PSA: End PSH!
PSA: End PSH!
A Campaign to End Public Sexual Harrassment
When I went to the Women's March this year in London (one of my last pre-corona outings), I met an activist called Maya Tutton. She and her sister Gemma are the co-founders of Our Streets Now: a campaign to end Public Sexual Harassment (PSH) which encompasses catcalls, wolf-whistling; every form of street harassment you can think of.
My friends and I at the 2020 Women’s March in London. The theme was climate justice in the context of Women’s Rights (also, we accidentally wrote street instead of sexual on the sign, but the message still stands).
The formal definition of PSH is “unwelcome and unwanted attention, sexual advances and intimidating behaviour by strangers occurring in public spaces. This can be committed on multiple, and often interlocking grounds, but all forms of PSH are inherently linked together by power and control.”
One of the main aims of this campaign is to introduce a criminal offence into UK law (following the example of France), as well as changing the culture and mindset around street harassment to create a safer world for women and girls everywhere.
Shortly after following all their socials (@OurStreetsNow on Twitter and Instagram), I applied to join the campaign team when they posted ads for various positions. I now co-run their twitter page to help share information and gain support for this petition which (as I’m writing this article) has collected over 207,000 signatures.
What I love about this campaign is that it’s trans inclusive and intersectional; it recognises the nuanced experiences of LGBTQ+ women, trans people, women of colour and disabled women in the context of street harassment. In my short time on the team, we’ve made a concerted effort to highlight issues focused around racist, trans/homophobic, and ableist street harassment.
Anti-Street Harassment week was from the 19th-25th of April this year (2020), and Our Streets Now dedicated each day to a specific theme with instagram takeovers based on underage harassment, fatphobic, racist, homophobic and ableist PSH.
Everyone who contributed to the week of action was speaking from personal, lived experiences. Our Streets Now has such an emphasis on amplifying marginalised voices rather than speaking over them.
For more info about how to support, contribute, and raise awareness please visit their website!!
Chiamaka (Amaka) Elumogo is a third year student at the University of Buckingham studying Medicine. Aside from her hobbies of dancing, netball, and activism, she is also the founder of OLONA Apparel: a hand-painted clothing brand centred around creativity and sustainability (@olona.apparel).