On Thursday, October 2, 2014, visual artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh visited George Mason University to discuss and promote her street art campaign, “Stop Telling Women to Smile.” Ms. Fazlalizadeh, an Oklahoma native, has been involved in the Philadelphia and Brooklyn art scene for several years, and has often produced art that aims to create dialogue and conversation around current issues within American society, including marriage equality and violence against black men.
The “Stop Telling Women to Smile” campaign strives to provide an open criticism and dialogue on the issue of street harassment of women. By wheat pasting her enlarged artwork onto buildings, Ms. Fazlalizadeh uses portraits combined with quotes, such as “Stop Telling Women to Smile,” and “Men Do Not Own the Streets,” to provide a loud statement against the street harassment of women in urban communities.
While on campus, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh gave lectures in two classes and an art workshop open to all of the Mason community. During her lecture to Dr. Manuel-Scott’s AFAM 200 "Introduction to African and African American Studies" class, Ms. Fazlalizadeh stressed her strategic use of public space for her artwork to evoke strong emotions and create dialogue amongst community members. Her strategy has worked. In her presentation, Ms. Fazlalizadeh showed the class images of the artwork on buildings plastered with comments from community members in conversation with the statements on the pictures. As a result, her campaign has not only provided a safe space for the women featured to react to street harassment, but it has also fostered community discussion on the topic of the street harassment of women. This discussion has occurred on the actual artwork on walls of buildings and even around the world through the campaign’s digital presence on Tumblr and other social media outlets.
Following Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s lecture, the class was able to participate in a discussion in response to the artwork. Many people suggested that this street harassment occurs more prevalent in urban areas and that street harassment of women was not a problem within the Mason community. A few students did inquire about the difference between courtship and street harassment - a question which seemed to remain unanswered by the group. While I appreciate Ms. Fazlalizadeh’s attempt to provide a visual critique of street harassment, I do think that her limited mention of women within the LGBTQ community tailors her campaign primarily to the harassment of cisgender, heterosexual women, which suppresses the experiences of some. This suppression of experiences provides only a limited scope of harassment experienced by women. Despite this, Fazlalizadeh’s artwork, lecture and discussion that followed does succeed in creating conversation, allowing room for growth as a community and demanding that women be allowed to freely exist without harassment, restriction or expectations within society.
October 13, 2014
