Archives for March 2010

Hollaback! Beta Testing: Be the First!

March 2, 2010 By HKearl

Be one of the first to hollaback using our new Iphone app! With the push of a button, you can hollaback at your street harassers and Hollaback! will map it using your phone’s GPS. An automatic email will be sent to your account so you can tell us your story when you are safely back in the comfort of your home.

We are currently in the process of beta testing this new technology and we need your help! To be part of the testing, go to the Iphone store and purchase “UDID” (it’s free). Then use the app to email your UDID number to hollabacknyc@gmail.com. (Rumor has it you can also get the UDID off of iTunes). We’ll make sure you get the new app as soon as our developers complete it.

Your feedback can pave the way for the newest revolution against street harassment. Hollaback!

I’ve never felt so clueless about handling harassment

March 2, 2010 By Contributor

This is a follow up to “Have a nice day…you crazy bitch!”

I was walking my usual path to the bus stop this morning and saw the car that the men who harassed me last month used. I looked through my cell phone photos to compare it to the actual car, and sure enough, they’re one in the same. The things that aren’t clear enough in the original photo were more clear to me in person, such as a college decal on the top of the rear window, and an apartment complex parking tag in the rear window’s lower right corner. I took closer photos so I could have a clearer shot of the license plate and decals.

A rush of anger ran through me. I want to do something about it. I thought about printing up the original story and having it on me so if I were to see that car yet again, I could put it on their windshield so they know that their rude behavior is now public. I thought about getting someone involved, but who? Who would I talk to about this? Would I talk to Key Elementary and get them involved, since these guys park near them (I assume these guys work nearby, maybe in the Arlington County Building), or would they say it’s not their problem since it’s not technically on their property?

I’ve never felt so clueless about how to handle harassment before! And I’m glad it was only the car I’d seen today, and not the actual harassers. I don’t know how I’d feel if I ever ran into those losers again.

– anonymous

Location: Arlington, VA

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Street Harassment Activism in History

March 1, 2010 By HKearl

Because the internet is helping fuel discussions about and activism against street harassment, it can be easy for those of us in a young generation to think this is a new issue no one has addressed before. But women have been speaking out against street harassment for a few decades. For women’s history month, I want to point out a few of them on the scholarly side and acknowledge their work.

In 1981, Micaela di Leonardo wrote an article called “Political Economy of Street Harassment.” It’s the earliest place where I’ve seen the term street harassment used in the context of men harassing women because of their gender.
In 1984, Cheryl Benard and Edith Schlaffer conducted the first – and really the only – study on why men harass women. They published their findings in an article called “The Man in the Street: Why He Harasses,” found in the book Feminist Frameworks.
Cynthia Grant Bowman wrote an extensive legal piece on street harassment called “Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women,“ for Harvard Law Review in 1993.
Carol Brooks Gardner led the first full-scale study on what she terms public harassment by studying 500 people in Indianapolis. Her findings are published in Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment (1995).
In 2002, Deirdre Davis wrote about street harassment and African American women in the article “The Harm that Has No Name: Street Harassment, Embodiment, and African American Women” published in Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism.

Each woman paved the way for later research on the topics. I have a full list of articles and books I’ve come across that deal with street harassment on my website if you’re interested in learning more.

Thank you to each of these woman (and to everyone I didn’t list but who have worked on this issue) for helping us get this far in addressing the widespread problem of street harassment.

« Previous Page