Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Although the Netherlands is o1en seen as a country which is far ahead when it comes to women’s emancipa9on, stranger harassment of women is s9ll very common. In an effort to bring a@en9on to this...Show moreAlthough the Netherlands is o1en seen as a country which is far ahead when it comes to women’s emancipa9on, stranger harassment of women is s9ll very common. In an effort to bring a@en9on to this o1en normalized form of gender based violence, this ar9cle explores what kind of harassment women in Amsterdam experience in public spaces and how this harassment and its poten9ality influences their behaviors in these spaces. The ar9cle is based on an audiovisual, ethnographic study in which women from Amsterdam were extensively interviewed and accompanied on their daily movements through the city. Apart from this ar9cle, the study and its findings are presented in the ethnographic film Hé Meisje (‘What’s Up, Girl’). Findings reveal that women, in an effort to avoid uncomfortable situa9ons and as an answer to their fear of geKng physically harassed, o1en make evalua9ons on where to go or how to behave in public. This shows how they have incorporated the poten9ality of harassment into their daily lives. The fear of harassment restricts women’s mobility, showing how this emo9on is poli9cal, as it helps to reinforce patriarchal ideas on who ‘owns’ public spaces. Although experiencing harassment some9mes might seem subjec9ve, we should not forget that this is a shared experience between all women who are moving through public spaces which are gendered. S9ll women resist harassment by being resilient and by speaking up about it (mainly) outside of actual harassment incidents.Show less
