To what extent does the trivialization of street harassment of 10-year-old girls contribute to exacerbating the phenomenon? This is a troubling question raised by reading a recent study showing that, from an early age, young girls are victims of what could be called street pedocriminality. Worse: they dare not talk about what they have experienced and, if they do, their words are often received with a shrug.
A qualitative study produced jointly by the Women’s Education and Action Center of Montreal (CEAF) and UQAM hands over the microphone to Montreal women and girls who tell how, from early childhood, getting around in the street or taking the metro have become gestures that they have stopped making without being on the lookout, aware that they are of a threat that hovers in the public space.
Exaggeration? No, because unfortunately the figures are there to confirm that the danger exists. In Quebec, 11% of women say they were victims of sexual assault committed by an adult before the age of 15, according to a study by the National Institute of Public Health published in 2022. That’s huge.
Last fall, researchers from UQAM concluded that two out of three people, in a batch of 3,300 respondents, had experienced street harassment in 2020-2021. On the street, in a park, on a sidewalk or in a parking lot, day or night. Shockingly, more than half of those harassed said they received no help from witnesses to the events.
The testimonies collected by the CEAF and UQAM recount the fear of walking alone in the street, the avoidance and camouflage reflexes developed by the girls, the shame of relating the aggression that occurred in broad daylight, the unsuccessful attempts to challenge those around you to denounce it. This axis of confessions is revolting, because it is indeed in the trivialization and the absence of denunciation that we participate, as a society, in protecting the aggressors.
The danger of trivialization is abysmal. This is why, in a school where a teacher with wandering hands prevails, the law of silence is essential, and leaves victims in its wake. Coupled with the fear of meddling in the affairs of others, trivialization leaves small and big dramas to be forged in homes, establishments, businesses and also in the streets. We saw, we heard, we knew, but we didn’t want to get involved. Hide this drama that I cannot see.