“Stop Spreading Your Legs, Don’t Occupy My Space!”

Tired of getting harassed and trying to fit into narrow places in public transportation, Istanbul Feminist Collective kicked off a campaign against men sitting with their legs shaped like V. 

IFK activists came up with this idea while they were talking about the struggles they’ve been going through in public transportation. The idea instantly turned into a campaign after having an intense reaction on the social media.  

The reason of this interest is women noticing the campaign photo and realizing that they have the same problem. 

Resist, Stick, Be Free 

“This situation is just men ignoring women and believing they own all public spaces. Trying to have the majority space is completely related to desire of power. With this sticker, we are speaking out our discomfort on this issue,” Tuğçe Sarıgül from IFK told bianet, 

“We recognize the problems in public transportation, we see it on the news and on social media, and we talk about it. But it doesn’t matter how discomforting this spreading legs issue gets, we can’t say “This is harassment.” 

“Realizing what we’ve been through and hearing about our social environment mentioning the same problems, we decided to print these stickers. The second we put them on Twitter, it suddenly became a campaign.”

“When a woman experiences a situation like this,” Sarıgül continued, “it can get disturbing to warn that men, because she doesn’t know what kind of a reaction she will receive.”

“But now, without saying anything we can just put on our stickers. Our message is clear. On the sticker, it already says that this is harassment and our space is occupied. I don’t think men would react back in a disturbing way to this. Plus, if any problems occur, women over there will back us up.” 

“Most of the men know what they’re doing is harassment and they give disturbance to women around them. Even though the actual victims of this situation are women, men started to write about their own discomfort on the social media.”

“If public hears more about this, more women are going to be able to say something on it. If there are any hesitations, women can always stick them on when the buses are deserted. Eventually, someone’s going to read it and receive the message.”

IFK invited all women to join the campaign by downloading the campaign images and printing the stickers. (ÇT/ENÖ/BM)

* Click here for the first image.

* Click here for the second image 

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.