It’s Spring…

While gender-based street/public harassment occurs year round, it can ramp up in the spring. And hey look, it’s spring …

As some feministing community members may know, but most may not, I maintain an anti-street harassment website with strategies and resources for dealing with/fighting street harassment, and a companion blog with stories from contributors and my commentary on street harassment-related news. Recent stories you may have missed elsewhere but I covered on the blog include Anti-Harassment Day in Egypt (April 18), the one-year report on Boston’s anti-sexual harassment subway campaign , the murder of a woman runner in Vancouver , sexual harassment on the New Delhi metro , and a subway harasser in NY who was recently arrested.

Having personally cowered in the face of harassers for years without knowing where to turn or realizing how widespread the problem is, I hope the website & blog can help you if you’re feeling frustrated/angry/helpless/scared because of street harassment. I hope you can realize you’re not alone in facing this problem, gain strength from reading the stories of others/sharing your story, learn new strategies for dealing with harassers, and gain resources and ideas for becoming an activist on this issue in your community.

Ultimately, street harassment won’t end until the harassers stop, but I hope raising awareness around the issue – especially through our stories – can help us reach that point.

And while I’m already doing a post on this, male allies, this is for you .

(and </shameless self-promotion>)