Street Harassment Collective
T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. Carmen
It feels good to be understood. You voice my thoughts. When are we going to start such groups in France?
the-activista :Inspiration: One of the main reasons why I became involved with feminist work and organizing on the issues of rape, sexual assault, and consent was street harassment.
I grew up surrounded with contradictary views on strangers: you could smile at them, wave back at them, because in a small town you probably know them and just don’t remember, but never get in their car.
It was then that I embarked for college in the District of Columbia, and it was then that I began interning in Alexandria and now, New York. Cities, with cars and buses and metros and subways full of people. And what I got for it was a constant sense of being under watch, and multiple/frequent occurences of stranger danger.
The link between street harassment and larger forms of sexual objectification and subservience, as well as rape, is clear: when someone feels they have the right to intrude on your privacy, and claim ownership of your pride, your body, and your comfort, there is a problem. Men yelling obscenities at women, horns honking and sexual innuendo passing, is proof that women are regarded as not controlling their environment, and are forced each day to take the brunt of society’s unfair distribution of power.
Similarly, it must be made clear that street harassment, like rape, is not sexually driven, never a compliment, and a part of a cycle of violence against women instigated in the United States. Street harassment is a display of power, a public forum for letting women know that they should be avoiding the realm of sidewalks and “staying safe” by sacrificing life at large.
So as a big “fuck you” to the garbage trucks, cars, and SUVs passing me today, horns honking and hands waving, this is a collective of resources for women to fight back against street harassment.
Love, Carmen.
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Tolerance.Org: The Price of Being Prey
