New Apps Tackle Dating Violence, Street Harassment

by Jarrah Hodge

Back in 2011 Gender Focus contributor Roxanna Bennett reported on YWCA Canada’s Safety Siren app, which gave women and girls a way to use their smart phones to learn about dating violence and easily send an emergency signal if ever in danger.

Now, other Canadian non-profits are adapting our new technology to give young women new, on-the-spot tools to fight violence and harassment.

Toronto non-profit METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children) launched their “Not Your Baby” app last fall after they heard many people saying they didn’t know how to deal with harassment on the spot. The app provides a technological solution to help people as they experience harassment. People using the app select where they are and what kind of harassment they are experiencing and the app pops up helpful suggestions. Users can also submit their own suggestions for how to deal with these kinds of difficult situations.

METRAC Communications Director Andrea Gunraj told me that over 250 people responded to their survey in the lead-up to creating the app: “We found that people had a diversity of responses depending on the context and situation of the harassment. I learned a lot reading peoples’ comments and stories and felt that ideas on dealing with harassment at school were so smart, especially when it’s not easy to make a complaint or the person harassing you is a friend.”

Gunraj is pleased by the media coverage and positive feedback they’ve had so far. Being out there alongside other campaigns like Hollaback! and Stop Street Harassment, Gunraj is optimistic that more people are becoming aware of harassment as an issue, but warns “we have a long way to go before harassment is seen as unacceptable in any space – street, home, work, malls, public transit, and so on. There is still the idea that some people are ‘fair game’ for harassment just by virtue of who they are.”

Another new initiative has come out of BC, where the Ending Violence Association has partnered with Telus on an app for women who are at a high risk of violence. The SOS Response app is being piloted in Prince George, Courtenay, Terrace, Vernon and Surrey. Local assistance programs in those communities are identifying at-risk women and providing them with a phone with the app installed. The app is very simple for a woman in crisis to use. All she has to do is press a button and the phone takes 30 photos in 30 seconds, which are sent to the security monitoring centre along with GPS information.

“The SOS mobile monitored alarm app is an easy-to-use, cost-efficient tool that will increase safety for women across Canada who are fleeing violence,” said Tracy Porteous, Executive Director of EVA BC. “The program is also a great example of community and business working together in the most positive of ways.”

Of course,these kinds of apps aren’t enough in and of themselves. As Gunraj told me about “Not My Baby”, “It’s a simple app and not an end-all solution, but it’s just one way of broadening the dialogue.” If new technology can be leveraged in this way to give useful information and help women and girls feel safer and more empowered in their space, that’s a huge step in the right direction.

Posted on May 18, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism Leave a comment

See a Woman Reading? Leave Her Alone.

by Jessica Critcher

A few months ago, I went to meet with a colleague at his apartment. Since I wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood and I’m paranoid about being late, I budgeted extra time to find the address. It turned out to be easy to find, so I ended up with an hour to myself. Thankfully, a person who likes to read is never bored. I pulled out a book (This book, actually) and prepared to indulge in an hour of reading in a quiet, sunny public park. I barely got through one page before a man started talking to me.

He told me I was cute and asked me if I had a boyfriend. And even after I told him I was married, he just kept talking at me. For the record, I understand that this man was just trying to be friendly, and he probably didn’t mean to annoy me or make me feel weird. But since I felt weird and annoyed, his intentions were irrelevant.

Eventually I pulled out my phone, told him I was running late, and headed on my way. By then I was too upset to properly concentrate on my book. But it wasn’t even about the book in the first place. It was about my personal space, which he ignored. This kind of thing happens all the time.

Whenever I express my frustration about this, someone invariably tells me, “But he was just trying to be friendly/strike up a conversation/learn more about the subject.” Stop. What you are telling me is that the fact that a man wants to talk to is more important (and should therefore be given more consideration) than the fact that I want to be left alone. I should dig deeper and find the good intentions behind why this man interrupted me. I should give this man the benefit of a doubt and take the fact that he bothered me as a compliment. The desires of a stranger are more important than mine.

I had a friend counter my point, saying that she personally likes it when people stop to chat her up while she’s reading. If you like that, good for you! Opportunities for that to happen are plentiful. I happen to detest it and would like it to stop. People usually follow this up by asking how potential partners are supposed to meet each other, as if it’s supposed to check-mate my argument. But that’s not my problem. If you really want to know, check out this piece called “Schrödinger’s Rapist,” which offers some advice on how to approach women without being creepy:

To begin with, you must accept that I set my own risk tolerance. When you approach me, I will begin to evaluate the possibility you will do me harm. That possibility is never 0%. For some women, particularly women who have been victims of violent assaults, any level of risk is unacceptable. Those women do not want to be approached, no matter how nice you are or how much you’d like to date them. Okay? That’s their right. Don’t get pissy about it. Women are under no obligation to hear the sales pitch before deciding they are not in the market to buy.

I like that some people find reading to be an attractive trait. But I don’t read for anyone’s enjoyment but my own. Men of the world, if you see a woman reading a book, eyes darting from line to line, wrapped up in her own universe, leave her alone. She is probably having a moment, and she deserves to have it. Read more

Posted on May 5, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism 15 Comments

Youth Can Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls

Re-posted with permission from the Battered Women’s Support Services Ending Violence blog.

1. Use Social Media-Social media has an empowering effect send articles, with the click of a button, you can spread the word. Youth do not need the mainstream media to voice their views!

2. Report- Report photos that exploit girls and young women when you see them on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram

3. Be media literate and critical-Be critical of what you see otherwise it become normalized and we are desensitized! The media regularly uses images of violence against women and objectifies girls and women to sell products. Women are also objectified in movies, music and magazines. If you see an ad or commercial that is sexist and degrading towards women – write or e-mail the company and don’t by their products. Read more

Posted on April 27, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con, Feminism 2 Comments

FFFF: NYC Women Share Catcalling Experiences

W. Kamau Bell interviews New York City women about their experiences with being street harassed, and while the stories aren’t funny, Bell effectively uses humour to show how ridiculous cat-callers are.

Posted on March 1, 2013 by jarrahpenguin in FFFF Leave a comment

BC Lions Urge Men to “Be More Than a Bystander” to end Violence Against Women

by Jarrah Hodge

When dealing with issues around male violence against women, how do we get messages out to men and boys? The Ending Violence Association of BC is putting part of their focus on having role models speak out, partnering with the BC Lions for the “Be More Than a Bystander” Campaign.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, EVA BC is a provincial umbrella organization that works on behalf of 240 front line programs. They provide support, information on complex cases, training and resource development, and more. The Bystander campaign features BC Lions football players using their status to speak out against domestic violence.

Although some feminists might be leery of men being spokespeople on this issue, it should be noted the campaign is guided by an advisory group of women experts on violence against women.

I did an email interview with EVA BC’s Executive Director Tracy Porteous to learn more about how she thinks the campaign is doing in its second year now.

What gave you the idea to partner with the BC Lions for More Than a Bystander?

I, and many others in the field of violence against women, had long been thinking we needed more men to speak up. I thought we needed sports stars because they were icons and role models to men and boys so we approached the BC Lions…From that first meeting on, the Lions were in and we built this groundbreaking, never-been-done-as-big-anywhere-in-the-world initiative!

The power of this campaign is that we are engaging men in positive ways, not as potential abusers, but as bystanders who see these attitudes every day and who can act as allies, agents for positive change, and who have the power to speak up to prevent violence and to change attitudes. We know that the vast majority of men do not use violence against women and so imagine the difference that can be made if the vast majority of men who don’t commit violence began to be more than bystanders and speak up to the minority that do!

We give bystanders a multitude of options – always with an emphasis on personal safety – in hopes that people will be more likely to respond rather than be silent or passive in the face of abusive or violent situations. Something we want people to take from this campaign is that being a bystander means different things depending on the situation, on whether the perpetrator is known to you or is a stranger, etc. And so we provide ideas something for how to respond in these very different types of situations. Read more

Posted on November 3, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Can-Con Leave a comment

FFFF: Cat Called

If you haven’t seen one of her more recent videos you’ll probably remember Franchesca Ramsey from her awesome videos around Sh*t White Girls Say…To Black Girls. Here’s one of Franchesca imitating some of the guys who cat call her, and it’s pretty hilarious:

Franchesca also asked for women to share their worst catcalls in the YouTube comments and there are some real gems there – both funny and a bit disturbing.

-Jarrah

Posted on July 13, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, FFFF 1 Comment

“Girl, you look gorgeous…but a bit too much like a Muslim.”

by Matilda Branson. Matilda is a passionate feminist currently working as a gender and development consultant with a feminist NGO in Nepal. With a Master in Gender and Development from the University of Melbourne (in Australia, mate), her favourite past times include stalking beach destinations on GoogleEarth (the Himalayas are a long way from the sea), fishing and singing Disney classics.

“Girl, you look gorgeous – but a bit too much like a Muslim.”

These were the words delivered to my white Australian friend by a random man as she was walking down the street in a long skirt, t-shirt and a sweater tied around her head – a little unorthodox, to be sure, but a means by which to protect her delicate complexion from the burning rays of the Australian sun (those rays really, really burn). This man walked up to her, voiced his concerns, and walked away. My friend was outraged but also unwilling to hurl abuse at the stranger in case he did something unexpected.

This is not the first time I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening – it really worries me though – what on earth does this say about Australian society and prevailing attitudes towards Muslims and Islam generally? And even if such views are harboured, who said it was ok to share such beliefs with girls in the street wearing sweaters on their heads? The general outlook is not particularly inspiring.

Such a peculiar but all-too-common occurrence highlighting such attitudes lurking within the Australian psyche makes me think of Spivak’s (1988) sceptical observation on the phenomenon of ‘white men saving brown women from brown men’. Thank goodness that guy saved my friend from her near-Muslim experience.

Rhetoric regarding concern by Western liberators for helpless women from their foreign cultures or religions isn’t a new thing. The colonial French in Algeria were uncharacteristically obsessed with the unveiling of Algerian women (Scott, 2007); the British in India outlawed sati (a religious funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman threw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre (not to say that the dying out of self-immolation customs isn’t a bad thing). From whence (yes, whence) did such attitudes come? From a perceived imperialist responsibility to educate and redeem the ignorant savage and the uncivilised from their own harmful cultural customs?

I suspect that similar attitudes persist in Western societies today, cloaked in new terms, evident in bureaucratic weasel-words referring to ‘harmful cultural practices’ of ‘Other’ cultures on issues of ‘cultural differences’. Didn’t Laura Bush say that ‘the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women’ in Afghanistan?

Post-September 11 I think the cultural ‘Other’ has become synonymous with ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ in popular culture.This is evident in debates surrounding the sartorial hijab, honour killings and female genital mutilation, all of which (of course) centre on women’s bodies, the eternal sites of contests for these debates.

What bothers me, is that this little saviour-victim complex persists to the extent that a stranger thinks they can go up to someone in the street and advise them on the dangers of being too close to that cultural Other.

My point? Next time a stranger admonishes you for dressing too much like a Muslim – deck him.

Posted on April 21, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Racism Leave a comment

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