Woman Films Her Catcallers, Gives Them Cards To Stop Them Harassing Women

Lindsey from Minneapolis, as she is known, is looking to find practical ways to stop men from harassing her in the street…

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by Sophie Wilkinson |
Published on

Following on from the brilliant work that the UK's Laura Bates does with Everyday Sexism, and other groups such as Hollaback! and Stop Telling Women To Smile, a woman in Minneapolis has found an effective way to confront their catcallers.

Flipping the gaze on to the men shouting at her, Lindsey goes around downtown Minneapolis on her day-to-day, going up to men who shouted at her in the streets and asking them why they did it, secretly filming their reactions. She told Buzzfeed: 'I am genuinely interested in what place this is coming from.'

'The theme I hear the most often is that they truly, genuinely think it’s a compliment, and they are shocked. If that is true, then simply telling people it’s not a compliment may go a long way.'

She films them to redress the balance of shame: 'The filming provides them a platform to embarrass themselves in a way that they’ve already embarrassed me.'

And you can see videos of some of the responses on her YouTube channel, including this one which sees a man called Jared saying to her: 'I'm from Ohio, where I come from we holler at women. I'm sorry if that offends you, but you shouldn't feel that way because women are put on this earth to satisfy a man. If she feels offended, she should never have been born.'

As well as filming the men, she's also got hooked on that idea that harassment isn't a compliment, so hands them Cards Against Harassment, business card-size reminders to men that it's never a good thing to shout at women in the street just because they are there. Each card might have a different message – that 'someone simply walking/jogging/biking in your line of sight isn't an invitation for you to comment on how they look,' or 'So, you like how I look? Do you know what I like? Walking down the street without getting my appearance commented on by total strangers' – but they all come with the same tagline: 'It's not a compliment. It's harassment.'

Our only fear is, with so many women harassed streets across the world on a daily basis, if printing warnings and reminders on pieces of card to hand out to douchebags is the solution, where does that leave the rainforests?

Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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