Saturday, April 7, 2012

Sh*t Men Say To Men About Street Harassment

For too many womenas well as LGBTQ folks and men who don’t “blend in”crossing the street, riding a bus or running in the park involve the risk of catcalls, groping, leering or even violence.
Studies show that nearly 90 percent of women have been harassed in public by the age of 19. Not to mention, as anti-street harassment expertHolly Kearl points out, “Gender-based street harassment can intersect with racism, homophobia and transphobia, classism and ableism to create multi-layered harassment.” Since there are legal recourses for victims of school and workplace harassment, the streets remain one of the final unsafe frontiers for marginalized groups. Until we have the freedom to move through our everyday lives without fear, we will not have achieved basic civil rights.
Since men are almost entirely responsible for catcalls and groping, street harassment is clearly their issue. To solve the problem, we need men to be true allies to women, girls and the queer community. But how? (READ MORE)