Hollaback!

Photo: David Wallace

I first noticed the inevitability of being leered at for being female around the age of eleven. Most mornings, trudging to the bus stop on the A453, clad in a school uniform, I’d get beeped at. Being the naive little sod that I was, I assumed it was someone I knew so I’d turn around and wave. As I started to notice the frequency of white vans stuffed with unfamiliar blokes, it occurred to me that the beeps might be more sexually motivated.

As I got older, beeps graduated to arse grabs, getting hissed at, overbearing stares and unwanted comments. Making approval known, by any audacious means, is not always a positive thing. Coming from a stranger, said or done in certain ways, it can mean confusion, anger, sadness, embarrassment, and feelings of vulnerability for the person on the receiving end. And sadly, according to some, we should be grateful for that.

Everyone likes to be told they’re attractive, but in the right way and in the right setting. There’s a fine line between two-way flirtation and unwanted attention, and different people have different opinions on what does or does not constitute abuse, which is exactly why we need to start talking about what is and what isn’t acceptable behaviour.

Historically, women have been seen and portrayed as lesser beings, cognitively, physically and emotionally, and persecuted for it. So when someone rudely shouts comments about your appearance in the street, the thoughtlessness is laced with disrespect, even if offence wasn’t the intention. It implies entitlement, objectification, and an assertion of power. Alongside refusals to accept the complaints as valid, no acknowledgement of the bigger picture, and the fact that this behaviour and attitude feeds into a wider culture of male domination, the goat is got.

Chalk Walk in Hockley
 

Harassment is not something anyone should have to put up with because ‘society’. I refuse to accept some lad asking me if I’ve ever been raped, with a smirk on his face, down Goldsmith Street, as our cultural normality. That’s not banter. That’s sick. It’s only when we stand together, with magnifying glasses in hand, that we can go, “Hang on a minute. Something’s not right here.”

That’s exactly what Hollaback! is doing. After thinking being groped, catcalled or harassed in any way is something we just have to accept with sealed lips, a platform has emerged where we can let loose on what has happened to us and get the conversation going. On their website is a stream of comments and stories from people who’ve been harassed all over the globe, letting us know we’re not alone, and that the fight is not over.

An international organisation and campaign that started in New York, Hollaback! has set up shop in 92 cities and 32 countries, linking arms across the globe to say that street harassment is a worldwide issue. By sharing stories with each other, we can make a huge step in pushing this attitude out of our normality through uniting in our support for each other.

One woman doing just that is Rose Ashurst – the leader of the Hollaback! Nottingham branch. “Hollaback! started when a group of New Yorkers were talking about a story in the news where a woman was threatened on the subway. They realised that there’s a world men didn’t know about because they weren’t experiencing it, and women weren’t talking to each other about it.”

After returning to Nottingham from university, where Rose began learning about feminism, she realised that the gender divide was far from narrowing. “I went out dancing in Dogma with my friend and a group of lads gathered around us, touching, pushing and shoving us. They got aggressive to the point that we had to leave and it really upset me, but it also angered me that I thought things had changed when, fundamentally, they hadn’t.” With experience working on similar campaigns in London and with the Women’s Centre in Nottingham, she got in touch with Hollaback! after seeing the movement gaining momentum on Facebook.

“After ten weeks’ training, I was let out to be my own leader,” says Rose. “You can tackle street harassment in so many different ways – our launch was an all-day event with workshops on consent and domestic violence, as well as performances from Nottingham musicians Keto and Marita Metelia. It’s all about raising awareness.” On top of gigs and socials, Hollaback! Nottingham have hosted a ‘chalk walk’ where the streets of Hockley were taken over by eager scribblers scrawling their stories and empowering messages all over the pavement.

“The whole idea was to get people engaged on a street level, because street harassment happens in public spaces,” explains Rose. “A huge demographic of girls, women and the LGBTQ community are constantly reminded that they are there for public display and to be commented on. But that’s not what we are here for. We are human beings with a right to feel safe in public spaces, free from discrimination or being objectified, sexualised, angry or intimidated.” Damn straight.

Us ladies aren’t the only ones who suffer from this indecorous smear on society either. Intelligent men everywhere are joining the feminist movement themselves, and for good reason. “The patriarchy and the suppression of women also fundamentally suppresses men. It reinforces that they have to act in a certain way and allow for people, including those they love, to be abused on the street. It’s important that men are involved in the movement so they are aware of the effects of this unacceptable behaviour and be confident enough to step in to tell their friends and others to stop. It’s a misunderstanding that this behaviour is a compliment – it can make someone feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and intimidated. We need to teach the community that treating people with respect on the street is crucial to ensuring the harassing attitude isn’t perpetuated.”

Hollaback! is one of very few organisations aiming to combat street harassment through education and awareness. As well as hosting events for the general public to get involved in, the Nottingham branch is also available to go out to schools or businesses to offer workshops or talks. “I didn’t find out about feminism until I was nineteen,” says Rose. “I want young people to find out about gender equality sooner, so we can create a fairer and more inclusive society. How are young people going to know that street harassment is wrong if we still accept it as normal?”

As the academic year begins, Hollaback! Nottingham will be starting up their monthly meetings again, allowing for a safe space to chat about different situations people have found themselves in. But if you can’t make it to that, don’t hesitate to attack your keyboard with the fire of a thousand suns. “Social media allows people to have their voice listened to. It’s almost like graffiti – it reminds people that there’s this subculture and attitude someone else believes in. We’re about making people feel empowered, so while we’re not necessarily directly going to be able to stop someone doing it, we can make people feel stronger and more able to talk about this stuff. Hopefully, this will make them stronger at home, school and in personal relationships, and hopefully that will filter further into the community.”

And with more and more people waking up to the issue and finding a voice to talk about it, thanks to organisations like Hollaback!, it’s looking likely that that hope will turn into a reality.

Nottingham Women’s Centre Library, 30 Chaucer Street, NG1 5LP

Hollaback! Nottingham on Twitter