Carboard sign that reads "Safer Spaces: Rapists Fuck Off"
* Content Warning: sexual violence *
- Label
- Carboard sign that reads "Safer Spaces: Rapists Fuck Off"
- Creator
- Unknown; Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group
- Object Type
- Signs
- Description
- *Content Warning: This caption includes description of sexual violence.* This sign, which reads, "Safer Spaces: Rapists Fuck Off," calls attention to the fact that activist circles are not immune to abuse. As Occupy called out institutional violence, within the movement, Occupy struggled against interpersonal violence, rape, sexual assault, unwanted touching, transphobic and sexist remarks, and cat-calling. In the final weeks of the encampment, organizers attempted to confront the issue, and—in a statement released by one survivor's support team—pushed back against the media’s attempts to discredit the movement. The statement notes that "OWS exists within a broader culture where sexual assault is egregiously common." The activists reinforced that "we have the responsibility and the opportunity to create an alternative to this culture of violence," and they worked towards this by creating the Safer Spaces Working Group; operating a community watch; offering self-defense training; seeking facilitation from Support New York, a transformative justice and survivor support collective who lead accountability processes; and building a 16 square foot "safe house" designed to shelter thirty women.
- Image Description
- This cardboard sign, written in red marker reads, "Safer Spaces: Rapists Fuck Off. Get Hurt!" It includes a yellow sticky note, placed near its center, that says, "You can't live without us'—the govt." Pieces of red duct tape are stuck to the edges of the sign, and the back side of the sign reveals the the cardboard is torn from a paper plates box.
- Citation
- Safer spaces sign, circa 2011; TAM.630 Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group Records; box 20; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University
- Collection
- Occupy Working Group TAM.630
- Themes
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- Declarations
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