An Important Question About Sexual Harassment on Slugger August 3, 2012
Posted by Garibaldy in Feminism.trackback
Just spotted this on Slugger. Awful video of harassment of a woman out walking in Brussels, and then the question is asked do this happen in Belfast. I suppose we can expand that here to other cities across Ireland. What do people think?
It’s that bad in Dublin. Just the other day a friend of mine was walking down Thomas street – she got grabbed by a man who pulled her close to him and said she should join them. She hit him and shouted at him to leave her alone. A few minutes later, a man was following her making dog noises.
I’ve had a group of men shout obscene sexual things at me and my friends as we walked past them, even more still following us and saying we’re sluts etc. All in broad daylight and while there were crowds all around.
And the minute you show any skin, men just start leering and following and shouting things at you or coming up saying whatever it is they want to say.
Bad to hear.
As a frequent flyer to brussels I can confirm that both slugger and cwr’s coverage of what is outrageous behaviour misses the one main focus of the belgians, namely this is mainly in the immigrant areas. Whether you believe this is valid or not the Belgian do think there is an issue there. Course Belgians ain’t saints either but nobody claims they are. It’s. Unusual or maybe not that neither site felt that an aspect worth reporting.
By the way look at the recent treatment of a french TD and how she was barracked.
I first saw it here!!http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/lifestyle/2012/08/street-harassment-and-power-hard-evidence
Local insight,
I never mentioned anything about immigrants for the simple reason that the idea that this type of harassment is limited to immigrants is not unique to Belgium and is, frankly, bollocks.
Garibaldy,
Thankfully nobody has said its limited to immigrants. It would be indeed bollocks to say that. However thats not what the Belgians are saying. They are saying that the problem seems to be even worse in that immigrant community than elsewhere.
I fundamentally disagree with an approach that refuses to consider that a possibility lest it be considered racism-lite.
If it is worse in those communities then cutting those women loose out of a misguided sense of responsible reporting is deeply flawed. Dont tell the full story lest it lead to wrong conclusions. I know this isnt a news site with self claimed standards of news reporting but you deliberately edited out one of the main focuses of the story.
At the very least the article here and in Slugger could have had the line “The Belgians think this problem is especially bad in immigrant communities but I think thats bollocks”.
I haven’t found it as bad as that in Dublin but it is still an issue. In my experience, leching, catcalls, smart remarks and unwanted compliments are fairly common but men don’t usually make really obscene or derogatory remarks and there’s less of a culture of randomly asking people out than in places like the US where you get chatted up/propositioned in the supermarket. On the other hand, men can get quite aggressive and call you a bitch if you respond to ogling/harrassment by rolling your eyes or shouting something back. I’ve done this when someone’s being really pervy as I don’t think they should be able to get away with it. What I’ve found more threatening is men coming up to me on the street and offering to ‘walk me home’ when I’ve been out at night on my own and being kerbcrawled by creeps looking for prostitutes. Again in my experience, the problem is far worse in places like India or Thailand where I’ve been groped in crowds and followed back to my hotel.