Street harassment | Aims “because they are young”

They are detailed from feet to head, whistling, are the subject of sexual comments. For many adolescent girls who move in town, these behaviors are a banal reality. Street harassment is so widespread that more and more researchers are looking into it.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

“When they are in a group or by car, they hunt you. »»

“Adults aged 30, 40 are embarrassing. Especially on the bus, they look at us, smile at us. »»Have you ever suffered street harassment? Tell us about your experience.

It’s noon on the outskirts of a large Montreal secondary school and three 16 -year -old teenagers come back to dinner. Street harassment, they say they have lived for several years. From boys of their age, but also older men, “of course”.

young girls who are challenged by pure strangers in public places are numerous, but the initiatives to document what they live in Quebec are rare.

Doctoral student in sociology at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), Mélusine Dumerchat is the author of research on the subject. She organized several discussion groups within the framework of her work.

« Pour [les jeunes filles]it is obvious: they are harassed because they are young, ”says Mr.^me Dumerchat.

In June 2023, the City of Montreal, the Montreal Transport Company (STM) and the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) launched an advertising campaign against street harassment called “witnesses, acts”.

In the metro and the buses, but also through a website, the STM encouraged citizens not to remain cois in the face of harassment situations of which they were witnesses.

This campaign – which is still visible – followed a study by the Montreal women’s Education and Action Center (CEAF) and UQAM, which had concluded in 2022 that two in three Montrealers had undergone street harassment during the previous year.

The National Institute of Public Health of Quebec is currently carrying out a very first study on the subject, but the team “prefers not to discuss its work before publication,” we are told.

Trivialized violence

On the bus or the metro, on the sidewalk, at the exit of the school, in the parks or in the shopping center, at any time of the day, the minor victims of street harassment are sometimes arrested, sometimes solicited, insulted, the target of “sexualizing or paternalistic words”, says Mélusine Dumerchat. Young people also report touching, exhibitionism and voyeurism.

Now, add m^me Dumerchat, the words of young people “come out of sensationalist representations” that can have authors of pedocriminal violence.

“For them, these violence is relatively common and committed by a little Monsieur Tout-le-Monde. They go through remarks and gestures that can be daily, ”says the researcher.

“It is standardized,” say with one voice the three teenage girls encountered by The press. “It’s a reality: [la société] Do not take it to heart or seriously, ”deplores one of them.

These violence can nevertheless be described as soi “because they are sexual violence and that concerns adults towards young people,” says Mélusine Dumerchat.

“Haralers know that they are young, because many report having been harassed while they were in school uniforms, for example,” said the researcher. The SPVM recently reported having identified men who filmed schoolgirls in the metro without their knowledge, under their skirt.

“Fail me peace”

Faced with numerous testimonies of young people who reported having experienced street harassment, the Maison des Jeunes de Bordeaux-Cartierville has set up the “Fiche me Peace” project as part of which workers will visit secondary schools in the neighborhood.

“We give them several tracks, including that of not being afraid to speak. It is recalled that if they do not feel safe, there are people around them. For example, in the bus, you can go to the driver, or speak louder to have the attention of people around ”, illustrates Sareena Kumari, coordinator of the youth house.

The 26-year-old woman herself experienced harassment when she was a teenager.

Faced with the harassment they undergo, several victims are silent.

“I see him repeatedly: young people do not want to talk to their parents about it because they will have consequences,” says Roxanne Deniger, community organizer at the Montreal Women’s Education and Action Center.

“You will not go out, you will not go out alone, you will relate yourself, you will not make up, you will not dress in such a way. We very penalize the victims of street harassment, and the harassers can act with impunity, “she adds.

In these situations, parents do what they can, says Mélusine Dumerchat. The victims too.

“They will put a lot of practices to avoid being harassed, as if harassment was due to their behavior. In the long term, it will have the effect of restricting their autonomy. They will very early on to develop an anxious relationship with public space, which they will not appropriate freely. »»

Roxanne Deniger says that the discourse around the street harassment must change and the initiatives to counter it, such as the project of the Maison des Jeunes de Bordeaux-Cartierville, are highlighted.

“Often, the question is: what can victims do?” But it’s been years since women and girls, we’ve been on our backs. Me, I say: What can society do? She asks.