Street Harassment: Getting the Message

FemPubWorks
Anna Kegler, Deputy Director of Feminist Public Works and HollabackPHILLY and founder of the Feminist Messaging Project, wrote an excellent piece for the Huffington Post about effective messaging for social change. This methodology and research were used to maximize the impact of our current public transit ad campaign. An excerpt of the piece is below, but click through to read the whole article!
The following ads give examples of harassing statements, and pointedly shift the responsibility to respond from the victim to the bystander:
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Some of the ads focus on calling out a stranger on their behavior or giving support to a victim after the fact, while others focus on how we can react when those closest to us -- our friends -- are engaging in harassing behaviors. All of these ways of intervening are powerful and important. If we want to see social change around street harassment, we need to start building up social pressure both out in public among strangers, and privately within our inner circles. This means it's time to start stepping in when we see harassment happening, because simply being a person who doesn't harass is not good enough. According to the principle of social proof, our silence when we see harassment happening to others is easily read as acceptance, and reinforces in the harasser's mind (as well as others witnessing the behavior) that the harassment is socially acceptable. The shift from individual responsibility to a community sense of responsibility is commonly known as a bystander intervention approach, which has become a gold standard for gender-based violence prevention. Viewing the problem of street harassment as a shared responsibility is a revolutionary shift, not only because our culture emphasizes individuality at every turn, but because this shift puts the focus squarely on the harasser. If we're active bystanders, ready to intervene, it's because we see someone (the harasser) doing something wrong. What the victim is doing or wearing is not even part of the equation.
The full post is available here.

Anti Street Harassment Week 2014

FemPubWorks
International Anti Street Harassment Week (#EndSHWeek) 2014 is March 30 – April 5th. For a list of actions planned by organizations all around the world, see Meet Us On the Street. If you’re in Philadelphia, keep an eye out for our expanded SEPTA ad campaign, launching this week! Please also join us for an amazing Get Lucid! dance party on April 5th, to benefit HollabackPHILLY‘s anti street harassment efforts (). And, not officially affiliated with HollabackPHILLY, but completely on-point for this feminist themed week, check out the South Philly "Daughters of Riot Grrrl" exhibit!
  • Alien She (exhibit): Vox Populi, 319 N. 11th St., noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. 215-238-1236 or www.voxpopuligallery.org. Through April 27
We have been joining with local activists, organizations, and community members in April for the past three years to bring attention to the problem of street harassment in Philadelphia. To see photos and videos from these events, click here.

2014 SEPTA Ad Campaign Launched!

FemPubWorks

On April 1, 2014, HollabackPHILLY (a project of Feminist Public Works) launched a transit ad campaign in the city of Philadelphia to increase public understanding of the problem of street harassment. Our 2014 campaign includes subway car interior ads, subway station ads, and bus shelters. The campaign’s messages are designed to familiarize the public with the term “street harassment” (gender-based harassment by strangers in public spaces) and define it as a solvable problem, as opposed to an inevitable “fact of life.” Sexual harassment in the workplace used to be commonly accepted, but that is no longer the case. We hope to see street harassment follow the same path of being recognized as a problem through increased awareness, public conversations, and bystander intervention. We would love to hear your feedback on this campaign via a brief 3-minute survey: We also invite you to leave your thoughts and reactions to the advertisements on our , and if you see our ads out in the world, take a picture and tag us on /. Join us in spreading the word and talking about ways to change the culture surrounding street harassment. Want to know what we were thinking when we decided to publish the “In a perfect world” ad? Check out the post about our creative process here. This campaign is a significant expansion of the small 6-advertisement pilot campaign that HollabackPHILLY launched on April 1st, 2013 in the Philadelphia subway system.
Though small, the 2013 pilot campaign quickly went viral online and attracted significant press:
On April 13, 2013, Philadelphia organizations and community members participated in International Anti-Street Harassment Week. The day consisted of sidewalk chalking, discussing the ad campaign with subway riders, and a debrief in LOVE Park.  

HollabackPHILLY’s 2013 SEPTA ad campaign finalist for Avon Communications Award

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We are proud to announce that HollabackPHILLY (a project of Feminist Public Works) was selected as a finalist for the 3rd annual Avon Communications Awards: Speaking Out About Violence Against Women for its outstanding work on an anti-street harassment campaign to bring attention to the need to end violence against women.

A finalist in the Innovative Campaign Award category, HollabackPHILLY is one of 20 global organizations to be chosen as a finalist for the prestigious awards, which recognize outstanding communications campaigns that are helping change communities, policies, institutions and behaviors to end violence against women. The five winning organizations will be chosen by an expert panel of judges and announced at the end of March. Each will receive a US $5,000 grant from the Avon Foundation for Women to fund the continuation of their work. Our SEPTA ad campaign last year, while small, garnered significant attention both on- and off-line. The full slideshow of the ads (below), includes the full 2013 campaign which ran inside Philadelphia subway cars on the Market Frankford and Broad Street lines:

This is street harassment (2013)

This is street harassment (2013)
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Hey Sexy Hey Baby THIS IS STREET HARASSMENT Lookin' Good Mmm Look at you Look at those legs THIS IS STREET HARASSMENT Hey, you a man or a woman? You a dyke? THIS IS STREET HARASSMENT Can I have a smile What's your name You got a boyfriend Where are you going Come Here Let me get at you Oh you're ugly anyway THIS IS STREET HARASSMENT

As a result of the success of this small pilot campaign, HollabackPHILLY is currently preparing to launch an expanded ad campaign in April 2014, with ads in subway cars, on platforms in subway stations, and in bus shelters. The top finalists were selected from more than 870 submissions to the Communications X-Change by 303 organizations in 78 countries, ranging from Albania to Nicaragua to Vietnam. The Communications X-Change is a digital global communications library that enables organizations and advocates throughout the world to find, share, and learn from the best communications material focused on ending violence against women and children. The Communications X-Change was developed and is managed by Futures Without Violence and funded by the Avon Foundation. “The Avon Communications Awards are casting a spotlight on issues that affect one in three women across the globe,” said Carol Kurzig, Avon Foundation for Women President. “Communication and education are critical elements to ignite bystanders into action, and without public awareness and education, bystanders often do not intervene to help in abusive situations. We congratulate them on their selection as a finalist from a very competitive selection process with so many outstanding entries.” “We commend HollabackPHILLY for their innovative use of communications to prevent and ultimately end violence against women and children in every corner of the world,” said Esta Soler, Futures Without Violence President and Founder. “Since the launch of the Communications X-Change, we’ve been continually impressed by the creativity and caliber of the submissions. These campaigns are an inspiration to the violence prevention community across the globe and a catalyst for change.” Click here to see the full press release. The finalists and descriptions of awards are included below: INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN AWARD: The Innovative Campaign Award recognizes innovative and original approaches to presenting messages about ending violence against women and girls through the best information technology, including mobile technology. BREAK THE SILENCE AWARD The Break the Silence Award recognizes communications campaigns that effectively encourage people to step in to help or speak out against violence against women to promote a shift in attitudes or practices at the individual, family or community level. COMMUNITY CHANGE AWARD The Community Change Award recognizes campaigns on ending violence against women and girls that involve the participation of both women and men, or girls and boys, to develop solutions to violence and discrimination against women and girls. OUTSTANDING GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION AWARD The X-Change Award for Outstanding Government Communication recognizes a Government or its responsible Ministry or Department, whether national, regional or local, for communications efforts and campaigns to end violence against women and girls.  It highlights the essential role that Governments play to end discrimination and violence against women and girls. GLOBAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATION The Global Award for Excellence in Communication recognizes a campaign from an international NGO in the violence against women arena that is global, multi-year, and creates approaches and messages that may be easily adapted in other countries. To view the 20 finalists’ campaigns and other educational information about gender-based violence, please visit:     

Geeks for CONsent Launches

FemPubWorks

Harassment at comic conventions is major problem, particularly affecting cosplayers, who have shared experiences of inappropriate comments, upskirt photos, groping, and other harassing behaviors by other con-goers. Geeks For CONsent, a project of Feminist Public Works, is actively reaching out to comic conventions to work with them in addressing this harassment problem by putting policies in place and training volunteers. Geeks for CONsent is also collecting harassment stories to demonstrate the extent and impact of the issue.

In 2014, anti-harassment teams will be visiting a number of cons throughout the U.S., including Awesome Con in April, and San Diego Comic Con in July. In 2013, our anti-harassment teams attended a number of cons, including the following:
Our efforts are getting significant press, including MTV Act and CNN iReport. Geek culture has been becoming more popular in recent years, and we are thrilled to see mainstream media starting to pay attention to the problem of harassment at comic cons. For more information on our comic con anti-harassment efforts, visit us at GeeksForCONsent. For a copy of our comic book, a limited edition print, or other great comic-related gear, check out our Etsy store. 100% of the proceeds go back into programming, including youth workshops, public service advertisements, research and community events!
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