According to a YouGov poll of female tenants commissioned by housing charity Shelter, a quarter of a million women have experienced a landlord asking for sexual favours in exchange for free or discounted rent. UK media outlet The Time reported as follows:

One woman reported “a landlord showing up nightly, sitting in my bedroom and refusing to leave”. Another said she had received a text after viewing a flat saying she “could have it for free if I performed some very explicit sexual acts with him”. A third described how “the landlord made a pass at me while his wife was asleep upstairs”.

The poll follows reports of online classified advertisements offering accommodation in return for sexual favours. Many female tenants said they had been the victim of “sexual harassment” including “uninvited touching (arm around shoulders), creepy behaviour” and the landlord entering their bedrooms while they were naked. One recalled that she had been evicted 13 years ago when she refused her landlord’s demands.

“My landlord asked me for sex when I could not pay in full rent for one month. The following month I still could not afford full payment and I still refused to make love with him so he threw me out.”

Read the full article here.

A new study out of Northwestern University has revealed teenage girls’ experiences of pressure and coercion from boys to send nude images.

Researchers analysed 500 accounts from teenage girls, finding that two- thirds were asked to send explicit photos, with boys engaging in threats and harassment if they did not comply. In response, 20% of girls gave in.

The adolescent girls shared the immediate and long-term repercussions of saying no to boy’s demands, with boys getting angry and threatening to end their relationships.

Of 500 accounts, only 12 revealed there was no backlash from refusing boy’s requests for nude images. Girls described feeling trapped, stuck or scared of the consequences of both sending and not sending photos. One even reported death threats after saying no. Others found a compromise, sending a picture of their face or a photo they found on the internet.

None of the girls who sent photos reported feeling any relief or benefit, and expressed fear of photos being distributed and lower self-esteem.

“A guy sent a naked picture of me to the whole school including my principal and my parents then everyone who got it sent it to their phonebooks which resulted in about 300 plus people having my naked body on their phone,” one girl said. 

From the Daily Mail:

Researchers found that the girls often felt the burden of the situation as their issue and not a problem with the boy.

“Young women’s language suggested that they did not problematize the boys’ coercive and threatening behaviour. Young men were not criticised or denounced for sharing young women’s (presumably) consensually shared bodies without their consent,” Thomas said in the study.

This research is consistent with our experiences meeting with young women in high schools around the country, who describe feeling coerced into sending sexual images and performing unwanted sex acts by their male classmates. An all too common refrain we hear is “How do I say no without hurting his feelings?”

In 2014, Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist recorded messages from teenage girls to be shared with the boys. Several of these messages touched on pressure from boys and the consequences girls faced when they didn’t comply with their wishes:

‘If we reject your request to send a sexual image, please don’t stop talking to us.’

‘If we say no, accept it, don’t try to persuade us.’

‘Respect our boundaries.’

‘Just because we don’t say no doesn’t mean we are saying yes.’

Read the full list here.

Current and former employees of Honey Birdette continue to fight back against the company over poor work conditions and sexual harassment.

We love to hear positive stories of men taking action on the sexploitation of women. That is why we were so encouraged when Laurie chose to speak out after seeing the sexualised imagery on Makita's home page. 

A UK gym has been called out for sexist billboard advertisements depicting a woman's backside alongside the slogan "There's better things to be stuck behind than the car in front."

Recently an article on The Modern Man was released with advice for men on how to talk to a woman who is wearing headphones. It included conversation starters and common mistakes to avoid. 

Caitlin spoke to Huffington Post and set the record straight:

It has come to our attention that Merriwa Tavern The Sixty 30 has made an application to vary existing trading conditions to allow topless waitresses or ‘skimpies’.

As an organisation that fights against commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls, Collective Shout strongly opposes this application on the grounds that:

• The use of women’s bodies in sexual entertainment and services is a form of prostitution
• Sexual trade in women’s bodies both causes and contributes to gender inequality by reducing women to mere objects for men’s use and enjoyment, with adverse impacts on women who are directly involved as well as women as a whole
• A significant body of research links sexual objectification of women with violence against women 
• Sexploitation venues pose a threat to women, with women reporting increased incidents of sexual harassment, abuse and violence in areas in close proximity to strip clubs

We have a saying at Collective Shout:

Doughnut Time joins a growing number of companies requiring young staff members to wear uniforms with sexually suggestive slogans and imagery. We have long raised questions about this exploitation of young female staff and invitation for sexual harassment. 

Collective Shout's National Director of Operations Coralie Alison was quoted in The Age over uniforms for female staff with strategically placed doughnuts.

Sexualised slogans on staff uniforms leave young employees vulnerable to sexual harassment