Street smut: gender, media, and the legal power dynamics of street harassment, or "hey sexy" and other verbal ejaculations.

• Author: Laniya, Olatokunbo Olukemi

I stepped on the bus cheerily anticipating the experiences of the day, unaware of the encounter that was about to take place. The bus driver spoke, "Hey cutie." I explained to him that I was not his "curie" and did not desire his unsolicited comments. He snatched my MTA pass, and taunted, "Now, you have to say 'please' to get it back. "I made several attempts to grab the card but could not. Feeling as if I had no other options, I was forced to do as he said. He gave me back my card and grabbed my backside as I walked towards the back of the bus. No one on the bus said a word. (1)

Recently I found myself in midtown and decided to take a walk through Bryant Park.... [Within moments, one man] invited me to take my clothes off and ... another ... wanted to know why I wash't smiling.... [There] were perhaps fifty men, strolling, ambling, striding along eating hot dogs, sitting on benches and reading the paper or trading illegal substances as though they had all the time in the world--and three women, all walking quickly and grimly, as I was now doing, as though late for an appointment with the dentist. (2)

I am walking home, and a slightly drunk and slightly disheveled man is following me, saying, "Mamma, oh mamma, baby please, I wanna fuck you, I give good tongue, oh sweetheart, please...." My body is no longer mine. On the street my body is theirs. I can define myself all I want, but in their eyes I am a body on the street, two tits and no head and a big ass. My body becomes a cunt, and although I'm not physically raped, psychically I am, and I ache from it. (3)

Unfortunately, these women's experiences are not rare. Indeed, such astonishing encounters occur in the daily lives of women throughout the world. (4) Rarely is it the case that a woman in a public space is not confronted with unsolicited comments and gestures of a sexual tone by men unknown to her. Yet, it is precisely the ubiquity of this phenomenon that distills its perceived effects on women and on society as a whole. Most men view the occurrence as harmless and even desired by women, while most women resign themselves to the inevitability of the acts and the absence of a vehicle to remedy such harm. Notwithstanding these somewhat discouraging facts, there is hope for a remedy to this problem. Those who fight against the sexual harassment of women in public places may find encouragement in the advancements made towards the recognition and redress of other harms that largely affect women, such as sexual harassment in the workplace.

The notion of sexual harassment in the workplace was unknown fifty years ago, but is now recognized as a valid harm to women and to society. Great strides have been made in this arena, and women now have legally cognizable claims under Title VII and state non-discrimination laws. Further, this type of sexual harassment is socially condemned; it is no longer "what bosses do," but carries with it a condemnation that reflects the changing ethical judgments of society. Thus, progress has been made, and this advancement helps to fortify the convictions of those who currently fight against the harassment of women in public places and other forms of sexual harassment that are not yet recognized as real injuries to women.

Yet, even the illustration of sexual harassment in the workplace underscores the limitation of discourse about sexual harassment. In the majority's collective consciousness, the term sexual harassment connotes sexual harassment in the workplace; often the add-on, "in the workplace," is unnecessary. Certainly, sexual harassment is not unique to employment contexts, yet the conversation largely has been limited to this arena. It is time to begin to expand and develop this discourse in order to obtain remedy for other types of sexual harassment.

Critical discourse concerning sexual harassment in public places began approximately a decade ago. The scholarship that arose at that time explored the harms of such harassment on women and society, existing legal remedies, and formulations for a more effective legal redress. For instance, Deirdre Davis focused on the effect of harassment in public places on black women, (5) while Cynthia Bowman explored the shortcomings of the legal remedies that have been used to address such harassment. (6) These illustrations show that the conversation has begun about sexual harassment of women in public spaces, yet much more discussion must take place. As Deborah Tuerkheimer observes, "We have barely begun to articulate the nature of the harm." (7)

Several occurrences have transpired in the last ten years to prompt a renewal of the discussion of the harassment of women in public places. The highly publicized accounts of sexual harassment and assault of women during public events--the 1998 Greek Festival in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, the 2000 National Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhattan's Central Park, and the 2001 St. Patrick's Day Parade in Manhattan--are jarring reminders that we have a long way to go in eradicating the harm of sexual harassment of women in public spaces.

In tension with these events, as times change and we evolve towards a (hopefully) more inclusive society, we gain acceptance of feminist discourse and of attempts to create remedies for injuries against women. This evolution translates to the ever-increasing critical mass of women who are aware of gender inequalities, and who will be in positions of power--arguing in courtrooms, sitting on benches, legislating in Congress, reporting in newsrooms on issues that are influential on a national scale, running national and international media companies, and more. Thus, more women will be reflected in our legal system and our media industries. Both law and the media are transformative mechanisms that, by the nature of the manners in which they operate, have the ability to change behavior and to shape perceptions, ethics, and values. The growing convergence of law and media lends even more potency to the potential that law and the media have to achieve transformative goals.

The purpose of this Article is to examine the manners in which these two transformative vehicles may lead us to recognize the harms of, and the remedies for, the harassment of women in public spaces. The nexus between harassment of women in public spaces and the media is clear. The media may be used as a platform to enlighten and educate the public about this type of sexual harassment. Further, the media's ability to bring injustices to the forefront converges with the law to bring about change and social justice.

The interplay between law and media in the context of the harassment of women in public arenas may be examined through different media representations and through the legal outcomes of a specific occurrence of sexual harassment of women in a public space. This Article focuses on the sexual assaults that took place after the 2000 Puerto Rican Day Parade.

The issue of the sexual harassment of women in public places is examined within the framework set forth by William Felstiner, Richard Abel, and Austin Sarat in The Emergence and Transformation of Dilutes: Namin Blamin Claimin. (8) Framed within the discipline of the sociology of law, the model examines the manner in which an act becomes identified as a harm, an agent is blamed for the harm, and a remedy is demanded for the harm. (9) The Article is presented within this framework for several reasons. First, it is helpful in evaluating and understanding an issue that has not been established as a recognized harm by the individual harmed or by society. Often the tendency is to leap into an examination of the legal remedies that may be afforded for a harm under the presumption that the experience has been accepted as an injury by the person acted upon. However, Felstiner et al. remind us that problems are not the sum of their reduction to numbers and formulas; rather, they are social constructs first. (10) The contextualization of the manner in which an occurrence becomes perceived as an injury is useful in explaining why the harassment of women in public spaces has not been recognized as a social harm. In addition, the Felstiner et al. methodology does not approach a problem in a vacuum, but is careful to take into account the racial, class, gender, and sexual orientation categories one falls within that often influence one's position with respect to political and socioeconomic power. (11) Such acknowledgement is undoubtedly useful for this conversation precisely because women are a marginalized group representing a political, economic, and social minority in terms of power and control. Lastly, the Felstiner et al. framework underscores the notion of the transformative process of naming, blaming, and claiming, and the manners in which media and law, both transformative mechanisms themselves, act as catalysts in this transformation process.

Part I gives background on the authors of the Felstiner et al. framework and briefly introduces the socio-legal discipline. This section frames the discussion of street harassment by setting forth the concept of naming, blaming, and claiming as presented by Felstiner et al. This construct is utilized throughout the remainder of the Article to analyze the issue of the harassment of women in public arenas.

Part II attempts to name the harm, by defining the phenomenon of sexual harassment of women on the street and identifying it as street harassment, a term that has been used by several scholars (12) to describe this phenomenon. This section explains specifically what street harassment is, through identification of its characteristics, and explores its effects on women and on society.

Part III identifies the perpetrators--those who should be blamed for the injury of street harassment. The line of blame does not end simply with identifying the harassers; rather, it extends beyond and points a finger at the phallocentric systems that foster and...