Women fight back with Mobile Social Media

Hollaback NYC is a blog dedicated to the fame of men who harass women on the street. The site's tagline says it all, "If you can't Slap 'em, Snap 'em!"

Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you're commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some turd's fantasy. So stop walkin' on and Holla Back: Send us pics of street harassers!

The blog is complete with cameraphone snaps of the offenders who catcall as women walk past.

In India, street harassment is called "Eve Teasing." It's a horrible euphemism for catcalling, grabbing or groping women on the streets or in public transportation. The Blank Noise Project called for a blogburst hoping that women sharing their humiliation and anger via blogs would provide visibility to the distrubing practice.

Blank- that which is not allowed meaning, form or articulation. Noise- that which heightens, builds itself. Eve Teasing as the name suggests,is considered a joke, a prank.Eve Teasing is street sexual harassment. The project seeks to recognize eve teasing as a sexual crime and establish the issue as something that may be normal, but is unacceptable. The Blank Noise project works both online and on the streets of Bangalore, Mumbai , Delhi. We invite you to come along!

This is a great example of how anger plus social media can turn into action. Fed up? Then shout out - or snap 'em!

Submitted by mobilejones (view blog

) on Tue, 03/14/2006 - 10:10pm

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Blogging & Social Media

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I'm not getting this. Have

I'm not getting this. Have we really come so far as women that we can/should spend time on something like this? Or perhaps this is the gender discrimination equivalent of the "broken windows" theory of crime fighting--take care of the catcalls and the rapes, murders, domestic violence, lack of affordable childcare, etc etc will take care of themselves?

I think I'll sit this blogburst out.

Submitted by Yvette Perry on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 05:41

How far have we come?

I don't know about you, but I sometimes blog about not-supremely-important things. Just the other day I posted pictures of my cat's forepaws, just because they are fuzzy and orange. My most recent post is about tracking animals in the snow. So for those of us who don't focus 100% of our attention 100% of the time on huge social issues like rape and murder, but who still care about social justice issues and the ability to feel safe while walking down the street, it's probably not a huge stretch to type a quick post about slimy catcallers for the sake of a blogburst.

We have come so far as women that we can/should spend time on whatever we want, whether that's the unavailability of your favorite tea at the local market, catcallers, or the destruction of the rainforest.

Peace,
DeAnna
http://www.whoaphotos.com/blog

Submitted by deandail on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 09:25

A careful reading

The blogburst by Blank Noise is a project initiated by and for women in India. One of the stories shared was of a young woman riding a bus where a male stranger took advantage of their close proximity to grope her breast.

She might not have been raped or murdered, but the experience for her was humiliating and not one that I would consider trivial or unworthy of expression or attention.

Is there a downside to women using technology in creative ways to address incidents of disrepect for physical autonomy? I don't see it.

Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media
Feed your mobile jones

Submitted by mobilejones on Wed, 03/15/2006 - 10:40