Hollaback!

On February 8, I attended a lecture at Chicago Filmmakers in Andersonville, Chicago, given by Debjani Roy, the Deputy Director of the organization Hollaback!. Hollaback!’s mission states, “Hollaback is a movement to end street harassment powered by a network of local activists around the world.  We work together to better understand street harassment, to ignite public conversations, and to develop innovative strategies to ensure equal access to public spaces.” To fulfill this mission, they have developed forums for victims of sexual harassment to share their stories. Grassroot efforts by leaders in over 80 countries allows such victims to make their narratives known, which inspires and empowers their agency. The explanation of their model includes this description: “Hollaback! breaks the silence that has perpetuated sexual violence internationally, asserts that any and all gender-based violence is unacceptable, and creates a world where we have an option—and, more importantly—a response.”

Hollaback! was started in 2005 by seven young people, three men and four woman. Its conception was inspired by a night on a New York City balcony. Women told stories of harassment, and the men became concerned. One in particular, Samuel Carter, who is now Hollaback!’s board chair, said, “you live in a different city than we do.” The passion that the young individuals developed to address this disparity was further supported by Thao Nguyen, a brave young woman who stood up to her harasser — a man who masturbated across from her on the subway — by taking a photo of him and posting it to flickr, which eventually made its way to the front page of the New York Daily News and initiated conversation to change the conditions within which street harassment takes place.

Before joining Hollaback! Joy was the Program and Development Manager at Manavi, the first South Asian women’s rights organization in the United States. In her presentation, she explained the organization’s model of decentralized leadership. In each of their 85 locations, leaders are trained through five webinars on subjects such as harassment 101, leveraging social media, on the ground organizing, and technology such as how to run their own Wordpress website. They believe that local knowledge “rules the day,” and help their site leaders to support a network of communications. The organization also aims to reframe incidences of sexual harassment, which 70 to 99% of women experience throughout their life according to Hollaback!’s website and a CDC 2011 study, as part of a larger injustice. Their process of empowering street harassed individuals to turn the focus around by taking a picture of their harasser and posting it alongside the story achieves “awareness,” “validation,” and “healing and courage.”

While Hollaback! hopes to one day see a world where street harassment, or sexual harassment, is eradicated, they are realistic about the change that would need to occur to create an alternate reality as such. Thus, Hollaback! provides community-members, bystanders and witnesses, with action steps. These steps are known as the “4 D’s”: Direct Intervention, Distraction, Delegating - talking to an authority, and Delaying- check in with the person after they are harassed. The situation may be discouraging, especially when I find myself posting to the Hollaback! app frequently, but Roy made it clear that in in order to create the change we desire, we must be our “badass self” as Hollaback!’s website encourages. I just “Hollabacked” two days ago, and that app remains on my home screen.