Hollaback against campus harassment!
By collecting students’ reports of harassment in a safe and shareable way, we will develop a crowd-sourced initiative to end campus harassment on 10 college campuses over the next year. Our efforts will break the silence that has perpetrated sexual violence on college campuses, pronounce that any gender-based violence is unacceptable, and create a world where students have a response, and more importantly, a solution.
WHAT IS CAMPUS HARASSMENT? Campus harassment is sexual harassment that happens on campuses and includes bullying, groping, stalking, and assault. Across the United States, 51% of male students admit to sexually harassing their female counterparts. Campus harassment happens on rural and urban campuses, and at big and little schools. It’s happening in dining halls, dorm rooms, streets, and classrooms — and our students deserve better. Way better.
WHY NOW? Campus harassment has probably existed since the advent of higher education, but today it is at epic proportions: 62% of women and 61% of men report being sexually harassed on college campuses [AAUW, 2005]. Yale students caught on tape yelling “no means yes and yes means anal,” caused a nationwide uproar, and a group of student activists sued Yale University for creating a “hostile sexual environment” on campus. Amongst the LGBTQ community, CNN reports that 33% of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer) and 38% of transgender students, faculty and staff have seriously considered leaving their institution due to harassment. A Hollaback!, we’ve received hundreds of reports of campus harassment since we started in 2005.
Like bullying, campus harassment has been accepted as simply the price you pay for being a woman, or being gay on a college campus. Yet for students, the solution is clear. According to the AAUW, 57% of students say they would like their college to offer a confidential web-based method for submitting complaints. Hollaback!’s campus initiative will do just that.
HOW WILL IT WORK? From postings-to-impressions data collected on Hollaback! since 2005, we know that each time a survivor shares their sexual harassment story, the post is read by over 2,500 others. Hollaback! combines the democratization of the cell phone with geo-mapping and the free iPhone and Droid apps, to create an entirely new way to mobilize social change.
The Hollaback! campus initiative will transform students into open-source activists with the touch of a button. Students can submit experiences of harassment through two easy portals: a) the free Hollaback! iPhone and Droid apps, and b) directly to their campus-specific Hollaback! website, which will link to our dynamic mapping system. We’ll track campus harassment through data points to quantify and communicate its impact to campus staff and administrators.
With your support, the Hollaback! campus initiative will create a safe, action-oriented response to campus harassment, and with powerful reporting features, it will finally put a face on everyday campus harassment and assault. By using data to establish the case against campus harassment, Hollaback!’s social change efforts will ultimately result in significant improvements in campus policy and a reduction in sexual harassment against students.
In conjunction with student activists, Hollaback! will ignite the fight against campus harassment by pairing on-campus activism with our award-winning anonymous mobile and web platform. Our work will include:
- Custom Web Activism Portals. Working with students to customize their Hollaback! site to their school, and training them on how to transform digital storytelling into concrete improvements on their campus;
- Digital storytelling apps. Encouraging students to document their stories of harassment and bystander intervention through free iPhone and Droid apps;
- Educational Resources. Providing on-line materials for students on how to deal with harassment, and university resources including: the campus rape crisis center, campus security, women’s and diversity clubs, and links to current harassment and assault policies (thanks to our partnership with SAFER);
- Training and Support. Providing ongoing training and an online community where students can receive sustained support.
A world without campus harassment is possible. Your support gets us one step closer. Hollaback!
‘I wish more people would help to make it socially and legally unacceptable to treat women like this.’
When I was 13, and just starting high school, there was a corner in the hallway every girl knew not to walk by alone. I didn’t. I was pulled aside by one of the guys crowding this hallway as he proceeded to stuff his hand down my shirt. In a crowded hallway. The other boys laughed and cheered him on. This same boy , later, pulled his penis out in front of me, in the middle of the hallway later saying to me, “This is what you do to me.” No one reacted. No one did anything. So neither did I. I walked away.
Two boys dragged me kicking and screaming into a bathroom stall (in front of ALL of our friends). One guarded the door while another one ripped my uniform in an attempt to force himself on me. I was screaming, fighting, kicking, and these friends of mine were outside the door laughing, catcalling, telling me I could come out anytime.
The boy who tried to force himself on me, came around later for round two, stealing my disc man, running to the back of the school where, I realized later when I tried to tell a teacher, there were no cameras,(therefore no evidence) as I chased him for my discman. He cornered me and forced himself on me AGAIN. I bit him, grabbed my discman and ran away. I came to school the next day to find my locker surrounded by a group of guys calling me a slut, whore and every other name under the sun because THAT SAME DOUCHEBAG, spread a rumour I performed oral sex on him at the back of the school. One friend, one blessed friend defended me, throwing those bigger, taller, heavier guys away from me and my locker. I promptly left that school. I never told my parents. Any girl who complained about sexual harassment was promptly made a social pariah, given the culprits were all “popular”.
10 years later, I can’t leave my house without being catcalled at, yelled at or called obscenities when I choose to ignore them or defend myself. It makes the experience of, going to the mall, walking to the bus stop an unnecessarily unpleasant experience when around almost every corner a man is leering, gesticulating, following or calling at you. I’ve had men follow me walking home in their cars, or corner me on the bus. It’s disgusting. I do not dress provocatively, in fact I am VERY sensitive to the type of attention my wearing shorts on a summer day, is going to attract. I’m fed up. I shouldn’t have to walk down the street cringing at men yelling at me. They need to know this is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. I wish more people would help to make it socially and legally unacceptable to treat women like this.
Stuff people say to teen girls
Just sayin’
Credit to artist Liz Climo at lizclimo.tumblr.com
Welcome to 8 new sister sites!
Bystander intervention in the school hallway
My friend, who is a person of colour, was walking down the school hallway during break when I saw two snobby girls behind her mocking her and laughing behind her back. I’ve known her since I was born and was tired of watching people hurt her, so I stepped in and confronted them. Maybe not in the nicest way, but I let them know that what they were doing is wrong.
Harassment on the train
I was on the train coming home late from school, there weren’t many people on the train and I was practically alone in the cart when a group of boys around a year older then me sat in a group of chairs next to me. I didn’t really pay much attention to them until one called ‘hey babe’ to me. I turned to them and they proceeded to make sexual comments on my body and it made me really uncomfortable. Then one started listing some really gross things I could do to him such as give him a blowjob etc. I was starting to get scared and they were blocking my passage to leave when my friend got on the train. He saw me and grabbed my hand asking if I was okay. Then kissed me on the cheek pretending to be my boyfriend or something. Since he is really tall and strong the other boys immediately left. I admit it was sort of funny to see them run but I’m now really scared to take the train alone.
Ryan Gosling has got your back and other feminist critiques
This post originally appeared at ihollaback.org
BY CATHERINE FAVORITE
Ryan Gosling knows what bystander intervention is all about. Earlier this week, the actor much celebrated for his mind and acting talents stepped in when he saw a woman about to get hit by a taxi cab. In New York City, it can be all too easy to dismiss strangers in need of help, but this story serves as a nice reminder and example of how to behave like a decent human being from time to time.
The woman Gosling stopped right before she stepped into oncoming traffic, just so happened to be British journalist, Laurie Penny, who made a fantastic point on the celebrity-obsessed frenzy that followed:
“What’s more, I really do object to being framed as the ditzy damsel in distress in this story. I do not mean any disrespect to Ryan Gosling, who is an excellent actor and, by all accounts, a personable and decent chap. I thought he was marvelous in The Ides of March, and will feel weird about objectifying him in future now that I have encountered him briefly as an actual human.
But as a feminist, a writer, and a gentlewoman of fortune, I refuse to be cast in any sort of boring supporting female role, even though I have occasional trouble crossing the road, and even though I did swoon the teeniest tiniest bit when I realized it was him. I think that’s lazy storytelling, and I’m sure Ryan Gosling would agree with me.”
For this, we fully support Laurie Penny’s point on not portraying women as damsels in distress; the dangers of objectifying anyone (though we still enjoy the occasional Feminist Ryan Gosling meme); and the realization that it should not be a major headline anytime a person helps out a stranger. Bystander intervention is for everyone, if you see someone who looks like they are being harassed by a stranger, or about to get hit by a taxi, don’t just stand there!
