#stopsh

Some issues I feel more confident about writing on than others. This week is the #DemocracySpring movement, and that is something I can easily write about. However, this week is also Stop Street Harassment Week, and it seems to be ignored by most media.

Even independent media. (NPR and HuffingtonPost, however, have done something this week. Kudos to them.)

So, here I am doing what I can to fill the void, even though I am not the best voice. Part of the reason I lean heavily on other people’s ideas.

Like Feminista Jones.

If you don’t know her, she is a writer and activist who started the #YouOKSis hashtag as a reaction to street harassment. Her work is fantastic around this issue. She was also the co-host of After Dark, #TWiBNation’s sex positive show (One show which I don’t listen to on the network.)

If we are to end Street Harassment, then we must understand the dynamics at play here. I can’t do Feminista Jones justice by laying out how society teaches us how men and women behave and how that adds to the problem of street harassment. You are going to have to do that for yourself.

Just know, just because you say hi to someone on the street, they aren’t required to respond. You have no right to demand that they do.

Let’s Stop Street Harassment.