Our Bodies Our Streets

Our Bodies Our Streets is a campaign founded by students in Sheffield, aiming to tackle the issue of catcalling and street harassment. We want to give everyone the freedom to use our public spaces equally and safely. Inspired by movements like 'Our Streets Now', ', we started this campaign to focus on Sheffield's issue with street harassment, and we hope our momentum will spread to other cities as this is a UK wide problem.

From conversations amongst friends, we noticed that many students felt uncomfortable exercising in Sheffield due to harassment and had been forced to change their exercise behaviours and clothing because of this. We decided to foster collective empowerment by coming together to reclaim our bodies and our streets through sport, creative projects, research, protest and allyship.

We are an intersectional feminist movement, and so we aim to recognise the unique forms of oppression faced by different marginalised groups, and to fight all forms of inequality in everything we do! We need to be diverse, inclusive and open to being held accountable. Contact us with any advice or criticism, we will listen and respond.

One of the main tools of our campaign is our experience map. It displays the incidents of catcalling experienced by our followers/supporters. Please go check it out and contribute your stories. Click 'experience map' at the tabs bar at the top of this page!

This video workshop we made for the SUTCo Embrace festival explains who we are, what we do and why we started this campaign! (scroll down to digital activism/ research to find out more).

Here is some great research about the prevalence of catcalling that explains why we need to fight this battle!

Slide through the images below that explain what our campaign involves:

Our Bodies Our Streets can not provide support and report services but we have collated a network of resources and services that can. Please follow the link below:

[and always]

Recent Research for Safer Parks:

Kicking 2021 off with a petition

Inspired to take action by increasing frustration among our supporters, we have launched a petition asking Sheffield City Council to improve lighting in our parks. You can find it here

Whilst we recognise that it would be very costly for the council to light up all of our parks, we are asking them to work with us in a process of consultation and collaboration wherein local residents and stakeholders get together to talk about safety in the parks and the different experiences of various groups, including women. If you click the button, you can find an explanation of why we started this particular project and its relation to public sexual harassment!

We have also set up a google form allowing people to give their opinions on the issue. Find it here

The petition has been covered by various local papers, radio stations and TV, so go to the bottom of our page for 'articles and features' to find these. The best way to gain access to information and media coverage about the petition is to visit our instagram page 'ourbodiesourstreets'

2020 ROUND UP

As we come up to our sixth month since starting the campaign, we want to thank everyone who has taken part in and contributed to our creative, sporting, awareness raising and other events and activities. We are so glad that we have raised awareness of street harassment and started a conversation at Sheffield University! Here are some key achievements

We have published digital activism series based on our research on: the impacts of public sexual harassment, intersectionality, allyship and bystander intervention, and body positive exercise

We have published articles in Forge Press, The Steel City Standard, The Sheffield Telegraph, and contributed to an article in the Telegraph written by Plan International for their 'crime not compliment' national campaign. Our collaboration with the amazing artist Philip Lee was also featured in 'our favourite places' Sheffield culture guide, and we also appeared in issue 4 of intersectional feminist zine 'Sullen' Look at our 'articles' section to check these all out!

We published an art series with many different forms of creative activism, including poetry, crochet, banners, chalking, stickers and our emotional chart project with local artist Philip Lee! Our 'guerilla' artwork and social media creative output has reached a huge audience and we are glad that people of many different genders have felt affirmed and encouraged by our messages. Go to our 'creative section' to find the art series! We also made a video for the SUTCO embrace festival which you can view further down our 'updates' section

We have mapped over 75 experiences of public sexual harassment in our 'experience map' section. Many victims have found this to be an extremely useful tool for affirming their experiences and emotional responses. In the new year we hope to make more of this map tool through artwork and activism which reaches the perpetrators.

We are so proud to have collaborated with other feminist and liberation groups in Sheffield as part of a broader feminist movement. We loved taking part in the amazing digital rally for 'reclaim the night' and running for Femsoc's consent week. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we believe that this semester has been an amazing one for the Sheffield Intersectional feminist movement.

Also, we are so proud to have worked with the sports committee and sporting community in Sheffield in their 'this girl can' campaign. We have empowered people to take part in body positive exercise, discussed the implications of gender based oppression and violence for sport, and encouraged people to go out running as an act of resistance

Finally, we have raised over £200 on justgiving. Thank you to everyone who donated to help us expand and advance our agenda in 2021. There will be more updates about our 2021 plans on this page as well as our Facebook and Instagram so stay tuned!

Thank you and keep up the resistance!

December update

We have now finished our Six Weeks of Sport for 'This Girl Can'. We loved taking part in a panel discussion with the University of Sheffield sports committee and some amazing speakers from Femsoc, Friends of IRISE, sexpression and Sheffield Uni boob team. We spoke extensively about the various barriers for women trying to get involved in sport and exercise, including issues with consent and sexual assault, periods, confidence, cat-calling, self objectification and slut shaming. Here is a link to the sport's committee Instagram, where you can see all of their work and campaigns, including some summaries of our discussions in this panel.

We ran 5 Body Positive exercise sessions. Look to our 'sport' page for some information about the five principles of body positive exercise and some resources to check out! We will be running more sessions in the new year too!

November update!

Creative exhibition and 'craftivism'

We have been pressing on with our creative activism in a socially-distanced capacity. Go to the 'creative' page to access our Art series. Some highlights of the series include: a beautiful OBOS banner taken around campus; emotional charts with Phillip Lee (see below for a link to his work); a beautiful cross stitch; stickers around Sheffield; and finally a showcase of amazing poetry about sexual harassment.

Collab with Sheffield Uni Feminist Society and SU Women's officer: reclaim the night and the UN 16 days of action against gender based violence

We are very excited to announce that we are collaborating with the Sheffield University Feminist Society on this year's virtual 'reclaim the night' protest. Check out their instagram and facebook accounts for details of events. Some highlights include: spelling CONSENT with a Strava route; exercise classes with This Girl Can and Women's sport clubs (see below), online banner making, a panel discussion and a virtual rally. We will also be using our virtual map and the experience of University Students to take banners around the city and create a photo board to reclaim the streets from perpetrators!

October update!

COVID

COVID-19 restrictions have meant that our campaign needs to focus on digital platforms much more than we anticipated, but we are making progress and hope to engage with people in person as soon as the law permits.

TEAM - BE INVOLVED

We now have a full team of organisers, and have begun to put out research and information via our digital activism series on social media. This month, we are looking to expand our profile, work on more creative and informative content, and build up a base of project contributors and supporters. Under the 'Welcome' section you can find information about how to get involved with various teams.

EXPERIENCE MAP

To help build our creative projects and other future activism, we have created an Experience Map (which can be found on the tabs bar above). This shows cases of street harassment experienced by victims across Sheffield. Mapping our experiences is a powerful tool of validation, and can show the scale of the problem to potential allies and supporters. If you have a location and an experience (or more than one!) please send it via Instagram direct message to @ourbodiesourstreets or to ourbodiesourstreets@gmail.com to help add to our visual representation of the problem!

CREATIVE

To kick off our campaign for the new academic year, our creative team are producing an art series that showcases work focusing on the experience of catcalling and street harassment. We will be continually updating the website with the latest visual art, poetry, prose and videography from our contributors. This aims to meet our objective of empowering victims to reclaim their bodies, as well as sending a message to perpetrators that street harassment and catcalling are unacceptable and victims are fighting back.

COLLABORATIONS

We are working with various University of Sheffield societies such as Poetrysoc and Artsoc, whose members work will be featured in the online exhibition. We are excited to be working with Sheffield Artist Philip Lee (he/him) on an 'emotional archive' project which logs the experience and impact of street harassment.

Check out Philip's work!

If you would like to get involved with our October plans, email ourbodiesourstreets@gmail.com

*Coming Up in November!*

OBOS / THIS GIRL CAN / SPORTS COMMITTEE COLLAB

Our Sports and Exercise team are excited to announce that after our Art Series, OBOS will be collaborating with the University of Sheffield Sports Committee on their 'This Girl Can' campaign.

We are inspired and motivated by the 'This Girl Can' movement, and to recognise and support this, we are undertaking three major events: A panel discussion, a Strava Protest run, and a series of Body Positive Exercise sessions, supported by Sheffield University Sports clubs. Scroll down to the Sport section to find out more!

We have created a map of locations where victims have experienced catcalling and street harassment. We believe that this documentation is a powerful form of validation and provides a basic level of empowerment for victims, as well as making the issue tangible for non-victims. We will use this to build our research, show evidence to Council, protest actions and creative projects.

You can view the map

To submit an experience to the map with consent, please fill in this form:

If you are immediate danger:  call 999 or Samaritans on 116 123

Please refer to this support services directory if you are in need of support from your experiences.

Email Evie (she/her) Campaign coordinator with general or publicity enquiries!

We are very excited to announce that we are collaborating with the Sheffield University Feminist Society, the women's committee and our women's officer on this year's 16 days of action against gender based violence. Check out their instagram and facebook accounts for details of events. Some highlights include: spelling CONSENT with a Strava route; exercise classes with This Girl Can and Women's sport clubs (see below), online banner making, a panel discussion and a virtual rally. We will also be using our virtual map and the experience of University Students to take banners around the city and create a photo board to reclaim the streets from perpetrators!

The best way to check out all of these events is via our instagram! @ourbodiesourstreets

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have had to steer our campaign in a digital direction.

We are going to hold virtual seminars in months to come to discuss intersectionality, allyship, creating feminist art, and exercising with body positivity in mind.

Our research team have produced these handy slides which explain the issues our campaign deals with.

Email Rebekah (she/her) with research inquiries.

We were so excited to collaborate with SUTCo to produce this video workshop on Street Harassment for 'Embrace', their online theatre festival. Check out the video!

Our creative team aim to use written, visual and auditory artwork to help empower victims, inspire allies and send a message to perpetrators that street harassment is not a compliment and is unacceptable.

As well as running this website, our social media accounts and collaborating with our University journalists, the creative team are publishing an art series this October and November which showcases work dealing with the experiences of being catcalled/ harassed.

Get in touch with Bethan (she/her) to get involved creatively!

Our Sport and exercise team aim to empower victims to use their bodies and liberate themselves from the self-objectification perpetuated by street harassment. They are working with Sport Sheffield clubs, and hope to work with external organisations in Sheffield.

Collab with University of Sheffield Sports Committee and This Girl Can followed by six weeks of sport!

The amazing sports committee at the University of Sheffield is campaigning for This Girl Can from the 16th-30th of November - and we are joining them! This Girl Can is an amazing organisation, with whom we share many aims and motivations! We are using this campaign to kick off our Six Weeks of Sport. This will involve the following events:

One of Our Sport leaders, Agnes took part in a panel discussion hosted by the sports committee with various societies and groups at the University of Sheffield to discuss empowering women to get involved in sports and use their bodies. The conclusions and outcomes of this discussion are available on their instagram page

We are holding a socially distanced 'protest run' on Strava. Participants are going to run a cumulative distance of 64 miles in 2 weeks to represent the 64% of women in the UK who have experienced street harassment, according to surveys by 'Stop Street Harassment'. We will do this wearing pink and purple in support of This Girl Can, and the event is open to all genders, victims and allies alike!

We have been working with Sports Clubs at the University of Sheffield to deliver weekly sport sessions focused on the principles of body positivity and celebrating our bodies for the amazing tools they are! Check out a summary of the sessions on our instagram page '@ourbodiesourstreets'

Street harassment, like all feminist issues, is intersectional. LGBTQ+ people, people of colour and disabled people are disproportionately impacted by sexual harassment in general, including catcalling and street harassment. Our movement aims to recognise and articulate the unique experiences of patriarchal oppression faced by different groups.

To do this, it is imperative that we create an inclusive and openly critical space, where a diverse range of lived experiences lead all of our actions. Our intersectionality team monitors the diversity and inclusivity of our movement, and shares the experiences of more marginalised voices within the feminist community. We will hold open discussions on the intersectionality of the issue at regular intervals to ensure the campaign is engaging with these experiences.

If you would like to get involved with this team or contribute any insights, knowledge or information, please Email Will (he/him)

These information slides explain the intersectional elements of street harassment, focusing upon how it impacts people of colour, disabled people and LGBTQ+ people.

One of our objectives is to foster a culture of allyship among non-victims of street harassment. We are creating a network of people who can use their position of relative privilege to support victims, challenge uncomfortable incidents and dismantle the toxic masculinity in their social circles which perpetuates harassment.

Here is some information about how to be a good ally!

The team will be running allyship conversations, workshops and bystander intervention classes in soon!

Email Joe (he/him) to join the movement as an ally

OBOS founder Evie Hairsine spoke to the Star, the BBC and the Sheffield Tab about our recent petition asking Sheffield City Council to light up our parks. Find it by looking at our updates section. The Star article features a response from councillor Mary Lea to our petition, so make sure to check that out.

OBOS founder Evie Hairsine wrote a column for the Sheffield Telegraph in November about her experiences of street harassment and her ambitions for the campaign.

'Men at our university need to realise that not only do they personally know the victims of street harassment, but they probably know the perpetrators, and it is also their responsibility to intervene'

Creative organiser, Kerry Lindeque wrote a piece about our campaign and what we hope to achieve for the Steel City Standard.

"Since we started Our Bodies Our Streets last July, I can already feel more of a dialogue about street harassment being opened up. Sheffield is a place where we should feel safe and, while that might not be the case right now, change is happening. So, watch out catcallers, because Sheffield’s streets belong to everyone and, from now on, we’re taking them back."

OBOS founder, Evie Hairsine contributed to an Article by Rosie Caldwell, CEO of Plan International, in the Telegraph about the rise of public sexual harassment during the pandemic and the impact of this on young women.

"As Evie, 19, from Sheffield told us: “When I am out running on the roads, groups of men shout at me from their cars or beep their horns. On the street they talk amongst themselves whilst pointedly staring at me and laughing, clearly making inappropriate comments. I have considered changing my route, but the parks where I live are not lit properly at night, so I’d be scared to run there. However, if I run on the roads, I experience street harassment. So, it is basically impossible to avoid."

OBOS was featured in issue 4 of intersectional feminist zine 'Sullen'. Go check out their work!

OBOS founder, Evie Hairsine, wrote an article about ''The Rise of Sexual Harassment on Our Locked Down Streets'' for Forge Press this summer. She explains why she started the campaign and what we hope to achieve.