War Zone - a Sad Reality (And what to do about it)

In the last week, our campus has had an alarming and unusally high reporting of community notifications on everything from robbery, indecent exposure, and sexual assualt. It is scary. In beautiful, charming Charleston, I wouldn't think that I should be afraid to walk around by myself.

However, after watching the film "War Zone" in my class this week, I realized, as a woman, I always walk around afraid - of dirty comments, sleazy stares, inappropriate touching or worse, some sort of attack. All women do.

This chilling documentary by Maggie Hadleigh-West articulates this fear and brings the issue to light. The concept of the film was summarized perfectly in a review by the EdChange Multicultural Pavilion: "The context for War Zone is powerful in its simplicity. Hadleigh-West, equipped with a video camera, walks through four major cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans) to record the day-to-day abuse—sexualized comments, objectifying stares, uninvited physical contact, and other forms of harassment and sexism—women experience that rob them of the basic right to walk safely and comfortably in their own neighborhoods (or anywhere else). She challenges the continued institutional denial of sexism and its implications by documenting what may be its most pervasive and effective element—that even in the most public spaces, women must operate and function in a war zone.

"But instead of interviewing street harassment scholars or centering her own reactions to and perspectives on her abuse, Hadleigh-West turns the camera, and the heat of the spotlight, on her abusers. The film documents her confrontations with those abusers, but focuses tightly on their reactions to the turning of the tables. Every time she experiences harassment (which runs the gamut from objectifying stares to being followed) she directly turns the camera on the perpetrator. As a result, her abusers as well as (or including) male War Zone viewers, are forced to think and reflect more critically about the ways men maintain dominance and control. More specifically, the film illustrates how men continuously cycle sexism through what many men have traditionally argued to be harmless or natural interactions."

I highly recommend the film. It is scary but impactful.

But here's a fun follow-up. You CAN TAKE ACTION against any of these street harassers. Check out HollaBack Charleston, inspired by Hollaback NYC whose motto is "If you can't slap 'em, Snap 'em." You can vent, take pictures/video, and warn other women to steer clear of certain creepers and locations where they could face the annoyance and/or danger of street harassment.

So, do it :)

Stand up for yourself and give those harrassers a taste of their own medicine!