader has organized several successful events, including an Anti-hate Prom and the Baltimore SlutWalk. In Croatia, site leaders are creating a survey that will allow them to collect data on street harassment that will then be used across the Hollaback! network, giving Hollaback! an ability to compare street harassment across cultures.

About Hollaback! Hollaback! (ihollaback.org) is a global movement dedicated to ending street harassment using mobile technology. Launched in 2005 as a New York City blog, Hollaback! has expanded and now has iPhone and Droid apps that give victims a real-time response to street harassment, breaking the silence that has perpetuated street harassment internationally, and a crowd-sourced initiative to end street harassment. Street harassment is one of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and one of the least legislated against.
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MUMBAI: On October 20th, a group of friends went out to have dinner and watch a cricket match. After dinner, a drunk man harassed a few of the girls in the group, and was reprimanded by two of the guys in the group. Jitendra Rana returned with a large group of his friends and stabbed Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez. Keenan was held down and stabbed until he was disemboweled. He was rushed to the hospital by his friends, including his girlfriend, Priyanka, who telephoned his parents on the way to the hospital. He died soon after his father arrived at the hospital. Reuben was in critical condition but succumbed to his injuries ten days after the attack.

We mourn the loss of two brave men who had such bright futures ahead of them. Two men who were not willing to accept the harassment of women they cared about. Two men who stood for a world where every person can feel safe and confident in public spaces.

Please sign this petition which calls for a non-bailable jail sentence for the men who committed this heinous crime. Join us as we stand for a world without street harassment. Join us as we stand for the bravery of people in Mumbai, across India and around the world who take a stand against street harassment. Join us as we stand for justice for Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez.

Its like being able to hollaback at your tv!