More Than A Magazine, A Movement
On Saturday, actress Laverne Cox announced that she and a friend had experienced a transphobic attack while walking in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
The attack comes at the end of a year that has proved one of the deadliest on record for trans people, on the streets and in the courts and statehouses.
“As we follow the new norms of social distancing, I find the lack of respect for my boundaries to be even more shocking than usual: Why are men comfortable getting in my face during a pandemic for the sake of a sleazy comment?”
Girls are not prey. Let’s stop encouraging men to be predators.
When surveyed, a poll by Nottingham Trent University found that 93.7 percent of respondents had experienced or street harassment. When the Nottingham police began accepting reports of misogynistic actions as hate crimes, the number of reports skyrocketed.
Laws signal what is okay—and what is not. That’s why laws against street harassment matter, and it’s why new laws in France and the U.S. show promise for a future without public abuse of women.
“Beyond a reasonable doubt” is an important part of our legal system, but we need to make sure this standard of evidence stays in the courtroom—and that our vision for a world without rape, assault and harassment extends beyond it.
They learned how to verbalize their resistance to hecklers and harassers. They learned to submit, punch, kick and fight back against sexual assailants. Most importantly, they learned that they had the right to stand up, speak up and physically claim their own space.
I’ve been downright fat, flabbily average, curvy and 19-percent-body-fat fit. But one thing has never changed: men commenting on my body.
These are only two of countless other stories of women being abused in public, while bystanders look on. In too many places, it is unsafe to be a woman (or a trans or non-binary person). Doing nothing — standing by — is its own violence.
I spoke with Mushkin Goldman on her motivation to curate “Smile!,” a vibrant, multigenerational all-women art exhibition on catcalling, gender performance and objectification of women.
