{"id":15023,"date":"2016-10-10T09:26:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T09:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/amsterdam-haven-of-sex-drugs-and-rrrcatcalls\/"},"modified":"2016-10-10T09:26:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T09:26:44","slug":"amsterdam-haven-of-sex-drugs-and-rrrcatcalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/amsterdam-haven-of-sex-drugs-and-rrrcatcalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Amsterdam: Haven of Sex, Drugs and Rrr\u2026Catcalls?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people think about Amsterdam, what usually comes to mind is a fantastical world of marijuana, Red Light Districts and lots of gorgeous canals running through the city.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands is not really an obvious place to look at street harassment. Ranked fourth in Europe by the European Institute for Gender Equality<\/a>, and ranked 14th<\/sup> in the world according to the World Economic Forum\u2019s Global Gender Gap Index<\/a>, the Netherlands at first glance appears to be doing fairly satisfactorily in terms of promoting gender equality.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also a lot of people here and, consequently, a lot of room for mischief. There\u2019s over 4,000 people per square kilometer<\/a> in Amsterdam to be precise, which is about twice the amount of people in the same amount of space in New York<\/a> and London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So many humans sharing so little space doesn\u2019t only lead to horrendously clogged roads (and bike paths) during rush hour, but also inevitably to more catcalls, more groping and to more instances of harassment in these overcrowded public spaces.<\/p>\n

In January and February, I conducted a detailed survey<\/a> of people\u2019s experiences with street harassment in this \u2018great small city\u2019.<\/p>\n

In just two weeks, I received a flood of over 150 responses from women, men, LGBTQ-identified folks and people of color. What their experiences underlined was that street harassment was happening in Amsterdam and that people were itching to talk about it.<\/p>\n

The three most popular types of harassment reported were \u2018Greetings\u2019 like\u00a0Hey baby\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Hi sexy<\/em>, Hissing or Whistling and Sexual Comments. Below is a chart of all reported types of harassment by the survey respondents in Amsterdam:<\/p>\n

\"Fairspace\"<\/p>\n

Along with the types of harassment listed above, a significant number of people also reported experiencing non-verbal forms of harassment like leering, or smirking. One respondent described their harasser(s) as, \u201cLooking at me with their eyes like they are already ripping my clothes off and raping me very violently. Looking at me like me fighting back would only turn them on more\u201d.<\/p>\n

What do these and other forms of street harassment do to those who experience it? What are the effects and long-term consequences, if any? To some survey respondents, the answer to these questions was that there were none, and described their experiences as \u2018benign\u2019 or \u2018normal\u2019.<\/p>\n

Some respondents described their experiences as complimentary. Last year,\u00a0New York Post<\/em>\u00a0writer\u00a0Doree Lewark<\/a>\u00a0spoke to such interpretations, pointing to the\u00a0euphoric<\/em>\u00a0nature of catcalls: \u201c[W]hen a total stranger notices you, it\u2019s validating\u2026What\u2019s so wrong about a \u2018You are sexy!\u2019 comment from any observant man?\u2026 For me, it\u2019s nothing short of exhilarating, yielding an unmatched level of euphoria\u201d.<\/p>\n

But for many people in Amsterdam, what they experienced was far from euphoric. One respondent explained that she has been diagnosed with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) as a result of years of street harassment in Amsterdam, a recent encounter of which left her with a broken nose after she called her harassers out.<\/p>\n

Below are two figures illustrating the extent of the effects of street harassment on the folks like the respondent above. The first shows 14 different effects that street harassment has had on people\u2019s day-to-day lives in Amsterdam. The second gives a glimpse into some of the emotional effects that street harassment has on people who experience it:<\/p>\n

\"Fairspace\"<\/p>\n

\"Fairspace\"<\/p>\n

Survey respondents used words like \u201csuspecting\u201d, \u201cfearful\u201d, \u201cfrustrated\u201d, \u201cdepressed\u201d and \u201cangry\u201d to describe how they felt after being harassed in the streets or on public transport in Amsterdam. The experiences of these respondents were far from euphoric\u2014rather, they are red flags that what is understood as \u2018harmless\u2019 or \u2018playful\u2019 to some is in actuality having a huge impact on how people move through public spaces and interact with others.<\/p>\n

In April, I launched a local\u00a0Hollaback! chapter in Amsterdam<\/a>\u00a0to provide an outlet to folks who have experienced street harassment to post their stories, get resources and mobilize on-the-ground actions. A local partner,\u00a0StraatIntimidatie<\/a>, is also currently running an online petition, vying for a nationwide law against street harassment.<\/p>\n

One story told and one signature at a time, street harassment is being named and fought here in Amsterdam and around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people think about Amsterdam, what usually comes to mind is a fantastical world of marijuana, Red Light Districts and lots of gorgeous canals running through the city. The Netherlands…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog-nl"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairspacetest.sagitta-creatives.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}