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An Open Letter from the STREET HARASSMENT PROJECT To those who responded to the Indymedia article on our May 11 "Counter-Harassment Party" and all other interested people... Some of the readers of Indymedia seem to find our tactics in combating street harassment shocking--what we find shocking is the amount of violence against women by men that is taken for granted as "normal" in our society. The statistics are clear: 1 in 4 women raped, 1/2 of all women experiencing violence in intimate relationships, so many of us murdered by the men inour lives. All women are affected by the climate of intimidation this constant violence against us creates. 'But wait', you may say, 'street harassment may be verbal assault, but it is not physical'. From the stories that women send us and from our own experience, we do not find this to be the case. The lack of a clear demarcation between verbal and physical assault was illustrated very well by the Central Park attacks on June 11, 2000 in which over 56 women were stripped and fondled by a large crowd of men who had first doused them with water and verbally harassed them. This event did not take place in a vacuum, but was an extension of what goes on every day in the streets. We have received stories from, or heard about, women who have been touched, picked up bodily and in one case thrown on a subway track by a harasser who was rebuffed. This is why we know that street harassment is part of a continuum of violence that includes rape and assault. Street harassment consists of our boundaries being breached by male strangers who purposely stand too close, speak to us in too intimate a language, publicly comment on our bodies, block our paths or touch us. When we inform these men that we do not appreciate their "compliments" the hostility behind these comments reveals itself. We become "bitches" or worse, and the body language of the harasser becomes threatening--it is scary and sometimes leads to actual violence. This makes it quite clear that the 'tradition' of street harassment is propped up by the threat of force against women. Women experience this kind of intimidation multiple times daily and many have described it to us as a kind of "torment". As in rape, the problem of street harassment is part of how women are seen in sexist society: not as people whose boundaries need be respected but as a walking-around service class whose function is to fuel male fantasy, entertainment and sexual needs--and on whom it is always open season. When we confront harassers one on one, the men often have the upper hand--not only because as the aggressors they may take us by surprise, not only because they are usually bigger, but because they implicitly carry the full force of the patriarchy with them--the confidence that comes from centuries of permission--and social backing--to do to women whatever they can get away with. Yet when we do the ONLY thing that can put us on an even playing field--confronting harassers as a group--we are told that WE are being the "bullies". So our choice, according to the 'wisdom' of those of your male readers who thus accused us (and who do NOT have to live with this threat) is to grin and bear it or else risk being seen as the 'bad guys'. This is classic oppressor doubletalk: those who fight back are labeled terrorists, uppity, bullies, etc. Alot of these leftist men support the right of the underdog to fight back when it comes to the Palestinians against the Israelis or the Zapatistas against the Mexican ruling class, but God forbid it should be women fighting back against men. Then we are being oh so unreasonable. We were disgusted but not surprised at the many other really nasty responses--targetting not only our members but the women who emailed applauding our action (and we thank all of the women--and men--who did). These included racist imagery, rape threats and a photo-shop pornographic rendering of one of the participants in the action holding a penis. This felt eerily familiar to some of us--history repeating itself. Over the past 30 years feminists have discovered many times that men on the left can be engaged in as sexist and violent a backlash toward women as men on the right. This has been going on from the very beginning: in 1968 at the Counter-Inaugural antiwar demo, when author/activist Shulamith Firestone made a speech about women's oppression, some men in the audience responded by yelling: "Fuck her! Take her off the stage and rape her." Nor is the attempt to keep powerful women 'in their place' by appropriating their images into pornography, a� new phenomenon. We were reminded of a similar incident in the 70's when the faces of Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug were superimposed onto pornographic scenes and shown on the pages of Hustler magazine as an expression of the anti-feminism of the editors. That such woman-hatred is surfacing again proves our point about the persistence of sexism--and will probably encourage more women to join us--so thanks fellas for helping us to build a strong feminist movement! We will not be deterred by any of this--just as earlier feminists were not. Had they been we would never have gained the right to vote, legalized abortion, laws against unequal pay and so much more. (Interestingly, our leftist "brothers" attack us as these very gains are under such ferocious attack by the Bush/Ashcroft rightwing gang.) It is necessary for women to continue to organize for our rights--and the Street Harassment Project is proud to be doing our part. The fact that we are filling a real need is proven by the steady outpouring of emails we recieve from all over this country--as well as from around the world--thanking us for calling attention to, and fighting back against this problem. And for us, THAT is what counts! Saturday's Counter-Harassment Party was a huge success, with many women feeling for the first time that through the solidarity of other women we do not have to be powerless in the face of street harassment. Three 'teams' went out that day--to Chelsea, the Lower East Side and and the West Village--we chose to remain close to Bluestockings--site of our pre-party teach-in and after-party report-back--for convenience' sake on that day but we intend to have many more such events in different locations. Our members live in all parts of the city and we are in contact with women of many communities, so expect to see us in the other boroughs soon. It is obvious that harassment will not stop until there is a 'consequence' for doing it and that is why we need to spread these tactics (note that we were not violent toward anyone--we simply projected the message that we are not such easy targets). We say in our mission statement that we want to "make the harassment of women a NOT rewarding and NOT pleasant experience for harassers" and that our aim is to "create an atmosphere in which street harassment is entirely socially unacceptable". We will continue to work toward these goals. And--we intend to have alot of fun doing it! We call on all women to join us and all men to support us. The Street Harassment Project