Street Harassment

Street harassment—unwanted comments, gestures or acts directed at someone in a public space—is unfortunately a common experience for women across the globe. Yet this behavior is often not taken seriously. Here at Ms., we recognize that street harassment is a real and dangerous form of gender-based violence.

Against Bystanding

PUBLISHED 9/27/2016 by

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.

Liberating Words: “I Did Not Ask”

PUBLISHED 4/29/2016 by

The poems contained in this series, “Liberating Words,” came out of an interdisciplinary course for high school juniors at The Winsor School, an all-girls school in Boston. The course, “The Personal Is Political:  An Interdisciplinary Look at Feminism,” is co-taught by Libby Parsley, a history teacher, and Susanna Ryan, an English teacher. The second unit of the […]

6 Places to Celebrate International Anti-Street Harassment Week

PUBLISHED 4/6/2016 by

From the age of five, gender-based street harassment has been an undercurrent in my life—even on my wedding day last year. I was in a grocery store parking lot when two men told me I looked beautiful, then immediately escalated into sexually explicit comments about my body, making me feel dirty and humiliated. I am […]

Women Aren’t Here to Smile for You

PUBLISHED 9/11/2015 by

Serena Williams, the winner of 21 Grand Slam titles and arguably the greatest living female athlete, was understandably exhausted after defeating her sister and best friend Venus Williams in the U.S. Open earlier this week. So she wasn’t having it when, during a post-match press conference on Tuesday, a reporter had the gall to ask […]

We Heart: Catcalling Your Mom to End Street Harassment

PUBLISHED 1/27/2015 by

Here’s one way to stop street harassers in their tracks: Trick them into catcalling their own mothers—then watch the mama-rage rain down. That’s the premise of an anti-street-harassment campaign out of Lima, Peru. The video below, first posted on YouTube in Spanish in November (and subtitled in English earlier this month), shows a team tracking […]