Dehumanization and Objectification: Street Harassment
Sarah Mikos
In this project, I wanted to explore the issues behind street harassment. As a young woman, this has been a prevalent issue in my life since I was in middle school. All of the women in my life have experienced sexual harassment or sexual violence in some regard. The trauma and the way it has changed the course of their lives is unacceptable. Every woman I know has a story where she has been scared, felt unsafe, or was traumatized due to sexual violence and/or harassment perpetuated by men in public or men they know.
From my personal experience and the experiences of the people in my life, I wanted to understand why specifically sexual harassment is so prevalent, especially due to my time in college where I have experienced large amounts of harassment on the train, as have many of my friends. With the increase in harassment that I have dealt with, and the way it has affected me, and the way it has affected the people I care about, I wanted to research the causes behind what would compel a man to treat another individual that way.
Given that this kind of behavior towards random women would stray so significantly from the kind of respect they would want for women they care about, like their family members, I wanted to determine the causes of this disconnect and the influences that would allow men who harass to think that it is ok or permissible by any means.
In my research, there were a variety of factors that can influence men in terms of them acting sexually aggressive. Religious, cultural, social, and historical factors have culminated over time to create an environment where women are not only objectified and dehumanized, but has fostered an environment where mistreating women to some men is acceptable at best, or that there is nothing wrong with their behavior and that whatever they choose to do or say is not wrong or violating.
Understanding the atmosphere in which these misogynistic and sexist behaviors were developed and how their effects have influenced the way some men view women and interact with them is crucial in restructuring and eventually creating an understanding of what is wrong with their behaviors, even though that will be a long and arduous process that will take a long time with restructuring the social expectations of our society today.