[link] Street harassment, in 1906 and now
From amptoons:
Jack at Ethics Alarms quotes Emily Moss’ A Letter To The Guy Who Harassed Me Outside The Bar (which I linked to last week). Jack comments:
The amazing thing is that this kind of ritual harassment would vanish with some slight behavioral additions to our culture, many of which once were the norm…
Too many people think that a return to old-fashioned norms would mean that women wouldn’t be subject to street harassment anymore.
Via Pharyngula, a fascinating article in The Believer about an incident in 1906, when opera singer Ernie Caruso was put on trial for allegedly rubbing up against women at the zoo.
When a man wrote in to the New York Times to say he had never seen any improper treatment of women in public places in New York, numerous women quickly responded with assertions to the contrary. Typical were letters claiming that inappropriate behavior by well-dressed men was far from unusual and praising the police prosecution of the case. According to one letter about harassment on elevated trains, “these detestable practices do not seem to be confined to any particular line of cars nor any one class of men.”
So just like now, in 1906 women on the street were being hassled by roachbags. Just like now, some people (mainly men) claimed that no, it didn’t happen, or if it did happen then it wasn’t so bad.
And just like now, the victims were blamed. Caruso’s defenders claimed that the women had led Caruso on with their slutty lady eye glances.
[Read the rest: amptoons]
Related:
- [link] Street harassers never say… (feimineach.com)
- [link] The Daily Mail claims that “we” secretly love street harassment (feimineach.com)
- Stop street harassment with your cell phone? The latest City 2.0 award winner shows how (ted.com)
- Why women are #Shoutingback… (hollypeacock.com)
- Shouting back: how women are fighting street harassment (guardian.co.uk)
- ‘Safe city pledges’ (shakhti.wordpress.com)
- This will sound familiar… (freethoughtblogs.com)
