(Long Overdue) Event Recap: SlutwalkPhilly, October 20, 2012

On October 20, 2012, starting at Clark Park in West Philadelphia at 11am, people marched to Love Park in support of and solidarity with survivors of sexual assault, and marched against rape culture. There were some great speeches, and an overall feeling of solidarity and empowerment that accompanied the day’s event. HollabackPHILLY had a table at the event and collected survivor stories, to help give a voice to their reality similar to our efforts against street harassment.

STAY TUNED: The stories will be posted in a separate post soon with photographs of the original written stories! Thank you to all the brave survivors who are speaking out, helping us take down rape culture one brick, and story, at a time!

Below are HollabackPHILLY’s LiveTweet recaps:

20 OctHollabackPhilly Don’t forget! @slutwalkphilly 11am today at Clark Park, march to Love Park, w/ meet up spot half way at 31st and Market http://ow.ly/eB31O

20 OctHollabackPhilly Survivor story at @slutwalkphilly. Now male ally talking about male integrity and respect. #vaw

20 OctHollabackPhilly ‏ HollabackPhilly spreading the word against #streetharassment at Love Park. @SlutwalkPhilly speeches now. pic.twitter.com/MmAw7Lxj

11:49 AM – 20 Oct 12 ·

20 OctHollabackPhilly ‏ Despite the criticisms, Philadelphians gathered here in love park demanding respect & creating safe spaces to share our stories warms my <3.

HollabackPHILLY Joins Various UN Affiliated Organizations for February 19 Day of Action

On February 19 we will reach out to local legislators in an attempt to collaborate on ways to make Philadelphia a safer place, one that is less permissive of gender-based violence.

Check out the other global organizations and their commitments to partnering with legislators and policy makers to better their communities! View the map here.

Delhi and Beyond: Concrete Action for Safer Cities

On Tuesday, February 19, we (the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International, Women and Habitat Network Latin America, Jagori, GROOTS International, ICWIF and FEMUM-ALC) are calling upon feminist organizations and grassroots women’s groups to participate in a global day of action, Delhi and Beyond: Concrete Actions for Safer Cities. On this day, women and local authorities will jointly sign agreements identifying a concrete action they will advance to make their city safer for women and girls.

Sara’s Story: “How typical of them to turn on me when they didn’t get the reaction they wanted…”

A few years ago, i was on my way to a friend’s house one night and decided to stop at 7-11 on the way there. As i was getting out of my car, a car full of about 4 or five guys was pulling out of the parking lot when they stopped to whistle and yell things like ‘hey baby!’ and ‘lookin really fucking good girl’ at me. They were actually even barking at me. Never being OK with this kind of thing, i instinctively responded with a nice loud “FUCK YOU!” at which point, they turned on me, and said ‘too bad you don’t have an ass to go with the rest of you!’ (i’ve got a big chest, but not much happening in the back, and i’ve always been self-conscious about it.) i stopped walking towards the door of the 7-11 and headed towards their car instead. They laughed and sped off before i reached them. Don’t know what my plan was when i got there, was just running on anger. How typical of them to turn on me when they didn’t get the reaction they wanted, and insult me instead. Fuck those guys.

Review: Chrome’s Jailbreak the Patriarchy Extension

We have had this link sitting in our queue since December 13, 2012, to try out and post for you all, but never got around to it. Then, @MorganZalot sent it to us on Twitter and reminded us about our intended post! Thanks for the reminder. Without further ado - Chrome Extension: Jailbreak the Matriarchy Review.

*Edit: the function also changed things I was typing in this post, messing up the meaning of some sentences and overall confusing the review, since it was specifically discussing the gender references; maybe because of the auto-save process? But – if you are going to try this, be sure to turn it off when drafting anything in programs other than GMail, which is immune.

As I’m sitting here typing this post, the “preview” function shows the blog title as “Chrome: Jailbreak the Patriarchy Extension”. Also – I installed this last night on one computer, and am using an entirely different computer this morning, and the extension is still active (thanks to everything traveling with my Google login, I imagine). My overall impression, and I may just be reading the wrong websites, is that the extension doesn’t create many revolutionary moments for me, but that the extension regenders everything is some pretty impressive coding – it has literally regendered every gendered word on every website I’ve visited other than GMail (e.g. heroine to hero, Goddess to God, and the obvious she to he, her to him, etc.).

Some Twitter examples:

Top Conservative Cat ‏@TeaPartyCat
Mitt Romney said “I’m not going away.” And after he called 43 reporters, one of them finally posted it.
Retweeted by Alan Rosenblatt
8hAlan Rosenblatt ‏@DrDigiPol
RT @TeaPartyCat Now that Sarah Palin is off Fox News, she can finally devote herself full time to curing cancer.

in a woman’s world

I am a man by birth
and after nineteen times around I have found
they will stop at nothing once they know what you are worth
talk to me now

I said she’s so sweet

Make him wanna lick the rapper

So I let him lick the rapper
Shawty said l-l-lick like a lollipop

He said l-l-lick like a lollipop

Shawty said l-l-like a lollipop

He said like a lollipop
Shawty wanna thug

Bottles in the club

Shawty wanna hump

And oh I like to touch ya lovely gentlemanly lumps.

If you’re havin’ boy problems i feel bad for you daughter
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one

I got the rap patrol on the gat patrol
Foes that wanna make sure my casket’s closed
Rap critics they say she’s “Money Cash Hoes”
I’m from the hood stupid, what type of facts are those

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Rachel’s Story: A man hit her daughter with his car to try to get her to willingly leave with him.

This is about an event that happened to my daughter several years ago. She was about 16 or 17 years old at the time. She was a student at Franklin Learning Center on 16th Street. Her walk to and from school was relatively short and during times of the day I felt were safe-ish. I would have preferred to never leave her alone. Anyway, as she was walking home crossing the intersection a man in a car slowed down as if to let her pass. But rather than stopping he very slowly hit her with his vehicle and knocked her down. She judged that he should have been able to stop and felt strongly that he’d intentionally hit her with just enough force to knock her down. Then he got out of the car with many profuse apologies and expressions of deep concern. He repeatedly offered to drive her home or to a hospital or where-ever she needed to go. She instinctively felt that his plan all along was to get her into his car and then… who knows what? She was smart enough to refuse a ride and hobbled the rest of the way home. She had a huge bruise on her thigh. I was very alarmed. We reported it to police. But nothing ever came of it. I imagine this criminal has continued to use the same tactic to lure other girls and women into his vehicle.

Niki’s Story: When her street harassing stalker escalated to physical violence, she had to involve the police and court system for protection.

I had just adopted a dog and was house training her so we went on frequent walks around where my apartment area. I would pass this creepy guy who would say ‘hi, pretty girl’ to me all the time while licking his lips at me in the MOST disgusting way! I mostly had my headphones on so I would just ignore the idiot and keep walking. (I am used to having to ignore these hormonal morons on the street as I walk everywhere in the city and feel like I have no choice.) I typically walk fast when I walk my dog or else she pulls on the leash. Many times he tried to get me to stop and talk to him which was not on my agenda and I would simply keep walking, not looking back even though I could hear him yelling at me. Several times after this I took different routes to avoid the guy, but he was just across an alley way from my apartment building so it was hard to avoid him at times.

Clearly whatever sick fascination he had of me was not going to stop so my armed security guard from my apt building was nice enough to walk part way with me passed him to show I had people who could protect me if needed. Apparently, this made him jealous. The next time I walked passed him I had my headphones on and had turned the music up to avoid hearing him. He was screaming and yelling at me and I was actually able to hear him over my music calling me a ‘bitch’ ‘ugly bitch’ saying ‘who do you think you are’ ‘how dare you’, etc. The ramblings of a delusional psycho. I ignored him and didn’t even look behind me when I all of a sudden was pushed really hard on the ground and then pulled up by the back of my shirt which was a tank top. I turned trying to hold onto my dogs leash at the same time and saw the psycho. He was attacking me!! My dog was barking but I knew she wouldn’t bite him. Even though he had a firm grip on my upper arm I turned and we started running. My spaghetti strap on my tank top and my bra strap ripped. I don’t even recall what he was yelling in my face because the only thing on my mind was to GET AWAY. I ran and kept looking back then called my security guard who came out and said he was no where in sight and walked me home. We called the police and reported it. It took them 30 minutes to get there. My security guard said he had not seen the guy outside in weeks.

They finally tracked him down and it took them about 3 months to set a court date just so that I could have an order of protection against this lunatic which only lasts one year. I plan to renew it. The judge yelled at him in court saying “This girl is not your wife, your mother, your girlfriend, or anything to you!- and even if she was how dare you treat another human being with such utter disrespect! You don’t touch people on the street! What’s wrong with you??” Street harassment in Philadelphia is a HUGE issue and it ranges from construction workers to employees standing outside having a smoke break to groups of men and even to cars passing by with only a few guys in it. Why on earth do they think it is ok and appropriate to yell and do disgusting things to women and girls!!!!????

Anonymous Submission: “I am being stalked via email text phone calls.”

I am being stalked via email text phone calls. I’m scared this guy may harm me or rape me.

michelle’s Story: “I’d like to smell her seat”.

I’m standing in line at the coffee shop when this man bellows “Id like to smell her seat.” He is sitting in the corner with a group of men ranging in age from 30 to 60. Initially I was incredulous that an adult male would say something so juvenile I expect that kind of behavior from a teenager. I contemplated walking over to them and asking if they thought that was appropriate behavior and would they appreciate it if a man made that rude comment to their mother, wife, daughter.

Instead I got my coffee and left. I couldn’t bring myself to dignify his disgusting behavior with a response.

Jamie’s Story: Christmastime Street Harassment

Was walking past the Walgreens to our parked car with husband. A group of 4 people including a man with a can were assembled there on the sidewalk. One of the men steps out in front of us and shouts ‘Merry Christmas’ etc.. we say thank you and keep walking and one of the other persons in the group called me a bitch.

Lisa’s Story: Harassed for her appearance by SEPTA bus driver, bystander shows support

I recently saw a post on body image and thought I’d share. I took the bus when I went to school at DCCC and that morning just got off and went to the bathroom. It was windy that day and I had on hair extensions that got pretty messed up and I needed to fix it. As I was brushing my hair the driver of the bus I just got off left the stall and proceeded to the sinks to wash her hands. I was standing next to the towel dispenser and as she walked over to it, she stopped behind me and eyeballed me up and down with a disgusted look on her face. She then goes “Your hair is really tangly.” Self conscious about it as I was in the first place, this made it 10x worse. I was angry at her immediately and said “Excuse me, that was really fucking rude.” She got her towel and said “And you’re vain,so I don’t know why you’re talking.” as she was walking out of the door. I didn’t realize there was another girl at the sinks who also witnessed the whole thing. When I turned around she looked appalled. She told me that she had just gotten off the same bus and was going to call Septa to report this. Needless to say, I never saw the driver again after that day.