Why Hollaback?

 

This site allows you to share your story without being victims, as well as highlighting just how often street harassment happens here in Birmingham. Knowing that you are not alone, and that this behaviour is not something you have to ignore, is the first step to making it unacceptable.

Street harassment is one of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and one of the least legislated against. We are here to end the cultural acceptance of street harassment in our city, and we can only do it with your help! Share your story and start confronting street harassment today!

The Internet is SO powerful, because your one story can be read by thousands of people, many who will relate to it and feel empowered too. Those who don’t relate to the experience will gain an understanding of what it feels like to be in your shoes,  and in some cases you can greatly help some people, who will feel like they are not alone for the first time and realise that it’s not their fault.

Hollaback for yourself, and for the bigger picture

For you: It is empowering to share your story with Hollaback! because you are challenging street harassment. Hollaback also gives you a safe way to respond, rather than simply walking away and keeping quiet, an experience which can make you feel helpless and down.  Hollaback! gives you the chance to define yourself rather than being defined by the way a street harasser made you feel.

For the bigger picture: Stories really do change the world. Think about Rosa Parks, the woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus home from work in 1955, because as a black woman she was not permitted to sit there. Rosa became the key story of the Civil Rights Movement in America. By gathering together all your stories, from all over the world, we are compiling the voices of many tens or even hundreds, of thousands of people who are all saying ‘this is not ok’. When all those individual experiences of street harassment get added together they make a powerful argument locally, nationally and internationally in terms of changing policies and shaping public opinion.