Street Harassment

Street harassment is any action — physical or verbal — in a public place that makes you feel unwelcome, uncomfortable, threatened, afraid, or just plain creeped out. We're all entitled to move freely from our home to work, to the park, to a friend's house, but street harrassment can make us feel like this isn't true.

Different forms of harassment can be complex. Behaviour that might be inoffensive to one person can be deeply offensive and intimidating to another. It's important that we recognize there are different factors that contribute to each person's experience. For example, sexual orientation, sex and gender identity, race and ethnicity, religion, and all sorts of other cultural codes and signifiers all affect how people imagine they can treat us, and how we ourselves react to that treatment. Women and girls are highly susceptible to sexual harassment. The goal is to know how to identify harassment and what to do about it.

  1. Identify. Identify what street harassment looks like. It can range from leers, whistles, honks, kissing noises, gender-policing, and non-sexually explicit evaluative comments, to more insulting and threatening behavior like vulgar gestures, slurs, sexually charged comments, flashing, and stalking, etc.
  2. Educate. Tell your peers that street harrassment shouldn't be ignored. Explore the issue of street harassment to generate discussions about street harassment and public safety. Public spaces such as restaurants, public transportation, streets, parking lots, and parks are target spaces for street harassment.
  3. Share Your Stories. Use technology, like iHollaback's mobile apps or Harassmap and others like it, to document, identify, and map harassers.
  4. Awareness. Raise awareness online through social media. This is an opportunity to use any mobile or tech-based device. Take a Creative Approach — write a poem and share it on Power Poetry.
  5. Take Action. Figure out what is going on in your community. Get together with friends and write a long poem protesting against street harassment. The poem can take the form a public service announcement or action guide for your community. Other ways to take action is conduct a survey, community safety audit, or create a mapping project to document where street harassment occurs. To Take Action is To Create Safe Space!
  6. Power Poetry. Think about a way to end these traumatic experiences. Write a poem to yourself about how to end street harassment, or even about how you feel. You could write a poem to a friend who experienced street harassment. Think about the ways in which street harassment functions — a means to silence our voices and/or a means for perpetrators to exert power over other people. Submit your poem about Street Harassment to Power Poetry. Encourage your friends and family to write one too. Also, visit the site for more poems on Street Harassment. Let your poem give a form of solution. Your poem will let others know that they are not alone.

Related Poems

cherenetdaniel

It was a sunny friday, i was already late to work and i had nothing to wear but this this pink  top and it had a little tear, it was not to big so i cut of the sides, if only i knew what this would bring i would have stayed inside...

As i walk out of my apartment , i was forced to walk down the infaous road known for harassment all i ever wanted to do was just get to work on time but these vicuois construction workers say i first must pay the fine, they all aprroach me waiting for their chance, " excuse me pretty lady?" " hold on sexy" while one tries to grab my ass, i keep telling my self its almost over and i'm close to the bus stop, i wasn't heart broken until out the corner of my eye i saw a local cop, with a look of content in my eyes i yelled" excuse me officer i need a little help" i told him about all the horrible  things and he said " 'i'm sorry m'am but your brought this on yourself". at the very sound of that i was lost for words and didnt know what he meant,  then he droped his watch and asked for me to pick it so he can watch as i bent, as i began to walk on and play the scene in my mind it hit me like a vision , women get harrased and abused mainly because of supervision, so then i asked my self what if the was more cops would they maybe stop the harrassment forever, well they might not but atleast the public awareness to this injustice is for the better

bilha amagove

Peace reigned until when he knocked,

Knocked without permission and came in,

Ears wide openly had no choice,

"xxxxxxx" "sweatheart dear" -like seriously?

Noise is still pollution- why produce it,

Hinderance still has same name especilly when unwanted,

So why stress on destubing when you not destubed.

Dressings are for self pleasure,

Got a wife and family yet proud to bother?

Get  a life-take a new breath.

Don't want flying kisses on my back,

Don't want funny names on the streets,

Need nothing from you- stranger 

Get focussed for once I don't need stress on my street walk 

Just cause of you

natalie3478

I like routines.

Ya' know, the ones that keep you in line.

They tell you where to go; how to act; who to be.

 

In and out everyday

Like a person practing the same note until they get it just right.

Like a person stroking the same piano key.

 

Wake up, shower, brush my teeth, 

Go to school, go to work, see the same sleaze on my way home.

He hits on me, no suprise; like a person stroking the same piano key.

 

I smile and nod. It's quicker that way.

Funny how accustome you become to things

Funny how you adjust to your own routine.

 

After all, who's he really hurting,

While he's out here whistling at women?

Maybe he has a wife, he tells her he's working. He has a family to feed.

 

Maybe he has a beautiful daughter.

Maybe that's where he learned to stroke his piano keys.

ni5ha98

Submitted by ni5ha98 on

The way that ended...lol. That was an awesome poem. I also think about the men's families when they do it. 

ibrahimsarip

Sky is blue and the cloud is true
No one can protect it,
But only me and you

Rocks are very important to everyone
But all of us breaking it one by one

Grass and Trees help us to breath
but they cut it all
And people experience the flood of death

Even the seas and rivers are polluted
Because the throwing of the garbage is not restricted

Many people will suffer
And will became poor
If they won't stop destroying our land of nature

And if you are against the law of Mother Nature?
Then Mother Nature will destroy all for sure

Germs Her

Submitted by Germs Her on

I know everything

I will never change

Give me advice and I'll think your strange

Listening is not in my book

Even if you show me I won't look 

Everything I say is always right

Never wrong I'll continue this fight

I'm just too strong I'll hold my own light

Don't test me of knowledge

You'll just surely push me to my edge

I know everything

That's why I'm eating alone tonight

Gladly I won't have to share this delight

I don't go to school simply because I'm smart

I don't care if people call me fool I'll check em off my chart

Things aren't so swell now

I've lost my whole crowd

Everyone around me is so ignorant

Why can't they think like me for one moment

Oh wait, I know everything

ashleyservia

I am afraid.

God,

I even stopped going 

Outside.

I stopped when

Mother told me;

"Be careful, dear."

Of what, I asked

So delighted to hear

Enlightening information

That I could spill to my friends.

And so she said,

"Be careful,

Of the monsters that walk

The night."

I didn't know then.

I do now.

You're the monster.

There's even one

Luring in my own home.

They surround me,

Like walls closing in.

So I go nowhere,

Because nowhere is safer than this.

Poems from my_heart

She is a girl,
She is a child to parent,
She is a sister to her brother
She is a wife to her husband,
She is a mother to her child
She is a grandma to us..

Think this, before you tease.

She might be anything to you..
But she is something to her family....

Don't look at her appearance,
See her kindness.

Don't judge her character,
But believe her.

Support the girl,
She is your well-wisher.

She is your achiever.

She has power to destroy you or make you.
But never think she is less than you.
Think before you tease,
Think before you make her cry.

Our Indians are symbols of treating
Women as a Goddess.
Think that...
Keep it in my mind...

I'm proud to be a girl...
Because she is everything.

All Indians are our sisters
All other countries women are our mothers..

Poems from my_heart

She is a girl,
She is a child to parent,
She is a sister to her brother
She is a wife to her husband,
She is a mother to her child
She is a grandma to us..

Think this, before you tease.

She might be anything to you..
But she is something to her family....

Don't look at her appearance,
See her kindness.

Don't judge her character,
But believe her.

Support the girl,
She is your well-wisher.

She is your achiever.

She has power to destroy you or make you.
But never think she is less than you.
Think before you tease,
Think before you make her cry.

Our Indians are symbols of treating
Women as a Goddess.
Think that...
Keep it in my mind...

I'm proud to be a girl...
Because she is everything.

All Indians are our sisters
All other countries women are our mothers..

Poems from my_heart

She is a girl,
She is a child to parent,
She is a sister to her brother
She is a wife to her husband,
She is a mother to her child
She is a grandma to us..

Think this, before you tease.

She might be anything to you..
But she is something to her family....

Don't look at her appearance,
See her kindness.

Don't judge her character,
But believe her.

Support the girl,
She is your well-wisher.

She is your achiever.

She has power to destroy you or make you.
But never think she is less than you.
Think before you tease,
Think before you make her cry.

Our Indians are symbols of treating
Women as a Goddess.
Think that...
Keep it in my mind...

I'm proud to be a girl...
Because she is everything.

All Indians are our sisters
All other countries women are our mothers..

helenaw

Submitted by helenaw on

they may stare, call out, sexualize

my curves, my hips

but I love them

and I still wear jeans that hug them

and I still walk with my natural sway

because this is my body

my curves, my hips, 

and I love them 

20awright

Submitted by 20awright on

Come now pussy cat,

let me show you how to play.

I could do it all day.

With a long rope such as mine 

no one would resist.

Be thankful its me who wants to play.

Come now pussy cat,

why the claws.

Didn't your daddy teach you how to be tame.

So hush and let me show you how pretty you really truly are. 

The way your hair fits your face, 

and the way your ass shakes 

thats enough to cause an earthquake.

Pussy cat. 

I grow impatient

so now I must fight.

Its okay to be shy and afraid 

i'll show you the right way

 

Big boy,

you took away what was really mine

it was not a game

i'd rather die with a fight. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetryislife10

A big part of that is porn in our society. People need to understand that not every girl wants you.

harmm

Submitted by harmm on

I am no more than a piece of body

that you choose to take advantage of

I say no you keep it up

But enough is enough

I am more than a body

I am human

What are you?

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