Claiming Our Space on the Streets

By Loretta Feller

In case anyone still believes that sexual harassment in the street is romantic, complimentary, or an enjoyable experience for women, let me mention that, in addition to countless taunts and degrading comments, I have been grabbed in all parts of my body, spit on, poked in my genital area with sticks, had balloons of urine thrown on me, and been shoved back and forth for what seemed like forever by a group of four men. The harassers were all adult men who were strangers to me. On the occasions when i relate any of these encounters, even the ones in which I have sucessfully fought back against my attacker, or when I listen to the experiences of other women, I always break into a cold sweat and my body shakes until my teeth rattle. I have been accused of encouraging the attacks because I was either too unaware or too aware, because my walk was too feminine or too masculine, because I looked up too much or down too much. I gave up blaming myself, however, when I found that women of all sizes, colors, ages, and demeanors are harassed. The common denominator is that we are all women.

Sexual harassment in the street is a daily reality for women, especially if they live in the city, do not own cars, or if they choose to walk, jog, or ride bicycles. Harassment can occur suddenly at any place or time or it can happen at predesignated locations, such as in front of the National City Bank Building at East Ninth and Euclid during lunch time, or at almost any construction site. The fact that not all men harass women is not disputed, but men as a group have a virtual monopoly on sexual violence. At some time or another, a significant number of men have engaged in this "sport". Why do women have so much trouble establishing and holding their physical boundaries, and why do so many men assume that trespassing on women's boundaries is their prerogative?

Kate Millett has pointed out in her book Sexual Politics that women are trained to be harmless through socialization. When assaulted, women have almost always been defenseless by virtue of their physical and emotional training., The look of shock on a man's face when a woman defends herself is testimony to the extent to which he assumed she would not do so.

Boys and girls soon absorb without question the romantic myths about their respective models, the "real man" and the "real woman". While the "real man" gains his stature through active personal qualities of strength, courage, and daring, the "real women" acquires her title through her passive physical attributes and through her sexual relationship with a man. Once active and passive roles have been internalized by men and women, the imbalance in their self-concepts further distorts physical as well as perceptual boundaries between the sexes. Men's roles become those of aggressor/possessor/controller, while women's roles are victim/possession/object.

The view of women as property or territory to be conquered is never more evident than in street harassment. A woman must belong to a man in a particular way-wife, sister, daughter, mother-and she must be accompanied by that man; otherwise, many men consider her the property of all men. On the street, it is open season on women. The word "harass", in fact, comes from the Old French "harer," meaning "to set a dog on". The unaccompanied woman appears as fair game and, as such, is literally up for grabs.

Competitive sports and war, both traditionally male domains, provide a further context within which men are encouraged to view their bodies not just as tools, but as actual weapons for establishing boundaries and conquering territories. Warren Far-

rells notes in his book The Liberated Man that football vocabulary, when not interchangeable with that of war, can be exchanged with that of sex ("getting into the hole," "thrusting," and "deep penetration"). While a woman's territory remains internal, expanding no further than the confines of her own body, a man's ter ory will encompass all the space he can claim. Traditional sitting postures, for example, have men sitting with their legs apart and their arms out, while women are obliged to press their knees together and fold their hands in their laps. In societies in which men's value systems have predominated, feelings of violence are often linked with sexuality as well as with power, a fact to which the current proliferation of rape and pornography depicting mutilation of women will attest. Men who absorb this mentality view aggressive actions against women as ways to prove their masculinity.

In Women and Madness, Phyllis Chessler postulates that a war between the sexes already exists, but women take losing as much for granted as men do winning. She says that only when women question or change what they take for granted does the vision of the sex war we are already waging become clearer. As I sat down to consider where we might start to deal with a problem as widespread and pervasive as sexual harassment of women, my phone rang. It was a friend calling to say that she had dislocated her ankle running from a group of men who had pursued her and harassed her from their car when they saw her waiting for her bus by Cleveland State University. Since she does not have a car, she fears that she cannot safely continue to attend events after 'dark (which begins at 5:00 p.m. in the winter). At that point, I realized why the Take Back the Night Committee had made the Rapid Transit Authority (RTA) its priority target by demanding safe public transportation. In fact, Andrea Dworkin pointed out at the Take Back the Night march this year that freedom of

offender purposely compels the other person to submit to the touching by force or threat of force. Chapter 2903 prohibits "menacing", causing another person to believe the offender will cause physical harm, and "assault", causing or attempting to cause physical harm. These are both misdemeanors. The prosecutor will decide which law is most appropriate to use to make the charge stick. To have a warrant served under these laws, however, one needs the name and address of the offender, which is almost impossible in cases of street harassment. Further, without witnesses, such cases are hard to prove.

Laws are of little help unless we have better police visibility and enforcement. We need to challenge the police department to take positive steps to deal with sexual harassment and the widespread victimization of women. First, they must recruit more women police officers. Second, current police officers should receive training on issues of sexism and racism (as the problems have many parallels). Third, more officers should be assigned to areas in which more attacks occur. And fourth, decentralized neighborhood police centers should be established in which the officers may become more familiar with their area and will be accountable to neighborhood police review groups.

Not all the responsibility for ending sexual harassment lies with law enforcement officials. Women and men both need to work on changing their destructive assumptions. Men need to examine their behavior and encourage each other to find new ways of relating to women. Women, as individuals, must learn to defend themselves in order to avoid panic and recognize quickly what options of defense and escape are available at the moment of attack. Self defense courses should be more widely available in adult education classes and should be part of high school girls' physical education curriculum..

Women also need to explore ways in which they can help each other when the need arises. A group of

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movement is so basic a human right that, without it, other freedoms lose practical significance. We need to support groups such as Take Back the Night and the Rape Crisis Center which are exploring issues, actions, and solutions to the attacks aimed at women. We have laws which address the issue of sexual harassment, but they offer little as deterrents. Under Chapter 2907 of the Ohio Revised Code, "sexual imposition" (a misdemeanor) prohibits touching when the offender knows it is offensive to the other person or is reckless in that regard. "Gross sexual imposi tion" (a felony) prohibits sexual touching when the

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six women once saw me struggling with a man who had grabbed at me. They called across the street to ask what was wrong. When I shouted back the problem, they all charged across the street to help. I never saw a man run faster. Some of his assumptions may have changed, too.

As women, we must learn that we have a basic right to use public transportation, walk, jog, or ride bicycles without constant fear of harassment and attack. We are rebelling and must continue to rebel against our victimization. To live freely, we must claim the space we need to move freely.

October, 1980/What She Wants/Page7