Hollaback! just launched a new campaign called I’ve got your backaimed at engaging bystanders to be active when they witness street harassment. Hollaback! has been working for six years to empower individuals to speak out against street harassment. To this point, the main focus has been on supporting and encouraging recipients of harassment to speak up about the situation and their experience. However, Hollaback! director Emily May wants to involve bystanders. “When we see a parent with a baby struggling to enter a building, we open the door for them. When someone drops their hat, we pick it up and give it to them. So why when we see someone being harassed do we look the other way?”
However, the new campaign offers several ways for you to get involved in speaking out against street
harassment and providing helpful interventions:
New, free Hollaback! iPhone and Droid apps so that bystanders can tell their stories
Bystander stories will be mapped with green dots alongside stories of harassment represented by pink dots- highlighting the problem and solution
A “We’ve got your back” button similar to the Facebook “Like” button. At the end of the day the person who was harassed will get an email saying that hundreds of people support them and have their back.
Partnering with Nancy Schwartzman, director of The Line, to create a short documentary that profiles a young man who tries to stand up for his friends when they are harassed.
Click on the picture below to watch the I’ve got your back video on Vimeo.
After much hard work by the folks over at theIowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence(ICADV) and Iowa MAN members, the official Iowa MAN website launched. The website looks great. The most important thing about this event is that it signifies a statewide effort to engage men about the issues related to eliminating violence and creating safer communities.
Below are Iowa MAN’s vision and mission:
VISION
We envision a community where men are actively engaged in confronting men’s violence against women and girls and all its forms, and where all members of society are engaged in promoting healthy, peaceful, and respectful relationships.
MISSION
As an organization, we will eliminate men’s violence against women and girls by pursuing knowledge from those most affected by it. As a call to action, we will work to inspire all men of Iowa to partner with women to promote healthy and respectful relationships in their homes, neighborhoods, and the community, to model peaceful and respectful behaviors with each other, and to empower our youth with similar tools and skills necessary to live and expect a lifestyle free from abuse.
You can visit the Iowa Men’s Action Network websitehere.
I know, I know, “Who cares, it’s just a commercial? Lighten up.” Skip it. Virgin Mobile created some creepy, unhealthy and illegal depictions about how their cell phone technology can be utilized to stalk and harass someone. Over 1 in 4 victims of stalking are harassed or monitored with technology. For those of you interested in learning more, MAC offers a Technology and Stalking workshop focused on awareness raising, prevention, and safety planning.
The Men’s Anti-Violence Council members have presented numerous workshops about technology and safety. We’ve mainly focused on the ways in which software and hardware can be used to stalk and monitor individuals. However, we rarely get a chance to highlight technology developed to improve campus safety.
Rave Mobile Safety created the product Rave Guardian which offers some unique services and abilities through your cell phone. Basically, Rave Guardian is software that allows users to create and upload profile information. When a student makes an emergency call to campus police, the entire profile is displayed along with their location. That information can also be forwarded to responding officers. This could be extremely helpful in situations when callers are incapable of providing information due to the nature of the emergency or if they are unsure of their location. It seems like this would significantly cut down on time spent on the phone and provide accurate, valuable information to responding officers.
Below is an image of potential information that a user could enter into their profile which can be accessed and modified online. Being involved in the program is voluntary and students decide whether or not to participate. (Click on image to enlarge)
Rave Guardian has two additional features: Panic Call and Timer Mode. Panic Call lets a student send their entire profile to campus police with the touch of a single button. Timer Mode lets students set a timer, that if not disabled, automatically dials campus police. Together, this product offers some impressive features. Instead of simply receiving a phone number and a hurried description, officers would have a color photo, important identifying information and the student’s exact location.
Rave Mobile Safety also offers products to send campus-wide alerts, improve 9-1-1 services, and allow eyewitness information submitted via text message.
Two Florida teenage girls were charged with aggravated stalking of a minor under the age of 16. Taylor Wynn, 16 and McKenzie Barker, 15, created two fake Facebook pages under the name of a classmate and posted obscene pictures of the victim’s head on altered photographs of nude bodies. The captions made fun of the victim’s body and attempted to portray her in the act of performing oral sex. The police traced the pages back to the girls through their IP addresses.
The police report defined cyberstalking as “to engage in a course of conduct to communicate, or to cause to be communicated, words, images, or language by or through the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at a specific person, causing substantial emotional distress to that person and serving no legitimate purpose.”
The victim reported that she had experienced numerous taunts and harassment as a result of the Facebook page which had received 181 friends and a host of disparaging comments and information about the victim. The girls reported that they created the pages because they “thought it would be funny” and “because no one liked her.”
Joshua Ashby made New Zealand history this week. He became the first New Zealander to be convicted of a crime committed on the Internet under the country’s morality and decency laws. After a five month relationship ended, Ashby became violent and threatened the life of his former partner. He sent her text messages like “I’m going to kill you” and “Dead bitch.” He stole and destroyed some of her clothes. He also gained access to her Facebook account, replaced her profile picture with a nude picture of her, changed her password so that she could not remove it and removed all privacy settings so that it was visible by anyone.
Although the morality and decency laws were in regards to print media, the judge stated that the outdated laws needed updated to account for newer technology. Ashby plead guilty to all counts and received 4 months in prison. When he tried to cover up his face to prevent his picture from being taken the judge allowed it by humorously responding, “There was a certain symmetry to it.” I agree.
Check out this New York Times article about a new way to use technology to address street harassment. Street harassment activist website Hollaback! recently created an iPhone app which allows recipients of street harassment to take a picture of the perpetrator, automatically report the location of the harassment, define the type of the harassment and receive a follow-up email from Hollaback requesting more information. The power of Hollaback! is in their message that we need to reduce the silence about street harassment by encouraging women and other recipients to address and report the inappropriate behaviors. They have created an extensive database of harassment in cities across the country. Not only is New York City the home to the original Hollaback but the New York City council recently held the first hearing on street harassment. Our friend and street harassment expert Holly Kearl was there to contribute to the hearing.
You can download the iPhone app here. Hollaback! has numerous city specific websites. Look here to see if there is one near you. If there isn’t, create one! If you want to learn more about street harassment and how to address it, check out Holly’s blog Stop Street Harassment. Also, check out Why I Holla back on YouTube for stories of recipients about how and why they speak up when they see or experience street harassment.
I’ll leave you with a great song written about a street harassment experience
The Telegraph recently ran a story about television presenter, Alexis Bowater, who was “cyberstalked” for over two years. Alexander Reeve sent Alexis over 50 violent and sexual emails, many of which threatened her life and included threats that were graphic and sexual. He claimed that she would be found hanged and phoned in bomb threats to the studio where Alexis worked. Reeve was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. The article highlights a statistics that I had never seen before. As quoted in the article, Alexis states that 77% of stalking victims wait until 100 incidents have occurred before they contact the police.
The article does a good job of highlighting the constant stress, worry, terror and helplessness that many victims of stalking experience, which can often be exacerbated when technology and anonymity are involved.
“There are things that I was made to think that are kept in some quiet place in my soul because when somebody is telling you they’re going to do all these things you do believe them and live with it every day and night.”
“You don’t know what they (stalkers) look like, how old they are, what gender, whether they are doing it from nearby or abroad, if they are your next door neighbour, or someone in your office. You have no idea and that is terrifying.”
Click on the image below to see a video of Alexis describing her stalking and recent changes in British harassment laws.
The Cyberbullying Research Center is interested in better understanding and promoting the concept of “electronic dating violence.” They define it as “emotional or psychological harm in a romantic relationship perpetrated through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices.” You can find more information between electronic dating and cyberbullying here.
In 2010, this group randomly sampled 4,400 students in the southern United States between the ages 11-18 about electronic dating violence.
Click Read More for the results regarding victimization, offending and the relationship between electronic dating violence and cyberbullying.
The Men’s Anti-Violence Council members have presented numerous workshops about technology and safety. We’ve mainly focused on the ways in which software and hardware can be used to stalk and monitor individuals. However, we rarely get a chance to highlight technology developed to improve campus safety. 
