Learn How To Deal With Street Harassment Through L’Oréal Paris’ Stand Up Programme

L’Oréal Paris continues to support Stand Up Against Street Harassment this year in partnership with NGO Hollaback!. An international survey on sexual harassment in public spaces, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, researchers at Cornell University and L’Oréal Paris revealed that 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. Staggeringly only 25% of victims say someone helped and 86% of us do not know what to do when we witness it happening. L’Oréal Paris' Stand Up programme aims to train 1 million people in the best way to combat street harassment by the end of 2022. The programme started back in November 2020 and the training, which focuses on how to combat street harassment as a bystander, is centred on NGO Hollaback!'s five Ds. Click here to learn more and train up!

Distract

If you are a witness to harassment Hollaback states that distraction is 'a subtle and creative way to intervene'. The website advises: 'The idea is to ignore the harasser and engage directly with the person who is being targeted. Don’t talk about or refer to the harassment. Instead, talk about something completely unrelated.' Hollaback suggests pretending to be lost, asking for the time, pretending you know the person being harassed or simply continue what you were doing originally and getting between the harasser and the target.

Delegate

Delegate means asking for assistance or for help from another person. Hollaback suggests finding a store supervisor, a bus driver or a nearby employee and asking them to intervene. The website also advises 'Speak to someone near you who notices what’s happening and might be in a better position to intervene. Work together.'

Watch: STAND UP Let's Act Together Against Street Harassment

Document

The Hollaback website states 'It can be really helpful to record an incident as it happens to someone, but there are a number of things to keep in mind to safely and responsibly document harassment.' Visit WITNESS for more guidance on the do's and don'ts of documenting an incident of harassment.

Delay

Hollaback explains 'Even if you can’t act in the moment, you can make a difference for the person who has been harassed by checking in on them after the fact. Many types of harassment happen in passing or very quickly, in which case you can wait until the situation is over and speak to the person who was targeted then.'

Direct

Though you may have the urge to directly confront the harasser in the moment Hollabackurges caution with this approach: 'This tactic can be risky: the harasser may redirect their abuse towards you and may escalate the situation. Before you decide to respond directly, assess the situation: Are you physically safe? Is the person being harassed physically safe? Does it seem unlikely that the situation will escalate? Can you tell if the person being harassed wants someone to speak up? If you can answer yes to all of these questions, you might choose a direct response. We don’t ever want you to get hurt trying to help someone out. Always think about safety and consider possibilities that are unlikely to put you or anyone else in harm’s way.'

For more information on the five Ds click here to visit ihollaback.org/bystander-resources/

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