XYX LAB presents
Consenting cities
Consenting Cities endeavours to reveal gender-specific safety data to its audiences through an interactive augmented reality triggered by the iconography of geometric shapes, images and icons that cover the wall of the Palazzo Mora passageway.
May 20—November 26, 2023
European Cultural Centre
Palazzo Mora
Strada Nuova 3659
30121 Venezia
Italy
Opening hours:
10:00am—6:00pm, daily
Closed on Tuesday
Free entry
August 1-11, September 4-6
Monash University Chancellery Building
May 22—June 3, 2023
No Vacancy Gallery
Wednesday 24 May, 2023
No Vacancy Gallery
Sunday 24 September, 2023
Palazzo Mora, Venice
Help us to gather more information about the typologies of public safety for women, girls and gender-diverse people. As you traverse your city, suburb or town use this link to ‘label’ the space you’re in as ‘safe’.
Much of the data in Consenting Cities relates to spaces identified as ‘unsafe’. We’re keen to know more about the spaces you feel safe in. Where are they (your location)? What are they (park, transport hub, bar, etc)? And, what makes them feel safe (lighting, people, vibe, etc)?
Simply follow the prompts in the link and allow the app to access your camera. Tap the screen and the ‘XYX SAFE’ graphic will appear in your smartphone as though part of your environment. Adjust the size and position, then screen grab the image and share it with us through Instagram.
Be sure to tag us @xyxLab and #consentingcities. Remember to let your audience know where your spaces are, and describe the characteristics that make them feel safe for you.
You can share this AR experience with others using this QR code:
Explore all the data points represented in the Consenting Cities exhibition through the icons below. Each shape embedded in the design is coded to a specific typology: squares for 'public space', circles for 'public transport', stars for 'after dark', and so on. You can see all the data together, or select the particular data you're interested in by filtering through each individual typology identified below.
Women and girls globally are routinely making strategic decisions to avoid sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces.
Vera-Gray, Fiona, and Liz Kelly. 2020. “Contested Gendered Space: Public Sexual Harassment and Women’s Safety Work.” International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 44 (4): 265–75.
Between 2010 and 2018, rates of sexual assault victimisation recorded by police for Australians aged 15 and over rose by more than 30%.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Sexual assault in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2020.
A corruption and misconduct investigation into Melbourne’s Public Transport Protective Services Officers found that one in six complaints about them related to predatory behaviour.
IBAC. Transit Protective Services Officers: An exploration of corruption and misconduct risks. Melbourne Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission, 2016, 17.
of women surveyed in India had been groped in public.
ActionAid UK. Fearless. London: ActionAID UK, 2016.
of women in Mexico City will be sexually assaulted at minimum once in their life while using public transport.
Dunckel Graglia, Amy. “Finding mobility: Women negotiating fear and violence in Mexico City’s public transit system.” Gender, Place & Culture 23, no.5 (2016): 624–640.
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Australians with a disability report being a victim of image-based abuse.
Henry, Nicola, Anastasia Powell and Asher Flynn.
Not just ‘revenge pornography’: Australians’ experiences of image-based abuse. A summary report. Melbourne: RMIT University, 2017, 2.
Closed spaces such as underpasses, tunnels or dead-end streets are commonly mentioned to be the most frightening places.
Koskela, Hille. ‘‘Bold Walk and Breakings’: Women’s spatial confidence versus fear of violence”, Gender, Place & Culture, 4:3, 301-320, 2010
of women in Brazil have been subjected to harassment or violence in public.
Jayasinghe, Daphne, and Rachel Noble. 2015. “Fearless: Standing with Women and Girls to End Violence.” London: ActionAid.
of women surveyed in India had been groped in public.
ActionAid UK. Fearless. London: ActionAID UK, 2016.
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females had experienced a sexual assault during their time as a student.
Mellgren et al. Hidden Marks: A study of women students’ experiences of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault. National Union of Students (NUS) London, 2017.
of Australian women do not feel safe walking alone at night.
Johnson, Molly and Ebony Bennet. Everyday sexism: Australian women’s experiences of street harassment. Canberra: The Australia Institute, 2015.
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Swedish university students reported one or more incidents of sexual harassment, mostly taking place in clubs and restaurants.
Mellgren et al. Hidden Marks: A study of women students’ experiences of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault. National Union of Students (NUS) London, 2017.
of school and college students in Delhi reported having been harassed while using public transport and 42% having faced harassment while waiting for public transport.
Tripathi, Kartikeya, Herve ́ Borrion, and Jyoti Belur. "Sexual Harassment of Students on Public Transport: An Exploratory Study in Lucknow, India." Crime Prev Community Saf 19, (2017): 240-250. Accessed April 19, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41300-017-0029-0.
women in Lebanon have experienced street-based violence perpetrated by men over their lifetime.
El Feki, Shereen, Brian Heilman, and Gary Barker, eds. 2017. Understanding Masculinities: Results from the international men and gender equality survey (IMAGES) – Middle East and North Africa. Cairo andWashington, D.C.: UNWomen and Promundo-US, 146.
of sexual harassment incidents on public transport in New York are not reported to police or transit authorities
Gekoski, Anna, Jaqueline M. Gray, Miranda A.H. Horvath, Sarah Edwards, Aliye Emirali and Joanna R. Adler. ‘What works’ in reducing sexual harassment and sexual offences on public transport nationally and internationally: a rapid evidence assessment. London: Middlesex University, British Transport Police and the Department for Transport, 2015.
of women in Kigali are concerned about going to educational institutions after dark.
Cooke, Liz. 2015. “Resources.” Gender & Development 23 (1): 145–157.
of Japanese commuters were bothered by staring and groping on public transport.
Earle , Beverley H and Madek Gerald A. “An International Perspective on Sexual Harassment Law” ,in Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 1994.
In Spain Gender-based discrimination (78%) was identified as the most common form of discrimination affecting the incidents.
Kalms, Nicole, Gill Matthewson and Sophie Tanner. Free to Be. Madrid. Surrey: Plan International, 2019.
In São Paulo, a woman is assaulted in apublic space every 15 seconds.
To feel safer women and girls change the way they dress, their behaviour and their movements
ActionAid UK. Fearless. London: ActionAID UK, 2016
of Italian women do not feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where they live.
OECD. “Society at a Glance 2019. A Spotlight on LGBT People.
How does Italy Compare?” Published March 27, 2019.
of women aged between 15 and 24 in Canada have taken measures to protect themselves from online harassment, bullying and other offensive behaviour.
Cotter, Adam and Laura Savage. Gender based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. Canada: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2019.
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of LGBTIQ students have been sexually harassed at school.
Kosciw, Joseph G., Emily A. Greytak, Mark J. Bartkiewicz, Madelyn J. Boesen, & Neal A. Palmer. 2012. The 2011 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in our nation’s schools. New York: GLSEN.
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Australian women have experienced sexual harassment since
the age of 15.
Henry, Nicola, Anastasia Powell, and Asher Flynn. 2017. "Not just ‘revenge pornography’: Australians’ experiences of image-based abuse." A summary report. Melbourne: RMIT University, (1): 1-9. El Feki, Shereen, Brian Heilman, and Gary Barker, eds. 2017.
90% of girls aged 10–18 years in Bangladesh had faced harassment on the street, particularly by street vendors, rickshaw pullers, bus drivers and bus passengers
Kearl, Holly. Stop Street Harassment: Making Public places safe and welcoming for women. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010, 2.
of women in France using public transport said they had been subjected to catcalling or intimidating comments about their appearance.
Statista Research Department. "In 2016, how Often Were You Harassed on Public Transit?" Statista. June 14, 2016. https://www.statista.com/statistics/767136/frequency-harassment-women-transport-network-public-la-france/.
of women in Buenos Aires felt insecure on public transport.
Allen, Heather, Galo Cárdenas, Leda Pereyra and Lake Sangaris. Ella Se Mueve Segura: A study on women’s personal safety in public transport in three Latin American cities. Caracas: CAF and FIA Foundation, 2017.
1 in 4 female transit riders in the Ile-de-France part of Paris cannot change their travel mode despite feeling unsafe. They are “transit captives”.
Ding, Hao, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Asha Weinstein Agrawal. “Sexual Harassment and Assault in Transit Environments: A Review of the English-language Literature.”Journal of Planning Literature 35, no. 3, (2020): 267–280, 274.
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of LGBTIQ survey respondents in the EU have been attacked or threatened with violence.
European Agency for Fundamental Rights. LGBT person’s experiences of discrimination and hate crime in the EU and Croatia. Vienna: European Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2013.
Women in the USA most frequently report experiencing sexual harassment in a public space like a street, park or store.
UC San Diego Centre on Gender Equity and Health, and Stop Street Harassment. Measuring #MeToo: A National Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault. San Diego: UC San Diego Centre on Gender Equity and Health 2019.
According to Metropolitan Police data, homophobic hate crime in London spiked 20% following the Brexit referendum and rose by 11% over the year to July 2018.
Campkin, Ben; Marshall, Laura. “London’s nocturnal queer geographies”, Soundings. A journal of politics and culture, Issue 70, 82-96, London, 2018.
of LGBTIQ students have been sexually harassed at school.
Kosciw, Joseph G, Emily A. Greytak, Mark J.Bartkiewicz, Madelyn J.Boesen and Neal A.Palmer. The 2011 National School Climate survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in our nation’s schools. New York: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2012.
of foreign women in Egypt have had their opinion of Egyptian society negatively impacted because of experiences of sexual harassment
Shoukry, Aliyaa, Hassan Rasha and Nehad Komsan. Clouds in Egypt’s sky, sexual harassment: From verbal harassment to rape. Cairo: Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR).
of women aged between 18 and 24 who drink in London’s bars, clubs or pubs said they expected inappropriate comments, touching and behaviour on a night out.
Greater London Authority. Women’s Night Safety Charter Toolkit.
London: Greater London Authority, 2019, 3.
For Australian women the most common forms of non-physical street harassment are honking and wolf whistling (79%). 68% have experienced lewd gestures, 62% sexist comments while another 60% have been subject to repeated unwelcome sexual advances
Johnson, Molly and Ebony Bennett. Everyday sexism: Australian women’s experiences of street harassment. Canberra: Australia Institute, 2015.
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women in Canada experienced unwanted sexual behaviour
in public.
Cotter, Adam and Laura Savage. Gender based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. Canada: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2019.
of women in Britain aged 18-24 have experiences unwanted sexual attention, and 45% unwanted sexual touching in public spaces.
UK Parliament. "Sexual Harassment of Women and Girls Examined by Committee." UK Parliament. January 15, 2018. https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/news/102175/sexual-harassment-of-women-and-girls-examined-by-committee/.
of victim survivors of sexual violence in Australia do not report to police.
Fileborn, Bianca, Phillip Wadds and Stephen Tomsen.
“Sexual harassment and violence at Australian music festival:
Reporting practices and experiences of festival attendees.”
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 53, no.2 (2020): 194–212, 195.
of women in the United Kingdom have experienced unwanted sexual harassment in public places.
Kearl, Holly. Unsafe and harassed in public spaces: A national street harassment report. Reston: Stop Street Harassment, 2014.
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A UK study found that women have approximately twice the amount of anxiety and fear around transportation settings.
Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia. “Fear and Safety in transit environments from the women’s perspective.” Security Journal 27, no. 2 (2014): 245
of female transit riders in the Ile-de-France reported feeling unsafe in transport environments and considered avoiding using transit after dark or changing their means of transportation
Ding, Hao, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Asha Weinstein Agrawal. “Sexual Harassment and Assault in Transit Environments: A Review of the English-language Literature.” Journal of Planning Literature 35, no. 3, (2020): 267–280, 274.
of women in the USA have experienced some form of harassment on the street.
Kearl, Holly. Unsafe and harassed in public spaces: A national street harassment report. Reston: Stop Street Harassment, 2014.
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women and girls participating in an XYX Lab and Plan International study said that they never returned to a location where they experience harassment or violence in Sydney.
Kalms, Nicole, Gill Matthewson and Isabella Webb. Safety after dark: Creating a city for women living and working in Sydney. Sydney: Committee for Sydney, 2019.
of survey respondants in London avoided being open about their gender identity for fear of a negative reaction from others.
UK Government Equalities Office. National LGBT Survey: Summary Report. London, 2018.
of female survey respondents in Santiago, Chile, felt insecure on public transport.
pg 4, https://www.fiafoundation.org/media/461162/ella-se-mueve-segura-she-moves-safely.
A study in the USA found that 26% of women reported being stalked online and 25% were the target of online sexual harassment
Vitak, Jessica, Kalyani Chadha, Linda Steiner and Zahra Ashktorab. “Identifying women’s experiences with and strategies for mitigating negative effects of online harassment.” In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, Portland, 2017, 1231–1245. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2017.
of adolescent girls in Lima reported being sexually harassed when travelling by public transport
Kalms, Nicole, Gill Matthewson and Sophie Tanner. Free to Be. Lima. Surrey: Plan International, 2019.
of transgender people have been verbally harassed or disrespected in a restaurant, store, hotel or government agency.
Benner, Jade. 2016. "Trans* Folks in Motion: Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals' Experiences of Transit and Transit Spaces." Honours Thesis, Portland State University . Paper 288.
of women in the USA don’t feel safe walking home at night.
Kearl, Holly. Unsafe and harassed in public spaces: A national street harassment report. Reston: Stop Street Harassment, 2014.
of school and college students in Delhi reported having been harassed while using public transport and 42% have faced harassment while waiting for public transport.
Tripathi, Kartieya, Hervé Borrion and Jyoti Belur. “Sexual harassment of students on public transport: an exploratory study in Lucknow, India.” Crime prevention and community safety 19, no.3–4 (2017): 240–250, 241.
of survey respondents in Lima, felt that gender-based discrimination was the reason for being targeted.
Kalms, Nicole, Gill Matthewson and Sophie Tanner. Free to Be. Lima. Surrey: Plan International, 2019.
In a study of university students using public transport in Nigeria, women were more than twice as likely to experience non-verbal sexual harassment.
Otu, Smart E. and Agugua Augustine O. “LAGOS, NIGERIA”. In Transit Crime and Sexual Violence in Cities. International Evidence and Prevention, edited by Vania Ceccato and Anastasia Loukaitous-Sideris, 80-86. New York: Routledge, 2020.
of young women surveyed by Plan International Australia believing it was unsafe to travel alone on public transport after dark.
Plan International Australia, Our Watch. A Right to the Night. Australian girls on their safety in public places. Melbourne: Plan International Australia, Our Watch, 2016.
Several LGBTQIA+ groups in Hong Kong appropriate public spaces on Sundays, specifically for the representation and empowerment of LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Marrz Saludez Balaoro & Merve Bedir. ‘Beyond Queer solidarity in Hong Kong: Migrant Domestic Workers and trans spaces’ Contentious Cities Routledge, London 2021, p.210.
Monash University XYX Lab has conducted research in gendered spatial equality across five continents
of Beijing residents cited public buses as a common location for sexual harassment.
Ikram, Kiran, Nimra Ishtiaq, and Nayab Javed. 2022. “Street Harassment of Women in Lahore; Experiences, Consequences and Reporting Mechanism.” Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies 8, no. 2 (June): 301–312.
of female survey respondents in Quito, Ecuador, felt insecure on public transport.
Allen, Heather, Galo Cárdenas, Leda Pereyra and Lake Sangaris. 2018. “Ella Se Mueve Segura: A study on women’s personal safety in public transport in three Latin American cities.” Caracas: CAF and FIA Foundation, 4. http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/1405.
of Japanese women have had at least one experience of being harassed on commuter trains.
Horii, Mitsutoshi and Adam Burgess. “Contructing sexual risk: ‘Chilan’, collapsing male authority and the emergence of women-only train carriages in Japan.” Health, Risk & Society 14, no.1 (2012): 41-55.
of female bar goers aged between 19 and 29 have experienced sexual touching or persistence. 46% had experienced both.
Graham, Kathryn, Sharon Bernards, Antonia Abbey, Tara M. Dumas and Samantha Wells. “When women do not want it: Young female bargoers’ experiences with and responses to sexual harassment in social drinking contexts.” Violence against women 23, no.12 (2017): 1419–1441, 1419.
of female university students in Melbourne had been sexually harassed on public transport.
Gebicki, Camilla, Romana Pomering, George Flynn, Noleen Grogran, Emma Hunt, Jessica Bell, Kishor Napier Raman, and Alexandra Meagher. 2017. “Change the Course: National Report on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at Australian Universities.” Sydney: Australian Human Rights Commission.
of Australian women have been threatened after rejecting the sexual advances of a stranger
Johnson, Molly and Ebony Bennet. Everyday sexism: Australian women’s experiences of street harassment. Canberra: The Australia Institute, 2015.
of urban Pakistani women have been stalked by men on the way to her home, office or market.
Ahmed, Bilal, Farhan Navid Yousaf and Umme-Rubab Asif.
“Combating Street Harassment: A Challenge for Pakistan.”
Women & Criminal Justice 31, no. 4 (2019): 1–11.
of survey respondents across all EU Member States are scared of holding hands in public with a same-sex partner.
European Agency for Fundamental Rights. LGBT person’s experiences of discrimination and hate crime in the EU and Croatia. Vienna: European Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2013.
For every 3 months of lockdown, an extra 15 million gender-based violence cases were expected globally.
Plan International Asia Pacific Hub. Because We Matter: Addressing Covid-19 and violence against girls in the Asia Pacific.
Bangkok: Plan International Asia Pacific Hub, 2020.
of the participants in an XYX Lab study reported being resigned to the fact that bad incidents are so frequent that they are used to them.
Kalms, Nicole, Gill Matthewson and Sophie Tanner. Free to Be. Kampala. Surrey: Plan International, 2019.
of sexual harassment complaints in Hong Kong in the past decade were related to places of employment.
Sexual harassment in Hong Kong. Research Office, Research and Information Division Legislative Council Secretariat, 2022.
of women in London have experienced unwanted sexual contact in public places, including the streets and the transport system
ActionAid UK. Fearless. London: ActionAID UK, 2016.
of Indonesian women and girls said their first experience of street harassment occurred before they turned 16 years old.
Koalisi Ruang Publik Aman. Sexual Harassment in Indonesia Survey. Released 2019.
of women in Mexico City have experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces.
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Georgrafia, 2011
More than half of LGBTIQ+ students report experiencing some form of electronic harassment because of their sexual orientation.
Kosciw, Joseph G, Emily A. Greytak, Mark J.Bartkiewicz, Madelyn J.Boesen and Neal A.Palmer. The 2011 National School Climate survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in our nation’s schools. New York: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2012.
of female college students in New York City had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in transit spaces.
Natarajan, Mangai Margaret Schmuhl, Sasurta Sadula and Marissa Mandala. “Sexual victimisation of college students in public transport environments: a whole journey approach.” Crime Prevention and Community Safety 19. No.3–4: 168–182, 2017.
