Book Review: Everyday Violence: The Public Harassment of Women and LGBTQ People

Historically, the bulk of gender-based violence research neglected the plight of LGBTQ people targeted by public and private violence and nonphysical forms of street-level abuse like catcalling. Everyday Violence: The Public Harassment of Women and LGBTQ People is an integral part of a rapidly growing body of contemporary, ground-breaking feminist scholarship that is now filling these gaps in the extant literature. Author Simone Kolysh examines not only the meanings of catcalling and LGBTQ-directed aggression, but also their impact.

Kolysh compels us to move beyond narrow, legalistic conceptions of violence like those endemic to the criminal justice system. The main problem with them is the emphasis on survivors’ identities, such as their gender and sexuality, which diverts attention from perpetrators and the factors that motivate them to be violent. Based on rich, in-depth interviews with participants, Kolysh found that catcalling is a serious issue women face on a daily basis and gender nonconforming women are repeatedly targets of homophobic slurs.

One of the key strengths of this book is its detailed focus on men’s involvement in street harassment. We learn that their contribution to this harm emerged as a component of the anti-feminist backlash. We also learn that gender and sexuality are shaped by everyday experiences and often reflect power dynamics and structured social inequality. For example, heterosexual men are seen as superior and have more resources than women, and they use violence and harassment to maintain their power. As some of Kolysh’s interviewees correctly point out, young men today require a much more progressive childhood socialization process. More specifically, interviewees made explicit that young men should be taught to respect women along with their differing experiences and contribute more positively to their culture and community.

Another one of this book’s strengths is Kolysh’s examination of catcalling perpetrators’ responses to being confronted by the resilient targets of their abuse. Kolysh notes that there are “three different ways that the interaction can go: initiators can stop after being rebuffed, rely on humor and ambiguity as weapons, or escalate the situation” (p. 47). Not surprisingly, given offenders’ misogynistic, heteronormative sense of entitlement and ongoing quest to reassert patriarchy, stopping was the least common response. Humor and ambiguity were, on the other hand, the most common responses, with escalating the situation following closely behind.

Consistent with other studies in the field, Kolysh’s empirical work shows that LGBTQ+ community members’ street-level harassment experiences are distinct from those of cisgender and heterosexual people. On the streets, for instance, few people invest time to learn about the diverse nature of the LGBTQ+ community. Rather, people are labeled either gay or straight with no consideration for other sexualities. As well, Kolysh sensitizes us to the fact that transgender recipients of everyday violence have very unique encounters and thus their experiences should be examined separately and not situated in the LGBTQ+ acronym.

Kolysh’s offering will appeal to those seeking restorative justice solutions to the problems of everyday violence and catcalling. Even if one disagrees with such initiatives, progressive alternatives to criminalization are necessary because it is not eliminating the harms covered in this book. A restorative approach, such as transformative justice, does not focus solely on the perpetrator and survivor, but rather makes everyday violence a public problem where community members and their networks receive care.

It may be painfully obvious, but worth stating nonetheless: more research, too, is necessary. Kolysh calls for future studies that avoid grouping all members of the LGBTG+ community into one analytic category so that a more nuanced understanding of the unique experiences of different members can be achieved. Furthermore, noted by Kolysh, a richer social scientific understanding of everyday violence involves not only looking at the intersection of race and sexuality, but also the influence of other factors like disability and body size.

Those familiar Liz Kelly’s (1988) highly influential book Surviving Sexual Violence, especially her concept of the continuum of sexual violence, will immediately note that Kolysh has followed in Kelly’s footsteps. Everyday Violence is a much-needed recent reminder that gender-based violence researchers need to document highly injurious interrelated behaviors that not only include criminal acts but also many harmful acts that are not only outside the purview of criminal law but also minimized and trivialized by the mainstream media and general public.

ORCID iD

Carina Perrone https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-1562