The Pitt News: Pitt students condemn catcalling

https://pittnews.com/article/127683/arts-and-entertainment/pitt-students-condemn-catcalling/

Pitt students condemn catcalling
Joanna Li | Staff Writer
February 14, 2018

As a 12-year-old, Sophia Marshall stepped out of the house feeling confident in the
outfit she had picked out that morning. As she waited for a friend by the local high
school, she heard a sharp whistle from out of the window of a passing car — her
first experience with catcalling.

Marshall, now a junior business administration major at Pitt, recalled feeling conflicted at the time — a mix of validation and violation.  It wasn’t until she came to college that the instances of catcalling became more frequent for Marshall — happening on the bus, her nightly walk home in Central Oakland and during her summer abroad in Paris — causing her to feel fed up.
“I’m not your baby, I’m not your honey,” Marshall said. “You don’t know me.”
According to a Cornell study, 85 percent of women experience street harassment before age 17 — and some women in Oakland are in that majority. Walking in groups of three or more, carrying pepper spray at all times and knowing a few self-defense techniques are all tips in the back of the minds of some women who have experienced street harassment at Pitt.

Marie Skoczylas, a visiting instructor in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Program, offers a definition of catcalling and its effects.
“Catcalling is singling out a target for sexual objectification and commenting publicly on
that person’s appearance,” Skoczylas said. “It requires a sense of entitlement to pull a
stranger into that kind of situation, knowing the advance may well be unwelcome and
insulting.”

Catcalling is part of the larger issue of street harassment. According to “Stop Street
Harassment” — a nonprofit organization focusing on ending gender-based street
harassment — street harassment can range from unwanted whistling to sexual assault. As Skoczylas explains, there’s a fine line between a pleasant interaction with compliments and harassing words that are disrespectful in nature.
“Rather than taking the route of trying to criminalize behavior, I think we need to focus on a cultural shift, changing attitudes so that we see each other as individuals to be respected rather than objects to harass,” Skoczylas said.
Sophomore finance major Casey Maher experienced catcalling in Oakland one night in
August. She walked to upper campus to meet with friends to watch a movie, but a friend
made a last-minute cancellation. Maher found herself alone in an unfamiliar place.
“Some guys pulled up next to me in a car and started yelling things out the window, like,
‘hey girl, get in the car, let us give you a ride,’” Maher said. “It made me feel really
uncomfortable and I had my hand on my phone to call the police.”

Carolyn Helenski, a sophomore communication science and disorders major, has
experienced catcalling in multiple cities. She recalls an instance with her mom in
Philadelphia that was particularly memorable, saying it was very degrading.
“One time I was in Philly with my mom for the afternoon, and a young guy was with his
friends on the street,” Helenski said. “When my mom and I walked by he said, ‘look at that nice, tight pussy in those pants.’’’
In this uncomfortable position, Helenski had an urge to stand up to the man, but her mom told her to act as if nothing had happened and just continue walking.
“Catcalling isn’t pretty when someone is trying to embarrass or harass you,” Helenski said.
“I went to say something, but [my mom] told me to just keep walking — which frustrated
me because a woman I look up to more than anyone didn’t feel comfortable standing up for herself or me.”

Other women in Oakland have experienced harassment from older men, not just fellow
college students.  Close Morgan, a junior who asked her last name be omitted for privacy, was walking back from her class in the Chevron Science Center when she stumbled into one such case as she passed a few construction workers on the sidewalk.
“As I got closer to them, I noticed that the one guy was staring at me,” she said. “Right as I
walked by, the guy who had been looking at me a little too long turned his head and said
‘hey beautiful,’ and watched me as I kept walking down the street.”
Morgan said she didn’t think much of the situation — she just smiled and continued
walking down O’Hara Street to Fifth Avenue, enjoying the compliment she was given.
“What was initially nice became super creepy when I was stopped at the crosswalk by
Thackeray,” Morgan said. “The same man popped his head out of the passenger side of a
white pickup truck and said, for the second time, ‘hey beautiful’ as his buddy kept driving.”
To avoid another encounter with the man, Morgan ended up taking the longest route
possible to get to her destination — an inconvenience for her to feel safe.
While Marshall continues to take her chances striking up conversations with strangers, she said she draws the line between friendliness and street harassment at a stranger’s ability to read context clues on a situation.
“I’m not trying to say that no one should talk to anybody else,” Marshall said. “I am saying that you need to respect my privacy, and that includes no shouting, no name calling.”
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Article: ‘Upskirting, street harassment becomes rising threat in D.C., report finds’

For Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia–this does not surprise me at all since women LIVE it everyday of their lives:

‘Upskirting, street harassment becomes rising threat in D.C., report finds” https://www.gwhatchet.com/2017/11/09/upskirting-street-harassment-becomes-rising-threat-in-d-c-report-finds/                                                                                                                    By Riya Gavaskar Nov 9, 2017 12:32 AM

All Rights Reserved

Reported cases of upskirting — taking unauthorized pictures underneath a woman’s skirt or dress — in the D.C. area have soared in the past three years.

A team of experts reviewed court records in D.C., Virginia and Maryland, and found cases had jumped 70 percent since 2015, according to a report published late last month by NBC Washington. Advocates said these cases, meant to demean and degrade women – including female students – in public, have become a growing threat with the growth of smart phones and social media.

Many of these cases occur at Metro stations, where women are three times more likely than men to be victims of harassment, according to a 2016 report from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority – the agency that oversees the Metro.

Claire Gould, the communications director for Collective Action for Safe Spaces, a non-profit organization that works to combat harassment and assault, said harassment occurs most often in crowded areas, like a Metro station or Metro car.

“It’s always frustrating when women, in particular, have to be more careful in order to avoid things like this.”

“It’s demeaning and an invasion of privacy,” Gould said in an email. “Like any kind of public harassment, we believe everyone deserves the right to move through public spaces without fear of being harassed or assaulted.”

Gould said officials should start a public awareness campaign to curb harassment on the Metro, collect data on the number of incidents and train employees and transit police on how to address sexual harassment.

Terri Poore, the policy director for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said upskirting cannot be prevented easily because it occurs in crowded, busy areas — making it difficult to track down perpetrators.

“There is no shortcut around the fact that people are going to have to have courage and stepping in when they see these sorts of behaviors happening and not leave the onus on the victim,” she said. “Really everyone needs to take an active part in preventing this kind of behavior.”

Although upskirting is considered a form of voyeurism, experts said it is difficult to prosecute in D.C. courts. Consent for taking a picture or recording is only required when the individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy according to voyeurism laws in D.C.

In 2014, a D.C. judge dismissed charges against a man accused of taking photos up a woman’s skirt at the Lincoln Memorial, citing that the accuser could not have a reasonable expectation of privacy while on the National Mall, according to a Huffington Post report.

Amanda Lindamood, the director of training and community engagement for the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, said it’s difficult to prosecute upskirting because laws pertaining to sexual assault are relatively new and there is no general consensus about how they can be enforced and adjudicated.

“Every district, or every jurisdiction, approaches legislation related to violence in a very different way and it’s kind of a new category of consent to think about it, again as just not a physical violence, but that it has to do with images, has to do with social media,” Lindamood said. “It’s kind of a very new section of the law we’re playing catch up on.”

Students said upskirting and general street harassment is a constant menance, especially on an urban campus.

Freshman Andie Kemmerle said it’s aggravating that women have to constantly be on alert when riding the Metro.

“It’s always frustrating when women, in particular, have to be more careful in order to avoid things like this,” she said. “Whereas, it should be that people shouldn’t be doing this in the first place, but hopefully people are for their own safety, being careful about their surroundings when they’re in public.”

In February, the advocacy group Collective Action for Safe Spaces launched a petition that has garnered 333 signatures to urge the the D.C. Council to pass a bill to training and educate D.C. employees about sexual harassment.

“What can people do to keep themselves safe when the law doesn’t even know what’s legal and what’s illegal anymore?”

That same month, some students accused construction workers renovating Corcoran Hall of street harassment and catcalling. D.C. businesses have installed street exhibits and initialed training programs in recent months to try to prevent harassment across the city.

Gabrielle Battino, a sophomore, said living on an urban campus in a densely populated city makes sexual harassment more of a concern.

“It sucks that I’m a woman on campus and I don’t feel safe 100 percent of the time and I should because this is my community,” Battino said. “I guess the only thing I can do is be cautious and be an advocate for the issue.”

Tamara Criss, a graduate student in public health, said D.C should criminalize upskirting because it will encourage more victims come forward to report incidents.

“You can only imagine no one is going to report anything if nothing is going to happen. I think that increasing the criminalization of the activity would be smart,” Criss said. “What can people do to keep themselves safe when the law doesn’t even know what’s legal and what’s illegal anymore?”

Virginia News: Author and activist Holly Kearl will speak at the Nov. 18 AAUW meeting in McLean

 http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2014/nov/05/focus-stopping-street-harassment/

Author and activist Holly Kearl will speak at the Nov. 18 AAUW meeting in McLean.

#Catcalls, sexual and sexist comments, following, flashing, and groping. Most women in the world have experienced unwanted sexual harassment in public spaces by strangers, or “street harassment.” More than half of harassed women say it began when they were a teenager.
#Holly Kearl, an author and leading advocate for stopping street harassment, will be speaking about this issue – and what we can all do about it – at the AAUW McLean Area November Branch Event on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. at the McLean Community Center.
#Kearl is an expert on the topic of gender-based violence, including street harassment and sexual harassment in schools and on college campuses. She is the founder of the nonprofit organization, Stop Street Harassment and a consultant for organizations like the United Nations, the State Department, One World Education, and Change in our Lifetime.
#She also works as a part-time facilitator for the Op-Ed Project’s Public Voices Fellowship at Northwestern University, and an adjunct professor of Women’s Studies at George Mason University.
#Tired of strange men whistling and honking at her, calling out to her, following her, and grabbing her when she was alone in public, Kearl wrote her master’s thesis in 2007 at GWU on gender-based street harassment and how women were using online websites to combat it.
#She has authored two books, “50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers” (2013) and “Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women” (2010) and two national studies, Unsafe and Harassed in Public Spaces: A National Street Harassment Report (2014) and Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment in Schools (2011).
#Kearl received a master’s degree in Public Policy and Women’s Studies from George Washington University and bachelor’s degrees in history and women’s studies from Santa Clara University.