This poster will soon adorn a train near you. (Click to enlarge.)
In mid-July, New York City Transit came under fire when word got out about the inactivity surrounding to a few planned anti-groping PSAs. According to reports at the time, the agency had been hesitant to launch an awareness campaign dues to fears that the ads could encourage copycat behavior.
Well, after The Post exposed this odd stalemate, the MTA has decided to act. NYC Transit is set to debut their new PSA — seen above — in train cars throughout the city. This ad will run for at least the next three months. “We think the poster sets the right tone, and provides our female customers the information they need — which is namely that they shouldn’t tolerate such criminal behavior and that they should report it,” Paul Fleuranges, NYCT spokesman, said in an e-mail. “It’s a message that not only applies to women, but also to men who may witness such behavior.”
In explaining the decision to proceed with this ad campaign despite the original copycat concerns, Fleuranges noted that the benefits of this PSA far outnumber the negatives. “The possibility of instigating this type of unwelcome behavior is far outweighed by putting out the message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in the system and is viewed by us and the NYPD as being an extremely serious crime,” he said. “In and of itself the card may not stop all of it, but hopefully we can help put a dent in these occurrences.”
Holla Back New York City, a long-term proponent of these ads, is pleased to see one of their goals realized. They have been pressing the issue since well before Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s 2007 survey found that nearly two-thirds of all women experienced subway harassment. There is little doubt in my mind that displaying these ads is right thing to do.
4 comments
It’s something, but not enough. While shooting a film in the city archives down in the basement of the Tweed Courthouse, my husband found some clippings about a policewoman who rode the subway undercover in the ’20s to catch “mashers, cads and bounders.” It’d be a drag of a job waiting to be groped on a rush hour train, but it may clean up the subways a little faster than posters.
“Report it to an MTA employee”
I’m sure sleeping booth workers are going to be a whole load of help when someone says they were harassed.
[…] a few weeks after debuting its first anti-groping PSA campaign, the MTA is set to expand their efforts at combating sexual harassment […]
[…] sexual harassment occurring on DC’s public transportation. We also know that in the past, NYC and Boston have launched PSAs to raise awareness about sexual harassment on public […]