A New Street Harassment Report, USES FOR BOYS, and our Upcoming Twitter Chat

June 6, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS Leave a Comment

EXCERPT:

“The sun is on my face and I’m thinking about nothing at all.

About half a block past the school I hear a knocking. A rhythmic tapping and I look at the building I’m passing and then into the street where the cars are rushing by. I look all around and the tapping continues and then I see him, knuckles against the window, in a parked car by the sidewalk.

He’s sitting in the passenger seat. He’s skinny and white and not wearing any pants. His hand tugs at his penis. He stares at me with wet eyes and an open mouth and he’s not smiling, but I can see his gums. He’s searching out my eyes and for a second I look right at him. Then I look away. I walk faster. I feel a floodrush of nausea, like something rotten is stuck in my throat. I try to swallow past it. The feeling chases me back to my apartment. The street is empty, but I look around before unlocking the front door to my building.”

— Street harassment scene from USES FOR BOYS, by Erica Lorraine Scheidt, “The Wrong Way Down a One Way Street”

We’ve talked a lot about Street Harassment here at TLT. And when we talk about Street Harassment, I am also talking about teenagers on their way to and from school. I’m talking about students being harassed in the hallways as they change classes. I’m talking about in the lunchroom and at after school events. I’m talking about stories like this: “I was entering the eighth grade building when classes were ending and a boy I barely knew wrapped an arm around my waist and stole all my joy when he told me he’d fuck me anytime.” (one of the many moments from You and I are a Miracle).

Next Thursday, HollaBack, one of the organizations dedicated to raising awareness about and fighting against Street Harassment, will be joining us for the Twitter chat of USES FOR BOYS by Erica Lorrainne Scheidt.

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Today, you can read the survey results from the National Street Harassment survey done by Stop Street Harassment, one of the other main organizations dedicated to raising awareness about and fighting against Street Harassment. Some of the key findings from this survey include the following:

In a survey of 2,000 people, “65% of all women had experienced street harassment. Among all women, 23% had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual.”

In addition, “among men, 25% had been street harassed (a higher percentage of LGBT-identified men than heterosexual men reported this) and their most common form of harassment was homophobic or transphobic slurs (9%).”

There’s a lot of information here and I encourage you to read through it all and read their links to other articles on the topic.

Join on Thursday at 7:00 Central as we talk with author Erica Lorraine Scheidt, HollaBack and more to talk about Street Harassment, USES FOR BOYS and more in the #SVYALit Project.

Discuss this powerful, haunting book and its stunning contrast of both sexual violence and consent all month with the hashtag #SVYALit with moderators @TLT16, @CarrieMesrobian, @TrishDoller, @ChristaDesir, and @ericalorraine. You can also follow @iHollaback on Twitter.

A one hour twitter chat, on June 12 at 7pm Central, will bring together YA authors and sexual health educators in a discussion of sexual agency, sexual assault, and consent in USES FOR BOYS. Join the conversation, using #SVYALit.

About USES FOR BOYS

Uses for Boys, St. Martin’s Press 2013, was named a Best First Book for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist and a 2014 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. This polarizing debut from Erica Lorraine Scheidt, has been called “grim, gritty, and heart-breakingly real.”

Talking with Teens About Street Harassment
Street Harassment
What It’s Like for a Girl: How Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama made me think about the politics of sexuality in the life of girls
That Time Matt Smith Perpetuated Street Harassment Culture at Comic Con
#EndSHWeek is March 30th – April 5th

Filed under: #SVYALit, #SVYALit Project, Erica Lorraine Scheidt, Hollaback, Sop Street Harassment, Street Harassment, Uses for Boys

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

April 2014