A First Step to Ending Street Harassment

Catcalling is not a compliment. It's harassment. Between 80 - 90% of women have been harassed in public.

Groundswell and twenty young women fought back this summer with a 200-foot-long mural in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Now, we are thrilled to partner with THIRTEEN to tell their stories.

In Part 1, the first of three episodes, the young women share how street harassment has made the streets of New York City unsafe for them. It's made them want to isolate themselves... Fear for their safety... Cover up. Help us spread their message that a person's body is not public space.

In the second of three video segments, the muralists share how the community responded to their design. Some women's faces lit up in acknowledgement. Some men had questions. Some had angry comments. People have a lot to say about street harassment.

This week THIRTEEN released the final video of their web series about Groundswell's anti-catcalling mural "Respect is the Strongest Compliment." In this installment, the young women who worked on the mural reflect on the impact of the project on their lives and their vision for their futures.
 
Danielle McDonald, lead artist for the mural, contributes her observations about the power of public art in an online Q&A about the collaboration, also on THIRTEEN's website: "Murals disrupt our ordinary visual experience, and touch those who are captured by it in a means that only experiencing a large painting can. It makes people feel something. It makes them stop, talk, and reflect on issues from the perspectives often marginalized in society."
 
To read Danielle's complete interview, please visit thirteen.org.
 
Add your voice to the conversation and help spread the word: a person's body is not public space.