Closing out the April chapter of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), I wanted to take a ride back to International Wheat-Pasting Night 2017. During the International Anti-Street Harassment Week of April 2nd — 8th, artists & activists took their messages to the public sphere to raise awareness about the epidemic of street harassment & catcalling. This phenomena is more often than not directed at women, gender non-conformists, and trans-gender women, and can range from relative innocence of waving & whistles, to the outright obnoxious ignorance of verbal assaults. There is also a very real danger to women who retaliate & talk back to cat-callers, rebuffing sexist advances. Accounts of women violently attacked and murdered are not uncommon, and its nearly everyday that stories are shared of experiencing an unwelcome encounter on the public streets of cities & nations around the world. And you know what — its got to stop.
For the third year in a row, I've been an active participant in the Stop Telling Women to Smile (STWTS) campaign, organized by artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh out of Brooklyn, New York. With her empowering proclamations of resistance, Tatyana has set out to wheat-paste the city with sketches of women who encountered gendered sexual harassment on the streets. The first year I participated in STWTS was in 2015, and it came during a most auspicious time of April when my fiancé George & I were traveling Europe by rail. Posting my rendition of pop-art inspiration featuring the iconic grin of Andy Warhol’s homage to Marilyn Monroe, we pasted campaign proclamations in Amsterdam, Berlin, the Czech Republic, and she was even documented outside the Colosseum in Rome where Gladiators once fought to the death for the entertainment of audiences. Don’t ask me who did it, but just know it existed for a moment in time. Scandalous. This movement is global, feminist, and its intersectional, because sexual assault and street harassment know no boundaries.
Last year George & I brought the campaign home to Los Angeles in Westwood, California, posting STWTS posters around UCLA to address sexual harassment and assault on & around campus. Printing out both Tatyana’s shared images & statements, as well as my own original drawings revisiting Monroe’s timeless twinkle, I brought a tongue in cheek spin to raising awareness around consent, conversation, flirtation, kissing, and copyright infringement of personal image. Women should feel encouraged & confident to take up space in public without people appropriating their images for personal photography without informed or written consent to take one’s image. A man, stranger unto me, once came up to me in the Netherlands while walking with a friend through Rotterdam, shoved a camera in my face, snapped a picture, said thank you, and proceeded on his way like it was nothing. I was a stunned as I was speechless. He literally stole my image without asking for express permission. Once he took it I no longer had any say what he could do with my image or to what purpose. Capitalist advertising has made millions, if not billions, off the appropriation & commodification of hyper sexualized representations of women to sell everything from toothpaste to cologne, cars to cigarettes, hamburgers, and the latest lifestyle trends. Sex sells, and because men still hold lead executive positions in media advertising, the public is inundated with pornographic representations of women that only serve to normalize objectification of the female body, exploitation, and violence. Women have a right to their own images, representations of self, identity, and sexuality. If its for sale, its at our price, and under our own conditions.
That's why I believe Stop Telling Women to Smile an such an incredibly powerful street art campaign. It literally talks back to the public, challenging & fighting back against stereotypical images of women, and holding men accountable for their behaviors. With this year’s STWTS campaign, I brought back all the posters from the two previous series, putting a colorful spin on Tatyana’s sketch series. After printing & sharing her art with my friends & fellow Violence Prevention Specialist advocates at Peace Over Violence, I sat down with some color pencils & markers while chilling with Netflix one evening. What came about was another depth and layer of meaning I hadn’t seen before. Before my eyes, the women in Tatyana’s realistic renderings transformed into battle hard warriors, wearing the cuts, bruises & scars on their face, telling a story of survival through the page. In an attempt to save paper, I had printed on both sides of the paper which in turn created an unintended effect of having the marker outlines of the woman on the other side come through as backup. We need to be able to walk & ride in confidence that our sisters will likewise be there to back us up if & when trouble arises.
I took the opportunity to join the two powerful forces together by cross organizing STWTS with Peace Over Violence’s Its Off Limits campaign, a collaboration with LA Metro to address sexual harassment on public transportation. Encouraging riders to speak up and report any unwanted touching, unwelcome comments, or lewd gestures, Its Off Limits created a 24 hour hotline that will connect callers to a trained counselor to address sexual harassment on the transit system & help victims recover from traumatic experiences. People should feel safe in accessing all methods and modes of transportations, without fear of unwanted sexual attention, or retaliation. Riding on the Metro (Berlin, anyone?) with my sister, we hopped from car to car, papering each train with our proclamations beside Off Limits posters to compliment their shared goals — to start a conversation, raise advocacy, and stop harassment in its tracks.
As we made our journey into Downtown Los Angeles for the Helping Victims Become Survivors event at LA City Hall, we located & identified the best places to post the art where they would have the most visibility in public space. All were strategically placed to be in dialogue with the cultural voice & vision of the city through public art installations. The mosaics at the Civic Center & Grand Park Station provided the perfect canvas to bring new life & dimension to the textured women on the walls watching over riders. Encouraging Los Angeleñas to see the bright side of the story, LA based street artist WRDSMITH’s palette opened up an exchange of words side by side with Monroe to talk about Denim Day, popping myths around sexual assault.
Talking about sexual harassment does not need to be scary or frightening. In fact, these matters can become fun & empowering when we use our creative gifts & talents to bring light to the subject. It was really special for me to be able to share the anti-harassment campaigns with my younger sister because I want her to feel safe riding public transportation, and comfortable navigating public space. We should all be free from negative interactions that otherwise discourage us from accessing public services provided for the ease and benefit of everyone. Sure, nothing is perfect & we might still encounter vandalism or the faint smell of urine, but there is never an excuse or invitation to pull the wang out, make vulgar comments, inappropriately touch or grope, or even invade the personal space of another traveler on their commute.
So let's get in/formation to slay this dragon & meet street harassment where its at. On the streets! As always, the most important thing is personal safety. If you're being harassed in public spaces or witness someone being stalked, provoked, or intimidated, take every precaution to get away safely and unharmed, and notify the appropriate authorities as soon as possible. No one is entitled to your personal space, time, attention, or conversation, and everyone has the right to public space no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, or ability. If you ride the LA Metro, and experience sexual harassment while traveling public transportation, call the Its Off Limits 24/7 hour confidential hotline at 1.844.633.5464 to report & for support.
Want to read more? Visit Unorganized Rebellion to read my essay Lighting a Fire on the political implications of street harassment, and using art & poetry as a weapon of resistance. Remember, silence is violence & it is all of our responsibility to look out for one another. When all of us stand up together in protection of the vulnerable, then we automatically gain strength in numbers, transforming bystander apathy into Upstander social justice warriors. If you want to be a Gladiator in a suit, there is no application necessary. All you need is a tie, the drive & the courage to take the lead when the call comes in.