Holla Back NYC
What do we think of this? Holla Back NYC
(most of it sparked of course by Thao Nguyen (yeah for you!), who, after being flashed on the subway, took a cameraphone picture of the perv. It circulated blogs and web, eventually showing up in the NY Post and Fox 5 News. People identified him as Dan Hoyt, owner of two raw foods restaurants. He was arrested and charged. Gothamist has a good summary here. In late August I saw at least three or four other people posting their subway flasher photos. They all said that the act of capturing them digitally seemed to diffuse the situation, reverse the power dynamic, and make the flasher retreat. )
(most of it sparked of course by Thao Nguyen (yeah for you!), who, after being flashed on the subway, took a cameraphone picture of the perv. It circulated blogs and web, eventually showing up in the NY Post and Fox 5 News. People identified him as Dan Hoyt, owner of two raw foods restaurants. He was arrested and charged. Gothamist has a good summary here. In late August I saw at least three or four other people posting their subway flasher photos. They all said that the act of capturing them digitally seemed to diffuse the situation, reverse the power dynamic, and make the flasher retreat. )
posted by good golly at 3:38 PM
3 Comments:
In my neighborhood, the gentlemen cat-callers are strangely polite. The most risque thing anyone has ever said to me was, "You're looking lovely tonight, ma'am". I was more insulted about the "ma'am" part than anything else. He was at least 60 years old--way too old to be ma'am-ing anybody. Anyhoo I've never confronted one of the truly assholic harassers without being subjected to a torrent of abuse and once, followed for two blocks. So I think I'll refrain from holla-ing back for now.
Ok, miss adding-things-after-I-posted-my-comment. If some dude actually whipped it out, I do agree that I would love to pull out a cameraphone and take his picture. Because I am fine with ignoring fools talking out of their ass when I walk by, but if someone is going to try to intimidate me physically and sexually, I would post his pic in no time flat. So, in short, a)I amend my inital response and b)have spent far too much time on the internet today.
Hey Good Golly,
Wow, we're so excited that you found us already. This project is still in its nascent stages but you totally get the point. And your site rocks. I especially like the Sontag quotes. She rules!
Hi Cara,
Thanks for thinking about this and glad to hear your neighborhood is rather tame.
Some of us ladies who started the project do feel physically and sexually intimidated when guys are talking out of their ass and want to holla back exactly because it changes the power dynamic. We are very aware of the element of endangering our personal safety by taking a picture of our harrassers and thus advocate (for ourselves and others) only doing it in situations when we feel safe. We in no way want to endorse actually endangering personal safety. We just thought this site would be a good way to start a wave of holla backs in order to take back what is taken away when someone objectifies us through language (see: Judith Butler's Excitable Speech).
I encourage you to let those fools know that talking out of their asses like that is no way to treat anyone.
Picture submissions very welcome!
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