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“I felt unsafe and disgusted,” She writes from Brooklyn “I continued to politely dismiss him hoping he will stop and walk away, but he didn’t.”
“People should never feel uncomfortable walking around,” She writes from Manhattan “I was appalled by how someone could follow someone and make them worried to simply go outside.”
“I felt objectified,” She writes from the Bronx.
She writes from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx--Anonymous. She writes from New York City, and She has something to say.
“People should never feel uncomfortable walking around,” She writes from Manhattan “I was appalled by how someone could follow someone and make them worried to simply go outside.”
“I felt objectified,” She writes from the Bronx.
She writes from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx--Anonymous. She writes from New York City, and She has something to say.
Whether it derive from discrimination or disrespect, whether it infiltrate city, street, or subway, whether it stem from dominance, attention, sexual appeal, nationality, or religion, whether it embody whistling, leering, demanding, following, flashing, groping, public masturbating, assault, or rape--sexual harassment is a disease. Unfortunately, it’s a disease with roots far deeper than mere impudence and discourtesy. In most countries, it’s about a longstanding resentment towards a changing in status. Women and girls are gaining insurmountable power world-wide, yet some might seek to hold them back. “For men who were raised to believe that they are entitled to be breadwinners and receive sexual gratification and domestic subservience from women, the shift hasn’t been easy,” explains columnist Sisonke Msimang (qtd. in “Why Stopping Street Harassment Matters”). In our modernized society, don’t we all deserve an equal footing when it comes to the matters of public space? Sexual harassment is a disease. And as She writes from the city, New York is a battlefield.
In a metropolis, the droves of its people describe an environment in constant change. Raw and beautiful and real--New York is no stranger to the flavor of a city-scape. And although it encompasses the cultural riches of any great civilization, New York also encompasses the cultural afflictions. At an unbridled gallop, sexual harassment tears through city streets. More than that, researchers now recognize the many sexual incidents amassing beneath the pavement as well--in the New York City subway. The obscene actuality of sexual harassment within the New York transit system not only damages a woman’s public safety, but also negatively affects her physical and psychological state.
After the release of yearly scientific report, researchers found an absurd increase in cases concerning sexual harassment in the New York underground. From the years 2014 to 2015, there was a 33% jump in cases concerning sexual abuse, a 25% increase in “forcible touching,” and a 9.3% rise in public lewdness (the conducting of inappropriate activity). (Rivoli and Tracy). A year later, a staggering report released Monday, June 20, demonstrated a 53% surge in total cases of sexual harassment. Following the publication, Joseph Fox, chief of transit for the New York Police Department, addressed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority regarding the statistics. During his speech, Fox predicted that if the trend were to continue, the 2016 year would finish with around 900 recorded cases of subway sexual offenses (De Avila). This number is in no way small or insignificant. However, it’s important to consider different factors when looking at these statistics. The increase is most likely a result of more victims reporting events and more plainclothes officers finding offenders, than actual incidents occurring. In the past, Fox explained victims were “embarrassed, intimidated, or lacked the confidence” to report a sexual offense they experienced (De Avila). In other words, the New York City subway system is arguably just as safe as it's been in recent years. The change we see through the statistics is spurred from more and more women “standing up” in defiance.
As we depend on victimized women to report any sexual offenses, researchers will never know the full scope of incidents. That being said, it doesn’t seem as though the number of cases will dramatically diffuse in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the aftereffects of sexual harassment continue to influence on the women and girls who experienced it. Senior writer Rachael Rettner for Live Science describes the deeply significant psychological impacts on subjects of sexual harassment. Within her article, she hints how the vast majority don’t realize the full extent of consequences spurred from incidents of sexual offense. In a 1,000-youth study, the Blackstone Institute discovered that those “sexually harassed as a teenager or young adult,” are more likely to form depressive symptoms in their 30’s. After being sexually harassed, many develop feelings of self-doubt. And as Rachael Rettner clearly outlines, this often leads to self-blame--the victim feels responsible for the event. These thoughts simmer in the mind, potentially resulting in more severe consequences. A study of 1,000 Canadian High School students found encounters involving sexual offenses (of one or more) to connect with the development of suicidal behaviors. Moreover, Debra Borys, a psychologist with a private practice in Westwood Village, California, states that sexual harassment leads to “sleep disturbances.” Stress and anxiety left-over from an incident of sexual harassment prevent many falling to sleep--and staying asleep. Borys explains, “Victims may lie awake at night ruminating about the event, or the event may be the source of nightmares” (qtd. In Rettner).
In the simplest of terms, sexual harassment prompts profound repercussions. A 2011 Canadian study of 4,000 women found those living with neck pain (or aches and pains in general) were nearly twice as likely to have experienced sexual harassment. Much like stress can trigger sleep complications, stress can also lead to bone and muscle related problems--especially those found in the neck. A study found nearly a third of 1,200 Bostonian women with high blood pressure to have reported an incident of harassment. Sexual harassment leads to elevated blood pressure, which often precipitates the “same type of physiological reactions as stress” (Rettner). More importantly, high blood pressure is deeply linked with cardiovascular (heart-related) disease. These studies illustrate the not only psychological effects of experiencing sexual harassment, but the painfully physical as well. Weathering such a painful incident has the power to provoke life-long ramifications.
Society regards New York City to be an epicenter for groundbreaking ideas and innovation. But what’s becoming more and more evident is the lack of public knowledge regarding sexual harassment. How can such an advanced society know so little about a very current issue? Sexual harassment is the unseen city-wide rampage. But its invisibility must end. The victims who face such harassment suffer serious loss in the wake of their experience— vulnerability to the physical and psychological effects mentioned above as well as the risk for some major lifestyle alterations. The Stop Street Harassment website explains how those who face sexual harassment often take different (and typically less convenient) routes and transportation to work, school, or home. Fearful victims face losing hobbies, habits, jobs, or neighborhoods they once knew--all to avoid certain areas. Holly Kearl writes, “In short, street harassment must end.” Kearl is a national Street Harassment expert, who has not only founded the Stop Street Harassment website, but also wrote a book titled Stop Street Harassment. Unfortunately, ending the harassment is a lot harder than it sounds. As Kearl points out, there are multiple methods for dealing with street harassment, passed down from generation to generation. At young ages, we were told to avoid streets at night, memorize a fake phone number, dress conservatively, and ignore any harassers. But these strategies only accomplish so much, and at a great price: they teach women to behave like victims. Not only that, such methods deeply limit a woman's right to wear what she’d like and go where she’d like to go--both constitutional rights. Women should not be denied these things simply because they are denied respect.
Kearl argues that there are four necessary steps to eliminating sexual harassment. First, society must realize that street harassment is not a minor issue, that it doesn’t have any real consequence, that it can be written off as “boys will be boys,” and that it is a woman’s fault. Kearl further explains that instead of instructing women and girls to ignore sexual offenders, they should be taught to “stand up” in self-empowerment. Women should not be trained to act like victims, but to act like victors. In addition, Kearl attests that the male approach to sexual harassment must be altered. There is no doubt that a significant fraction of men harbor skewed perspectives when it comes to respect for women. It is important to enforce from a young age the standards of courtesy deserved by all genders What is more, Kearl explains the importance of questioning any societal elements that support sexual harassment. “We must challenge comments, forms of media, and policies that disrespect and discriminate against women” (Kearl). The existence of sexual harassment prevents gender equality from ever fully manifesting into a reality. And through her research, Kearl reveals the ineffectuality of current defenses against sexual harassment, as she outlines a new method.
Any truly great city is a cultural explosion of art, science, and philosophy--and New York is no exception. But think of the city like a baseball team: it's only as strong as its weakest member. In this case, that member is the continuation of sexual harassment in the public transit system. New York can advance only so far with gender discrimination constantly holding it back. What is so unique about I studied sexual harassment within the subway because I wanted to determine how it affects the safety of women and girls, in order to help my reader understand the damaging effects of gender discrimination. Unfortunately, New York City is not the only civilization bristled by gender inequality-based problems. Tamar Davis, the Program and Administrative Assistant at Hollaback (a platform for combating sexual harassment), explains that “New York and other large cities have great volumes of people and such congestion makes sexual harassment in public space more of a frequent (often daily) reality for many women-- especially since public transit is used so heavily.” A recent study in Paris found 100% of a 600-women survey to have experienced sexual harassment while traveling by subway. In many countries, including Germany, Tokyo, Delhi, Dubai, and Rio de Janeiro, “women and children only” cars have been established. And although such cars provide safety and security, they serve only as a temporary fix. Much like Holly Kearl explained, I believe that the issue of sexual harassment warrants a more deep-rooted solution. Society must set parallel standards when it comes to respect of all genders, as well as clearly authorizing a moral code among peoples. After 200,000 years, I believe women deserve equal footing on this planet. “I felt objectified,” She writes from Hamilton, New York.
Works Cited
"About." Stop Street Harassment. Ed. Holly Kearl. Stop Street Harassment, n.d. Web. 26 Feb.
2017.
Avila, Joseph De. "Reports of Sexual Offenses Soar on the NYC Subway." The Wall Street
Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 20 June 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
Kearl, Holly. "Street Harassment of Women: It's a Bigger Problem than You Think." The
Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.
Rettner, Rachael. "6 Ways Sexual Harassment Damages Women's Health." LiveScience. Purch,
9 Nov. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.
Rivoli, Dan, Thomas Tracy. "MTA Sees Spike in Reports of Sexual Abuse on Subways."NY
Daily News. Mortimer Zuckerman, 13 Jan. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.