How Boys Deflect Responsibility for Street Harassment: Class, Race, and Responses to Sexual Violence Awareness Programs

Abstract

This paper shows how boys respond to harassment awareness training programs and analyzes how such audiences might fail to see street harassment as ‘their’ problem (therefore deflecting responsibility for sexual violence). It is based on ethnographic observations of street harassment awareness programs organized in France and interviews with their participants. Boys’ intersectional identities informed how they responded to this program. Boys of color in schools in underprivileged areas argued that racism towards racialized men, rather than the latter’s behavior, often led white women to report being sexually harassed. White boys in schools located in more affluent areas avoided feeling responsible for street harassment by associating violent acts with working-class men or men of colour. I argue that boys are more likely to deflect responsibility for sexual violence when a training program insufficiently relates the message to their personal experiences and lifeworld.