Chloe Angyal has been cat-called all over the world. She's been harassed on the streets of Sydney, Paris, Bali, and New York, in the suburbs and on her stoop, near taco trucks and on college campuses. In this edition of Reader Beatdown, Sexist reader and feminist writer Angyal writes that street harassment happens everywhere—and that claiming [...]
In Christopher Hitchens' impassioned defense of the French veil ban, he claims that veils are, in practice, "a ban on the right of all citizens to look one another in the face." Where, oh where, have I heard this dubious "right" to the faces of others claimed before? Oh! Hitchens is channeling the Smile, Baby [...]
In Washington D.C., a great deal of sexual harassment is reported within the city's public transit system. But over in Copenhagen, one Danish bus company is concerned that there may be too few bus-based sexual advances in the city. So, in order to "encourage flirtation, smiles, romance and happiness among the city’s [...]
* Older, but good: Sex blogger Hey Epiphora on why writing about sex is not an invitation for harassment. Of interest to any reader who has ever, ever considered sending a message like this one to his favorite writer:
Dude: horny?
Last week, I asked you whether there are any cities where street harassment dare not rear its ugly head. As many commenters made clear, street harassment isn't about where you are—it's about who you are:
View Larger Map
In regards to yesterday's conversation about where street harassment doesn't happen, Stop Street Harassment offered up its map of reported incidents from around the world. Add your stories here.
Last year, a friend of mine moved from D.C. to Philadelphia. After a year in Philly, she noticed something odd: "I don't get street harassed. At all. Ever." She writes:
A local college student was shot in the ankle over the weekend after she refused to give her phone number to a guy on the street. The student was leaving a party with a group of friends on early Sunday morning when the man shot her for rebuffing his sexual harassment. As she told Fox [...]
* On Holla Back DC, a group of women endure street harassment by teabagger.
Via Heartless Doll, I'm pleased to report that Dear Abby has finally taken on an issue of paramount feminist concern: The etiquette of reacting to the strange man who insists that you smile for him.
Abby, to her credit, suggests that the recipient of the "smile!" command drop the formalities and get the eff away from [...]
