“Piss off, creep” – York students respond to bathroom voyeur
Hufsa Tahir
Staff Writer
@excalweb
Almost two weeks after York security and Toronto police received reports about a man spying on at least three different women in the Keele campus restrooms January 9, the York community gave the unwanted voyeur a piece of their minds via memo pads.
Handwritten messages directed to the “Peeping Tom” and the general York community were found covering the Curtis Lecture Hall (CLH) bathroom door from top to bottom. The memo notes contained messages like “Piss in Peace,” “Harassment-Free Zone,” and “Don’t Fetishize Us.”
Third-year creative writing student Stephanie Nagy, who was among the group of about seven male and female self-labelled feminist activists behind the yellow sticky notes, doubts York security’s ability to handle the bathroom intruder situation.
“They shrugged it off as the police’s responsibility. Police are not always on campus,” she says. “It’s [York] security who are always on campus, and it’s their job to take care of this.”
She explains that the group felt compelled to take action because they wanted to raise awareness about the incident.
“I, for one, spoke to a lot of people who didn’t know about it. The York community is completely out of touch,” she points out. “People don’t know what’s going on at their own campus.”
The aim was to both encourage the women of York and to let the perpetrator know that his actions were unacceptable.
“Even though York security is shitty, there are people looking for [the Peeping Tom], and the women of York are not there to be fetishized,” says Nagy.
Rob Kilfoyle, director of security services, said he had yet to read the security report concerning the adhesive memos. The notes, he said January 23, are only a security issue if they threaten campus safety.
“We have to be careful to make sure they didn’t contain threats [that compromise] the safety of [people on campus],” he said. “We don’t encourage vigilantism.”
Nagy feels the community should become more proactive for situations such as this.
“I think this is a necessary step,” she says of the Peeping Tom backlash. “I guess it is an act of vigilantism in that we’re being proactive. I think not being proactive should be a crime. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much activism.”
