Uncovering the Reality of Street Harassment: A Case Study Analysis
To start with, this is essay about street harassment where this topic will be discussed. Street harassment is a form of sexual harassment that consists of unwanted comments, gestures, honking, catcalling, exposures, and touching by strangers in public areas. The article in Billy Penn, “Street harassment in Philly: Unsafe, uncomfortable and untracked” by Anna Orso depicts the identical argument. Despite decades of attention, legal action, and advocacy, this analysis of data, research, and experience shows that street harassment remains a serious and pervasive problem across all sectors. Recipients include people of all genders, but women are disproportionately victims of harassment by men. Street harassment poses an obstacle to peace and security. Men can't imagine a simple 'Hello' ever feeling like a threat because they don't experience that. If men were catcalled by other (larger) men in isolated areas, they might start to understand how it feels. The woman is remembering all of the instances when these have escalated in the past and trying to think ahead of how she will respond if it does. Just because sometimes it's only a comment like, 'Hello beautiful,' the woman's instincts remember all the times when it was more. Those times also start with some innocuous statement. If she answers back 'Hello,' it's seen by some of these men as encouragement and interest ('Why did you say 'hello' back if you weren't interested?') whereas not answering back whips some of them into a fury of indignation.
Orso’s argument focuses on an important topic, especially for women since there is a high prevalence of street harassment to escalate into sexual violence. Through pathos, she depicts a vivid description of it too. This problem is not only transitional but also transcultural and affects people of all identities and races every day. Though the term “street harassment” has been expressed in innumerable manners such as eve-teasing, one cannot remain oblivious to the harrowing psychological wounds inflicted on several women around the world. There are many ever-lasting effects of street harassment which is noted in Orso’s article too, “Caitlin, a 22-year-old who requested Billy Penn withhold her last name, made it to Broad and Washington and lost the guy. Police never found him. But Caitlin hasn’t forgotten him”. This quote expresses lasting effects which can never be removed from their mind. This leads to more fear among women particularly. It’s not only a woman facing this crisis or women mentioned in the article, many other women who start their journey with a stride only ended in a scurry, many other girls who never even reach their destination in worries of hoots, haulers and heckles are troubled by it too. This crisis is not just about a city but also is known around the world.
“Street harassment” is not considered a crime because as per the article, many people think that women are not assaulted, or they don’t have any physical wounds to prove that it ever actually happened to them. An example for it to not be considered a crime is, “There’s no way to quantify what may not even be illegal: ‘Sometimes it’s just annoying, and sometimes it’s terrifying”. These are words that are deliberately designed to make the readers have strong feelings. The author is able to establish credibility by using a professional tone. She builds ethos as an appeal to make her audience trust her and be cautious about it. In today’s society, seeing is equivalent to believing. We see the scars left on a rape victim and believe she’s undergone trauma, we see the smog settling over our city and believe that air pollution is intensifying, but what about the scars left on a woman’s heart and the smog settled over their brains? The faces of the harassers may have faded, but the words remain echoing in their memory. Women wonder why they no longer feel safe when walking past a group of men or while using public transportation or staying out past dark. It’s like the more they dwell the clearer it becomes. We say that women are freer than ever to make their own decisions about what they do, where they go and who they talk to. Yet we see our fellow mothers, daughters, and sisters going through great lengths to avoid such confrontation. We see them turning up their callers in public, hiding behind a curtain of hair, avoiding eye contact with strangers, and putting bags between them and a passenger on the bus to avoid any sort of physical contact. The question is whether or not women are truly living in a free society where every single choice a girl makes is based upon the possible actions or attitudes of men.
Harassment is such an embedded concept in our community that girls are brought up to expect it and to accept it. A major reason behind this is that our society continuously perceives harassment as a compliment. The biggest difference between harassment and compliments is intent. In reality, a compliment is defined to be an expression of esteem, respect, or admiration whereas street harassment is purely based on appearance or figure of people and hence can’t be said a compliment. Being pestered by strange men in public has warped into a form of romance taking shape in the classic story of ‘boys chase girls.’ Harassers believe that women should appreciate the given remarks about physique, welcoming the critique with an adorned smile and flirtatious behavior. Orso depicts the above scenario too in her article. She writes, “It’s hard when people are like, ‘oh, so somebody just gave you a compliment on the street? Why are you so upset about that?’ she said. ‘It’s like, no. I am afraid of male violence. Like a lot,’’’ (Orso 3). Some even encourage younger boys to objectify girls as ‘a part of growing up,’ a way in which they can discover their masculinity. In turn, men consider this a fun and harmless activity, perhaps a nuisance but nothing more, after all, there is no physical harm being done. However, the reality of the situation is far graver. Sadly, women who choose to stand out against the perpetrators face grim consequences.
I believe that Orso’s argument is strong and could be applied well to other settings. Fear has crippled the ability to fight back. Women often trade their right to freely express themselves for safety. Women still live in ‘a climate of fear and vigilance’ due to street harassment. Even though this a huge problem, women tend to remain silent about the encounters. Today, more than ever, it is critical for teens and women to understand how and why street harassment and assault is wrong, and why they must speak up when it happens. Still they refuse to discuss it with friends or family alike because of being embarrassed about getting into trouble for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The sad truth is more often than not the blame of street harassment is placed upon the victims. Young girls are continuously held accountable by the clothing they wear and the time they’re in public. But why should men consider girls or women as sexual objects, why should women focus on hiding their bodies instead of enjoying their lives? There is no disgrace in being the victim of harassment, but the blame must be placed upon the aggressors.
Despite our modern society we have yet to instill freedom for women in public. Too often we see mothers hindering or prohibiting girls' independence to face the world by herself. This is due to the consequences of being the target of street harassment. Although there are few consequences for boys experiencing street harassment, girls who experience street harassment face a myriad of behavioral, psychological, and academic problems. Girls who are the target of street harassment are more likely to feel embarrassed, anxious, depressed and exhibit externalizing behaviors . A study also found that street harassment victimization makes one feel unsafe in school, emotional distress, substance abuse, and victimization by peers and dating partners. The argument is that women should no longer accept harassment as a part of their daily lifestyle, no longer should their stance in society be based upon the harassers' preference, no longer should they scurry aside but rather stride towards their destination. It is time that women reject this mentality and prove that they have a meaningful contribution to public life. The author believes that street harassment impedes gender equality and must be taken seriously. Because street harassment is often an invisible problem (especially to people in power) and it is dismissed as being a “minor annoyance,” a “joke,” or the fault of the harassed person. Social media was the best way to let the world know about the crisis which they neglected in their everyday lives. The line truly explains the above sentence, “That’s the crux of Jones’ #YouOKSis effort, a social media campaign that aims to encourage people to check with women who are harassed on the street”. It is rightly said that “If you want to make a big difference in your life, focus on the small things: the relationships and the people. It's the tiniest of things that can make the biggest difference in someone's life”.
To sum up street harassment essay, Orso’s argument is well built as it covers information of when street harassment occurs from people’s first experience to their most recent, how street harassment makes people feel and what they do because of it, how it is propelled by a sense of entitlement and disrespect and how they are trying to overcome this case with the help of organizations and men who actually do care about women.
