Last week, Hollaback!, an organization dedicated to ending street harassment and intimidation, posted a video of a young woman named Shoshanna Roberts being catcalled during a 10-hour walk through the streets of Manhattan. The video claims that Roberts endured over 100 instances of verbal harassment during her walk—a figure that does not include more subtle forms of harassment like winks and whistles.
Though criticized for disproportionately depicting harassment as the work of racial minorities (for which Hollaback! later apologized), the video has sparked a nationwide discussion of this kind of behavior and helped bring to light the problem’s ubiquity for women, especially those living in urban areas. It also serves as a reminder that catcalling, regardless of its commonality, has no place in a society that claims to value gender equality. In response to similar instances at Georgetown this year and the university’s status as an open, urban campus, university administration must strive for transparency in dealing with any harassment of students and with the larger issue of gendered misconduct.
Despite the ostensible protection afforded by the so-called “Georgetown bubble,” the university is located in an urban area and is therefore open to non-student passersby and visitors who are not part of the campus community. This year, Georgetown’s multiple ongoing construction projects have brought outsiders to campus and, in doing so, exposed students to harassment. Just last month, several female students raised concerns to the Voice over verbal harassment directed at them by construction workers operating on campus.
As the university made clear after these incidents came to light, this behavior is unacceptable from anyone on campus, especially those employed by the university. Although Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey and Title IX Coordinator Rosemary Kilkenny pledged to meet with construction company managers and send a clear message of disapproval, the two administrators have not followed up with the Georgetown community regarding this discussion. Until it is clear what exactly was said to avert similar incidences in the future, the university will not have succeeded in fostering a dialogue of the kind needed to address these issues both on campus and nationwide.
In addition to representing a serious violation of individuals’ sense of personhood and safety, verbal harassment is symptomatic of a more serious issue present on campus: the sexual victimization of women (and, to a lesser—though no less serious—degree, men). The 4 a.m. sexual assault of a female student in the ICC last week by an individual unaffiliated with the university is a sobering reminder of both Georgetown’s urban and open campus as well as of the ongoing and pernicious effects of objectification.
The university has often stood with students in their fight against such behavior on campus, including last week’s Carry That Weight public event in Red Square in solidarity with sexual assault survivors and an established, robust support network for victims.
But both the university and students are under obligation to address harassment for what it is: a symptom of a greater problem of how individuals regard one another that needs thorough condemnation. If Georgetown is to claim to foster a community in which individuals are respected, it must treat every reported instance of street harassment as an affront to that community through transparent and direct action. As Hollaback! makes clear, it is only by documenting, calling out, and holding individuals responsible for unacceptable behavior that we will begin to create a culture of change.
