Author: Yuli Aylat

Final Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AYYyAGlqJ-kdX3rtYSwGUhRchyU0qQv/view?usp=sharing

In my final project, I wanted to explore the ways in which women react to catcalling. Many women, like me, tend to ignore the insulting slurs, either from fear of confrontation or of a physical escalation, or simply because they wish to not engage with degrading comments and rather go about their day.

Looking into the matter of street harassment I discovered that women choose to engage with catcallers in creative ways. They create cards, pamphlets, and forms that educate catcallers of the degrading and violent sexual harassment that exists within street harassment.

Other women tend to get involved with this type of harassment when they witness other women being catcalled. This social engagement not only helps protect the victim of the harassment, it also educates the catcaller that what they are doing is wrong, and it empowers the bystander in their role to create social change.

Creating this film, I learned the importance of getting involved when noticing street harassment. When we, as women, take back the ownership of our own bodies in public spaces, we change the paradigm that our bodies turn public in public spaces. We have the power to make this reality different, to change the misogynic and sexist environment of public spaces, and make our street safer for everyone.

Research Summary

Street harassment, also known as catcalling, is any unwelcome or unwanted verbal, non-verbal, physical, or visual conduct directed at someone in a public space without their consent. Although catcalling is considered to be not as physically dangerous or violent as sexual harassment or rape, it is important to understand that street harassment is evidence of what a woman’s body is considered as in public spaces and how it is treated. 

The status quo of street harassment as an accepted degrading attitude towards women and their bodies in public spaces is built upon the social acceptance of misogyny, sexism, racism, and the systemic rules of patriarchy. The hostile environment towards women in society makes it such that a woman’s body is considered public in a public space, thus allowing passers-by to voice any comment, slur, (what they consider as) compliments, invitations, and so on. 

When people, particularly women, experience catcalling, they often report feeling and being aware that a slur might escalate to a physical threat. Thus this problem is often not treated by the victims’ response, who turn to other solutions like trying to ignore unwanted remarks, avoiding certain public spaces at certain hours (like avoiding public transit and turning to costly ride apps, or simply not leaving their homes at night). The problem of street harassment is also not treated because of the lack of legislation, making it more difficult for victims to come forward and complain. 

This lack of safety and self-ownership over a woman’s body in a public space makes it a catalyst to rape culture and a cause of sexual terrorism in society’s public sphere. In order to put a stop to this phenomenon and change the degrading attitude towards women in public spaces, there is a need to respond to catcalling, both as the victim of such and as a bystander noticing it. 

There are countless ways in which victims of street harassment can respond, yet the decision to respond or not lays solely on the victim’s sense of safety and their willingness to do so. Responding to street harassment can be done by repeating what the harasser has done/said and stating it is not okay, documenting the harasser, and engaging bystanders. A response can also be creative. Women who have experienced catcalling share their clever and creative responses such as creating signs, posters, forms, cards, and pamphlets that they hand out to harassers or leave in public places such as public transit or bars. 

Society also has a responsibility as bystanders to street harassment. When noticing someone in your environment experiencing uncomfortable attention, one can engage by asking the victim of the harassment if they are okay or if they know the harasser, directly addressing the harasser and stating that what they are doing is not okay, distracting either the victim or the harasser and ask them a question (such as asking for directions), involve a position of authority for help or ask for the help of other bystanders, or documenting the harasser and share it with the victim.

It is urgent that we make it clear that a woman’s body in a public space, does not turn into public property, allowing all that notice it the permission to comment on it or engage with it as they wish. We must confront this problem both when we experience or notice it in our daily lives and uproot its roots of misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy’s chauvinism. When we treat women as equal members of society, object to discriminating forces, and rise to protect those in need of our help and attention, we can become a more just society that makes public spaces a better place to be in – for everyone.

Sources & Annotated Bibliography

“Street Harassment” article, RAINN, Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. https://www.rainn.org/articles/street-harassment

This article details the unwanted behaviors that are included under the umbrella of street harassment. It explains the effects of street harassment on different issues such as human rights, communities, and financial effects, and provides methods of action or interference for victims and bystanders of street harassment. This article helped me gather information about the different unwanted behaviors victim of street harassment face. This was useful for my project when I was looking to for examples of such behaviors that I will present in a cinematic way.

This article from RAINN is reliable and credible by academic standards because RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

“RESPONDING WHEN YOU’RE STREET HARASSED” article, Hollaback!. https://www.ihollaback.org/responding-to-harassers/

This article educates its readers on the different methods available to confront street harassers. In my creative project, I was looking for a way in which the protagonist of my short film will be able to confront the catcaller she faces on a daily basis. The three steps guide by Hollaback! (trust your instincts, reclaim your space, and practice resilience), provided me with the emotional character development I needed in order to create the protagonist’s character arc.

This article from Hollaback! is reliable and credible by academic standards because Hollaback! is a global movement that aims to end harassment and change the culture that makes harassment acceptable. This organization works in several ways such as collecting and sharing stories of harassment, training individuals and organizations to respond to, intervene in, and heal from harassment, and growing and developing leaders inside the larger movement to end harassment.

“Creative Responses” article, Stop Street Harassment (SSH), https://stopstreetharassment.org/strategies/creative/

This article provides actual documentation of women’s creative responses to street harassment. This source was useful when I was looking to incorporate a creative response to catcalling in my script.

This article from Stop Street Harassment is reliable and credible by academic standards because Stop Street Harassment (SSH) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide. This nonprofit organization operates a national street harassment hotline, offers online resources for public education, contributes academic articles and books about the topic of street harassment, and researches and collects data from surveying the topic. 

Arveda Kissling, Elizabeth, “The Language of Sexual Terrorism“, Discourse & Society, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 4, SPECIAL ISSUE: Women Speaking from Silence (1991), pp. 451-460, Sage Publications, Ltd.

This essay analyzes the social meanings of men’s public harassment of women unknown to them. The essay considers various interpretations of street harassment such as invasion of privacy, the social functions of harassment, and how these functions produce an environment of sexual terrorism. The essay also includes a discussion of the importance of women naming their experiences of street harassment and suggestions for future communication research on the topic. This essay offered my topic a broader perspective on the effects of street harassment on women, the social environment that allows it to exist, and the importance of naming catcalling and empowering women through telling their experiences of it.

This essay is reliable and credible by academic standards because it was written by Elizabeth A Kissling, a scholar of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies at Eastern Washington University. Furthermore, this essay was published in the bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal, Discourse & Society.

Brookbank, Elizabeth, “Talking Back: Women in NYC confront street harassment“, Off Our Backs, September-October 2002, Vol. 32, No. 9/10, pp. 20-24, Off Our Backs, Inc.

In this essay, an activist from the action group Stop Street Harassment is interviewed. She shares the history of the organization, its work in creating a community for women fighting against catcalling, their creative work through theater, and educating cards on the topic of street harassment. She also offers her point of view on the topic. She explains that street harassment is only part of the mechanism of misogyny and sexism. This essay helped me frame my understanding that street harassment is only one component of sexual harassment. These are the violent everyday examples that are reflected through society’s public spaces. This is the effect and not the cause, of misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy. With this understanding, I saw the value of addressing the topic of catcalling through the medium of cinema which can reach larger audiences and make a more personal impact on the viewer.

This essay is reliable and credible by academic standards because it was published in the women’s newsjournal Off Our Backs, an American radical feminist periodical that ran from 1970 to 2008. This newsjournal was supported by a nonprofit organization of the same name.

Post 12: Presentations

Catcalling-PresentationDownload

I chose to focus my final project on the topic of street harassment, also known as catcalling. I chose this topic because as a woman I have to encounter catcallers on nearly a daily basis. From conversations I had with other women and reading about the topic, I came to realize that catcalling is something almost every woman had experienced in her life. In my creative project I created a short no-dialogue film about the topic of catcalling. In my project’s presentation attached, you can find storyboards which guided me while shooting of the film.

Post 10: The Master’s Tools

In her essay, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, Audre Lorde protests the division and separation between feminists in an academic environment. This division of women and overlooking of other women (such as black, lesbian, poor, and third-world women) is being disguised as unity and inclusion.

Lorde challenges white feminists’ agenda of advocating for tolerance. She explains that playing by patriarchal rules of racism and trying to tolerate the difference between women, suggests that these differences are a form of weakness, instead of viewing them as a source of power. Lorde then states that playing by the rules of patriarchy while trying to make change occur, will mean making very little change and staying in the field of patriarchy.

I agree with Lorde’s message that women are “taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation”, playing by the rules dictated by racism, homophobia, and sexism. I also agree with Lorde’s call to come together because “Without community there is no liberation”.

Therefore, I do stand by Lorde’s statement of “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” In order to bring about actual change that fights the forces of patriarchy, we all must play by the rules of feminism. We need to be inclusive and see our differences as a fund of creativity and voices.

However, I disagree with Lorde is when she states that the fact we cannot bring about actual change under patriarchy “is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.” I believe this is threatening all of us – those who proudly call themselves feminists, those who do not yet believe in equality, the white, black, and other feminists of us – we all suffer from the burden and limitations of patriarchy and the difficulty to bring about change, regardless to our acceptance of patriarchy or not.

Furthermore, Lorde calls on white feminists to educate themselves and not rely on the patriarchal rule where “Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educated men as to our existence and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master’s concerns.” I stand by the call for self-education and agree that it is not the black feminist’s role to educate others, but to live by her ideology and fight for the racial and gender equality she deserves. Yet, I know that in order to include as many people as possible in your agenda, one must educate everyone around them. Change is not led by one person, one group, or one idea – it is the sum of joint efforts, minds, and forces that creates actual change. Therefore, we must continue and educate the people around us, demand their self-education, and not give room for ignorance.

Post 9: This Bridge Called My Back

In her poem, The Bridge Poem, Donna Kate Rushin unfolds her tiresome for having to translate and explain different people, ideas, and behaviors to others. She is tired of serving as a bridge between those who do not try to understand one another, but default to her explaining of reality, of injustice, and of separation.

This poem relates to the collection of other essays first by its title and usage of the bridge metaphor. Through the way the bridge metaphor is used in Rushin’s poem, one can easily understand the poetic yet realistic meaning of the book’s title, This Bridge Called My Back. The bridge metaphor in the poem refers to the belonging and lack of it in different groups in one’s society. Like other contributors to this book, Rushin protests having to serve as a bridge to others and demands to first serve as a bridge to herself.

At the end of the poem, Rushin declares that:
“The bridge I must be
Is the bridge to my own power
I must translate
My own fears
Mediate
My own weaknesses
I must be the bridge to nowhere
But my true self
And then I will be useful”

Rushin reaches the conclusion that in order to reclaim her power, her independence, her opinion, and her courage to act for change, she must first connect to herself. Only when she will do so, she will be able to “be useful” to the making of the change she is after, for the mutual understanding that she carries the responsibility to, and to the tolerance she is helping others acknowledge.

Post 7: Black Feminism

In her Ted talk, The Urgency of Intersectionality, Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about how police violence against African American women often gets dismissed and obliviated when the topic of police violence and/or violence against women arise. This is surprising since it should be obvious that black women are being discriminated for both their gender and race. Yet, the reason they and their problems are invisible is because they do not fit one frame. Crenshaw explains that “when facts do not fit with the available frames, people have a difficult time incorporating new facts into their way of thinking about a problem.” The people who are discriminated because of their intersectionality (gender and race), fall through the cracks of recognition. Because of the inability to frame black women in one group that suffers from one problem, it is easier to dismiss, ignore, or simply be oblivious to their problems.

In her poem, Who Said It Was Simple, Audre Lorde also refers to the struggles of intersectionality. She mentions the “many roots to the tree of anger”. The anger of the discrimination on the basis of racism, of sexism, of homophobia and so on. This is the struggle of a queer black woman who does not fight against one sort of discrimination, but the many intersecting ones that limit and dictate her life. Without using the later term ‘intersectionality’, Lorde mention that she “see[s] causes in colour as well as sex”. She explains that the people around her, the white women fighting for equal rights or the black man fighting for civil rights, do not fully accept her in either of these groups. Lorde ends the poem asking herself “which me will survive all these liberations?” Like Crenshaw, Lorde cries for the lack of framing or naming that would help raise awareness to the problems her and people like her experience.

Crenshaw states that “when there’s no name for a problem you can’t see a problem, and when you can’t see a problem you pretty much can’t solve it”. The goals of these black feminists is to first make us see the problem and secondly to name it. Unlike “mainstream” feminism which aims to achieve gender equality through political and legal reform, black feminist aim to bring awareness to the intersecting discriminations against black women. They cannot focus only on gender inequality or solely on racial injustice, but must raise the voices of black women who experience the everyday struggles of both these obstacles.

Post 5: Independent Project Work Plan – Catcalling

In my independent project, I would like to explore the subject of catcalling. I would like to understand how catcalling, often referred to as street harassment, became so common that almost every woman has to experience it, some of us on a daily basis. I would also like to understand how women are coping with and reacting to catcalling.

In order to know more about this topic, I would research academic studies on both street harassment specifically and sexual harassment in general. I assume that people who are intersectionally discriminated against, suffer more from catcalling. Therefore, I would like to read more on intersectionality. Since I would like to create a short film on the topic of catcalling, I would explore how this subject is represented in film, TV, and other forms of media.

Post 4: Intersectional Analysis – James Baldwin

James Baldwin is a novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His intersecting identities of being African-American, homosexual, born into a lower socioeconomic family, and an emigrant caused him to suffer from class and race discrimination, racist and homophobic slurs and violence, and have lesser opportunities compared to white male Americans.

These intersecting identities relate to the power, privilege, and especially equality, Baldwin had fought for through his writing and his contribution to the civil rights movement, the gay liberation movement, and other political movements.

As an African-American spokesman for the civil right movement, Baldwin had a unique role. On one hand, he saw himself as a representative of the community he comes from, and as a speaker of the racial injustice African-Americans have experienced in this country. On the other, he was eloquent and well-read. As such, his could reach white Americans better than his African-American peers protesting for the same cause.

Yet again, being outspoken for civil rights in this country means being a “walking target” for others and putting yourself and your loved ones at risk of physical danger. On top of this, Baldwin could not live freely as a gay man in a homophobic society, where the law does not protect LGBTQ people. Thus Baldwin decides to move to Paris, where he could live more freely without the fear of racial or homophobic violence.

Identity

We are born into an identity – our name, gender, religion, language, and nationality are predetermined by the country, community, and family we belong to. Our personal identity is composed of an inherited identity and a self-curated identity – our family (last) name, our trade (if past through generations), and customs (observing holidays, specific diet – e.g. kosher) are passed on to us from earlier generations. Whereas our self-curated identity is still a result of the influence of society and our socioeconomic status, but it is made of our choices (or our choice to embrace ourselves) such as our occupation, our sexual orientation, our habits (exercising, smoking), etc.

It seems that the clearest and internationally agreed upon as significant identifying characteristics, such as those that appear on one’s passport (e.g. name, gender, and nationality) are assigned at birth. In (some) democratic countries, one can revise those attributions by changing their name, transforming to a different gender than the one assigned to them by their sex, and gaining new citizenship is definitely possible. Yet, the society we live in has the major of control over the identities assigned to us, our ability to revoke them or to attribute other identities to ourselves, especially when those are out of our society’s norms.

The feature image is The Belgian artist, René Magritte’s painting, Son of Man.