Femme de la rue

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Movie
Original title Femme de la rue
Country of production Belgium
original language Flemish , English , French
Publishing year 2012
length 24 minutes
Rod
Director Sofie Peeters

Femme de la rue is a Belgian documentary from 2012 thatdealswith verbal sexual harassment on the streets around central Brussels Anneesens Square. With her master's thesis, the film student Sofie Peeters wanted to draw attention to the extent of the harassment and insults she herself often experienced. The film sparked debates about sexism and racism in Belgium and France.

action

Peeters is also the protagonist of the film. Dressed in jeans and a cardigan, in other scenes with a summer dress and half-height boots, the young woman walks along the streets and is filmed with a hidden camera. In addition to invitations to coffee or clear requests to have sex, she is referred to as a "whore" or "slut", men hiss and whistle after her. In further scenes, Peeters talks to women about their strategies to avoid harassment. They refrain from wearing skirts, avoid certain streets and instead make detours and try to avoid any eye contact with men on the street. One of the women reports that she refrains from using local public transport, another uses headphones to protect herself against derogatory remarks. One of the young women is shown moving out of the neighborhood, citing the sexual harassment as a reason to leave the area.

Peeters confronts her molester directly with the camera and asks them why. In response, she was told that she was to blame for the comments because she dressed “provocatively” and was traveling without a male companion. She shouldn't take the sayings seriously and feel flattered. For men it is just a pastime to address women. A young man explains the harassment by saying that young men in Islamic communities are sexually frustrated by making sexuality taboo.

reception

The 24-minute film quickly spread over the Internet and met with great interest. In Belgium, politicians then discussed sexual harassment and how to prosecute it. Since September 2012, perpetrators have been threatened with a fine of 250 euros for sexist harassment. Under the Twitter hashtags #harcelementderue (harassment on the street) and later also #harcelementdemetro (harassment in the metro), those affected shared their own experiences with sexual harassment in public spaces. The French feminist organization "Osez Le Feminisme" linked the film with its own comic, which in turn shows how women harass men on the street.

Since the perpetrators in the documentary are often of non-Belgian origin and, judging by language and appearance, many of them apparently come from North Africa, Peeters was often confronted with accusations of racism. She defended herself by saying in an interview that the film was more about the social status of the neighborhood than about ethnic origins. She said nine out of ten offenders were of foreign origin, but warned against lumping everyone together.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The road belongs to men , article in the Tagesspiegel from August 12, 2012, accessed on March 24, 2016
  2. ↑ Running the gauntlet through Brussels , article in Friday August 6, 2012, accessed on March 24, 2016
  3. ^ "Two sexist sayings in five minutes" , article in the Tages-Anzeiger on August 4, 2012, accessed on March 25, 2016