Earlier this month, women and men
across the globe commemorated International Anti-Street Harassment Week.
Whether it was through tweetchats, webinars, self-defense classes, sidewalk
chalking, leaflet campaigns, or numerous other activities, Anti-Street Harassment
Week marked the raising of the world’s consciousness against street harassment,
an insidious form of sexism that is too often ignored by society.
Now that Anti-Street Harassment
Week is over, those of us who understand the negative implications of street
harassment and want to eradicate it for good face a dilemma: what do we do now?
What can and should we do to keep up awareness and fight against this social
phenomenon during the rest of the year?
I believe that it is imperative
not to lose the momentum that we gained during Anti-Street Harassment Week. We
can’t just throw out our leftover leaflets and stop going to those self-defense
classes we signed up for. Everything we did and all the gains we made will have
all been for nothing if we let activism fall to the wayside and ignore the
pressing need for eliminating street harassment.
We also have to continue to
schedule events like sidewalk chalkings and Take Back the Nights. Although it’s
certainly easier to encourage attendance and participation during a week
dedicated to awareness of street harassment, it’s imperative that we organize
them anyway. After all, street harassment happens every day, and its victims
are just as horrified by it during Anti-Street Harassment Week as during the
rest of the year.
Another thing that we, as
activists, must do is to talk about street harassment and share our stories
about it. The most effective way to raise awareness on any issue is to speak
with our best friends and grandfathers and third cousins and hairdressers and people
we see once in a while in the dog park about it. That way, we spread knowledge
of this issue as far and wide as we can. Many people who have experienced
street harassment don’t even know that it has a name, and are therefore
incapable of recognizing the extent of how problematic it is. Once we’ve raised
the consciousness of those who have suffered at the hands of street harassment,
we’ve got ourselves a veritable army of women and men who want to make the
streets a safe place for every individual. I truly cannot wait until this day
arrives.
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