ICYMI: Meet the Artist of Color Behind Those ‘Stop Telling Women to Smile’ Posters

By Jamilah King Oct 30, 2014

We’ve covered Brooklyn-based artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh before, but her work is worth revisiting in light of the controversy that’s swirling around a new video that depicts street harassment faced by women in New York City. The video, which was released by anti street harassment group Hollaback and marketing agency Robert Bliss Creative, shows a seemingly white woman walking along Manhattan streets and being approached by several men of color — interestingly, all of the white men were edited out. Roxane Gay quipped on Twitter: "The racial politics of the video are fucked up. Like, she didn’t walk through any white neighborhoods?"

For the past few years, Fazlalizadeh has taken her message against street harassment across the country, opening up discussions about sexism and racism.