Hollaback! - coming to Dublin

Annasopra

This looks very interesting - I don't like their attitude of learning about the law as they go along though

The Hollaback! girls are coming to Dublin – ready to expose men guilty of the sexual harassment of Irish women.

The Sunday Times reports on the opening of a Dublin chapter of the American organisation founded to combat sexual harassment in public places.

The paper says the new Irish based group will accept photos, videos and stories of Irish male harassers from next week.

The report says the new site plans to out men who subject women to unwelcome remarks, wolf whistles or sexual insults.

Hollaback actively encourages females to share their experiences of street harassment.

As well as a website, a smartphone app will be available by next summer.

The papers says that Hollaback! Dublin was formed by four women in their twenties who wanted to take a stand against the whistles, jokes, jeers and obscenities they experience on the streets and on public transport.

The Irish site is the latest from Hollaback! which already has branches in 50 cities in 17 countries.

Director Aimee Doyle told the paper: “The Dublin group will help Irish women, as well as the gay, lesbian and transgender community, document the unwanted attention, groping, lewd acts and sexual assaults they endure.

“I’ve not met any woman in Dublin who hasn’t experienced street harassment.

“It’s pervasive and sort of normalised. There are plenty of individual stories on Twitter and Facebook, but they are so scattered we felt they needed something to connect them.”

Doyle says her motivation for setting up the campaign was strengthened by two episodes this year.

She added: “At the start of the summer I was on a bus and a group of boys aged between 16 and 18 started making sexist remarks about me.

“No one on the bus spoke up, and I tried to ignore them. When I got off the bus it was dark and I was in an area I didn’t know.

“They followed and surrounded me. I told them what they were doing was not acceptable. I said, ‘What if someone did that to your sister or mother? How would you feel?’ They replied, ‘Oh, you’re obviously a lesbian.’

“I rang the gardai (police) but all they said was they would send a car to drive around the area. That experience shook me.”

Canadian student Vanessa Baker revealed how she contacted Hollaback! headquarters in New York about setting up a Dublin chapter after moving to Ireland to study at Trinity College.

Baker said: “I was surprised at how much of a problem street harassment was here. In Dublin, at three in the afternoon, you’ll get men harassing you.

“A lot of guys will start walking with me, trying to chat to me, pretending they know me. If they don’t get a warm response, they make you feel like it’s your fault.”

The new Dublin group wants to pressurise the Irish government to introduce legislation to make street harassment illegal.

Doyle also insists that the site will be strictly monitored.

She said: “We have set guidelines of what can be posted. There can’t be any racial signifiers that are not necessary, and certain faces can be blurred. The legal standpoint is something we will have to learn about as we go along.”



Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/New-web-site-to-expose-Irish-men-guilty-of-sexual-harassment-and-sexual-insults-178607811.html#ixzz2C0wXzaQT

Emeraldy Pebbles

Sounds awful! :eek: There's more than a whiff of vigilantism about it.

kylith

I feel very left out, I rarely get any one wolf-whistling, chatting me up, or harassing me on the street. I wonder what I'm doing wrong, or right, as the case may be.

Emeraldy Pebbles

kylith wrote: »

I feel very left out, I rarely get any one wolf-whistling, chatting me up, or harassing me on the street. I wonder what I'm doing wrong, or right, as the case may be.

Meh, I've had it a handful of times in my life. It's not nice, but the above article is a bit hysterical, IMO. It's not that common!

Hazys

Wow, that seems crazy. So you can slander people regardless if it is true or not without any evidence other than a picture and a story told from one side on this website...seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

awec

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krudler

"we'd like to encourage people to do something we're not even sure is legal" basically, wonder how supportive this group will be for the first person to be brought up on slander charges.

Stheno

krudler wrote: »

"we'd like to encourage people to do something we're not even sure is legal" basically, wonder how supportive this group will be for the first person to be brought up on slander charges.

Seems a bit over the top alright

awec

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Emme

That's ridiculous! Irish men are reticent enough as it is and find it hard to pick up courage to talk to women. Hysterical vigilante groups like this will make it even harder for them.

If anything, we need a group of people to come over here and help Irish men work on their confidence so they have MORE courage to approach women.

The only harassment I received in Ireland was from drunk men when leaving nightclubs. Ironically if Irish men had more self-confidence they mightn't feel the need to drink as much and wouldn't run the risk of doing something stupid when drunk.

Morag

I too have mixed feelings about this, on the one hand it's good for women who have this happen to them to have a place to talk about it and get support and it's a good way to notice patterns in repeat harassers.

I think those hosting the site and being responsible for the editorial side of it will hae to be very careful.

Hazys

Emme wrote: »

That's ridiculous! Irish men are reticent enough as it is and find it hard to pick up courage to talk to women. Hysterical vigilante groups like this will make it even harder for them.

If anything, we need a group of people to come over here and help Irish men work on their confidence so they have MORE courage to approach women.

The only harassment I received in Ireland was from drunk men when leaving nightclubs. Ironically if Irish men had more self-confidence they mightn't feel the need to drink as much and wouldn't run the risk of doing something stupid when drunk.

True, although most of the cases probably aren't that innocent.

But this quote stood out to me

A lot of guys will start walking with me, trying to chat to me, pretending they know me. If they don’t get a warm response, they make you feel like it’s your fault.

So i guy fancies you and he comes to talk to you, you are being sexually harassed if you don't fancy him.

I presume no guy would get a warm response from that women considering she is the militant feminist who created this website.

So i presume she acts rude in return to the guy's advances...well that's incredibly polite, so it is your fault.

Fair enough, there will be cases where a women politely turns down a guy's advances and after rejection, he is a dick but ffs this is the way of the world...some people are aholes, some are not. Obviously not on the same scale but it happens to us guys too btw. I was called 'gay' by a girl a couple of weeks ago because i wasn't interested.

If women approached men as much as men approach women, i'm sure the level of harassment would be similar, but men will always be the aggressors in these scenarios, unless women become equally aggressive in chasing men i don't see much changing tbh (i mean its still going to be more guys being rude after rejection than women just based on frequency)

awec

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Morag

Hazys wrote: »

I presume no guy would get a warm response from that women considering she is the militant feminist who created this website.

I'm a pretty militant feminist that doesn't mean I am rude to people and don't like being chatted up, but there is a difference between being chatted up and being followed, harassed and sexually assaulted.

Hazys wrote: »

Fair enough, there will be cases where a women politely turns down a guy's advances and after rejection, he is a dick but ffs this is the way of the world...some people are aholes, some are not.

He doesn't have the right to be a dick about or to spout abuse, which is pretty much the point of sites like this to call out this sort of behavior and say it's not acceptable.

Hazys wrote: »

Obviously not on the same scale but it happens to us guys too btw. I was called 'gay' by a girl a couple of weeks ago because i wasn't interested.

If women approached men as much as men approach women, i'm sure the level of harassment would be similar, but men will always be the aggressors in these scenarios, unless women become equally aggressive in chasing men i don't see much changing tbh

I would say that there is a bit of a difference due to gender, the first being women get hit on a lot more them men do, I would like to think that this will change and that women asking men out will not be such a rare or taboo thing.

The second thing is, if a woman does hit on you and you reject her do you ever worry she will hit you? or follow you? or attack or rape you? Does that ever go through your mind when you get approached by a random strange woman?

Often it will go through the minds of women, and not due to a 'victim mentality' but due to experience of being hit on and having someone react badly.

Morag

awec wrote: »

How do you propose they "be careful" ?

The sister sites to this one only ever post a general discription of the person and if any images are used they are blurred. All posts are also screened before they are published.

awec

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awec

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Hazys

Sharrow wrote: »

I'm a pretty militant feminist that doesn't mean I am rude to people and don't like being chatted up, but there is a difference between being chatted up and being followed, harassed and sexually assaulted.

The point i was making if somebody does come up to you and tries to chat you up and you are rude in rebuttal, do you expect the other person not to be rude? If they are not, then they have shown great restraint.

Where the hell did being followed, harassed and sexually assaulted come into this thread? how would this website prevent that?



He doesn't have the right to be a dick about or to spout abuse, which is pretty much the point of sites like this to call out this sort of behavior and say it's not acceptable.

Of course not but should be have a website for every instance of a person being a dick? not just being a sexist dick


I would say that there is a bit of a difference due to gender, the first being women get hit on a lot more them men do, I would like to think that this will change and that women asking men out will not be such a rare or taboo thing.

The second thing is, if a woman does hit on you and you reject her do you ever worry she will hit you? or follow you? or attack or rape you? Does that ever go through your mind when you get approached by a random strange woman?

Often it will go through the minds of women, and not due to a 'victim mentality' but due to experience of being hit on and having someone react badly.

Again i think that is a massive leap. If a guy asks to buy you a drink at the bar, you politely decline and he is rude to you and walks off...the first thing you think of is will I be raped later? wtf?

If another guy was rude to me in a bar, its highly unlikely i'm thinking "Am i going to get jumped tonight?" and physical assault is a lot more likely than sexual assault.

.

Honey-ec

Sharrow wrote: »

The second thing is, if a woman does hit on you and you reject her do you ever worry she will hit you? or follow you? or attack or rape you? Does that ever go through your mind when you get approached by a random strange woman?

Often it will go through the minds of women, and not due to a 'victim mentality' but due to experience of being hit on and having someone react badly.

Ah come on, I think it's stretching things slightly to posit that this is in any way a common reaction to being chatted up. I had a guy swing for me in the Barge one night when I finally got sick of him "accidentally" touching my ass and told him to fcuk off. I ducked, he missed, and then he got flattened by about six other guys who saw the whole thing. Yes, it was an unpleasant experience but do I worry that every other guy who chats me up is going to do the same if I reject him? No, because the vast majority of men are decent skins.

I have to say, the whole concept behind Hollaback! just doesn't sit right with me.

Morag

awec wrote: »

Do women really fear for themselves if they say no to a guy? Seriously?

Some so and sometimes for good reason.

awec wrote: »

TBH I struggle to believe that to be true. I don't think I've ever met a girl in my life with that mindset.

Every had a conversation with any of the women in your life about this?
Ever asked any of them if they had a guy step out of line after ignoring him or turning him down?

Ever asked them if someone has harassed them, chased them, stalk them, called them names, grabbed a hold of them, when they were not interested and trying to get away from them?

awec wrote: »

Understandable than in a small fraction of cases this can happen, but I think over exaggerating it will help nothing.

I think down playing that this happens doesn't help either.

Honey-ec

Sharrow wrote: »

Some so and sometimes for good reason.

Every had a conversation with any of the women in your life about this?
Ever asked any of them if they had a guy step out of line after ignoring him or turning him down?

Ever asked them if someone has harassed them, chased them, stalk them, called them names, grabbed a hold of them, when they were not interested and trying to get away from them?

I think down playing that this happens doesn't help either.

I've had all of those things happen to me, and I still don't think for one second that a site like Hollaback! is the way to deal with it.

Morag

Honey-ec wrote: »

Ah come on, I think it's stretching things slightly to posit that this is in any way a common reaction to being chatted up. I had a guy swing for me in the Barge one night when I finally got sick of him "accidentally" touching my ass and told him to fcuk off. I ducked, he missed, and then he got flattened by about six other guys who saw the whole thing. Yes, it was an unpleasant experience but do I worry that every other guy who chats me up is going to do the same if I reject him? No, because the vast majority of men are decent skins.

I have to say, the whole concept behind Hollaback! just doesn't sit right with me.

I think that is were the rub is, a guy who politely chats a woman up and is respectful of her, isn't what the site is about.

It's about harassment. It's about the guys who shout after you or follow you on the street to get you to talk to them, it's the cat calls and the
ones who grab a hold of you.

awec

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Honey-ec

Sharrow wrote: »

I think that is were the rub is, a guy who politely chats a woman up and is respectful of her, isn't what the site is about.

It's about harassment. It's about the guys who shout after you or follow you on the street to get you to talk to them, it's the cat calls and the
ones who grab a hold of you.

Or the guy who swings for you in a crowded pub? "Outing" him on a website isn't the way to deal with it either.

I had the "pleasure" of working with a guy who was a notorious arse-grabber with a few drinks on him. He tried it on me several times one night until I told him I'd break his arm if he touched me again. A far more effective way of dealing with it than posting about him on a website, imo.

Morag

Honey-ec wrote: »

I've had all of those things happen to me, and I still don't think for one second that a site like Hollaback! is the way to deal with it.

Fair enough that's your call, you clearly have a good support system of friends to talk to.

Most cities in Ireland are very small compared the the huge ones were this started up and took off in the USA. In those large cities it's a lot easier for assholes to get away with that type of behavior day in day out effecting a huge number of women then it would be here.

Morag

Honey-ec wrote: »

Or the guy who swings for you in a crowded pub? "Outing" him on a website isn't the way to deal with it either.

I had the "pleasure" of working with a guy who was a notorious arse-grabber with a few drinks on him. He tried it on me one night and I told him I'd break his arm if he touched me again. A far more effective way of dealing with it than posting about him on a website, imo.

That's someone you know, different kettle of fish when a complete stranger.
The site is about recording street harrashment by strangers on public transport and on the street, not people you know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holla_Back

Seven New York City residents, four women and three men, founded the organization in 2005 after a well-publicized occurrence of street harassment prompted them to discuss their own encounters.[3] After being ignored by the police, a woman named Thao Nygen uploaded a photo she had taken of the man who had intentionally masturbated across from her on the subway.[4] This photo appeared on the front page of the New Year Daily News, and inspired the seven New York City residents to apply this same method to all forms of street harassment.[5] The women told story after story of their experiences with street harassment, experiences that were surprising to the men in the group because they had never dealt with harassment of that kind.[6] They collectively decided to do something about the issue of street harassment, an issue that affects women, girls, and LGBTQ individuals every day.[

Morag

awec wrote: »

I'm not playing it down. I just refuse to believe that anything other than a tiny minority of women fear for themselves after rejecting a guy.

I'd say it has never happened to any of them, because it rarely happens. This is what I mean about over-exaggerating, the way you are talking you are making it sound like men grab women, call them names etc after being rejected all the time. I don't believe that to be true, I personally think that's hyperbole.

I'm pretty sure that thousands of guys are rejected in Dublin every weekend. How many of those do you think then become abusive because of it?

I would say a small few but again this isn't about the average guy out of the pull on the weekend. It's about arseholes who get a kick out of harassing women and I would say most nights I am out in the city centre at the weekend in the small hours of the morning there is always some scumbag doing that.

Hazys

I don't see why we need to bring sexual assault into this thread because this website seems only to be there to name and shame sexist a$$holes.

I don't see how this website will prevent sexual assault. A lot of sexual assaults occur when the victim knows the guy. So putting up pictures of randomers on the street will not do anything to lower the number of sexual assaults in that regard.

Even if they believed they could lower the number of sexual assaults by randomers by posting pictures online...somebody saying something rude and sexiest to that same guy committing rape is a huge reach. I don't believe there is any correlation between the two tbh. If a guy is going to sexually assault a girl, he's a pretty fcuked up individual and at the time of the crime is not going to be worried if he had his picture up on some website before... that's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

Honey-ec

Sharrow wrote: »

That's someone you know, different kettle of fish when a complete stranger.
The site is about recording street harrashment by strangers on public transport and on the street, not people you know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holla_Back

The first guy I wrote about was a complete stranger. I told him to fcuk off, which is, imo, the appropriate response to someone being an asshole. Not posting about it on some site that, let's face it, they'll probably never even visit.

Unless, of course, they are genuinely doing it for kicks, in which case ending up on Hollaback! would probably be some kind of perverse validation for them.

I'm sorry, I just genuinely don't see what they think they're going to achieve.

xDramaxQueenx

I think it's kind of ridiculous to be honest. Somebody needs to throw a lamp at those women and have them lighten up a bit.

Are we seriously living in a society where it's okay to "shame" a male for having a bit of banter. The same guy to wolf whistle at the hot blonde with super long legs, would probably whistle at a granny with a blue rinse in.

As for fearing being attacked for saying no to a guy, seriously? That's got to be the strangest thing I've read online lately. I'm pretty sure most women don't really think "oh my god, he's just hit on me. I'm not interested. I can't say no just incase he follows me home and murders me". It's actually insulting to women to assume they're so weak and vulnerable that they fear rejecting a male they have no interest in.
:eek:

Whispered

I don't think anybody means that every girl is worried every time she rejects someone, but there have been times that I've felt threatened for not being interested in someone. Twice to be exact, once I was followed into the girls toilet and had to shout for someone to get the bouncers while I was locked into a cubicle and another time I was followed down the street being called a "cock tease" because I politely said no thanks when I was offered to share a taxi home with a guy who I had never ever seen before in my life.

I have also been grabbed in a pub by some filthy old man, "nice tits love" followed by a good grope while his filthy old man friends stood around jeering. He got threatening too when I told him to keep his smelly hands off me. Apparently I was in "his pub".

I've been with my husband years and usually socialise with him, so these incidents have been among the few times I've been out without him. I can imagine girls with a more active social life have many more stories!

Flirty advances is one thing, and I would worry that the site could be used to "name and shame" someone wholly undeserving of it. Imagine a vindictive ex or something. Not a great idea really.

Morag

I get the reason/premise behind it, just don't think it will work here mind.
In other larger cities police monitored times and places and would turn up if there was a regular pattern of harassment in a certain spot.
Can't see that working here.

FrogMarch

Another clever tool in the militant feminists' increasingly large arsenal of projective identification. Keep telling women they're victims and keep telling men that they're disgusting, dangerous predatory rapists and it's only a matter of time before society as a whole believes it.

The biggest threat to women in modern society is militant feminism. Not some guy on a train who may or may not be flashing his willy.

I digress.

Madam_X

This odious crap is only dangerous for women if people choose to apply it to all feminists/women. It is damaging in that sense but it certainly isn't the biggest threat to modern women. I dont think society will ever believe crackpot theories either.

I hate this initiative though - it's reprehensible with a strong misandrist undercurrent.
Sexual harassment can take place but that does not justify something as crazed as this.

Wibbs

FrogMarch wrote: »

I digress.

Yes you do "digress", so remember where you're posting and read the charter of this forum.

Frito

I doubt whether this initiative will have any positive effect in reducing sexual harassment. Perhaps a viral video campaign along the lines of 'don't be that guy' would be more effective?

mackg

Sharrow wrote: »

The sister sites to this one only ever post a general discription of the person and if any images are used they are blurred. All posts are also screened before they are published.

Naming and shaming as has been said before has disaster written all over it but yeah just a place to talk about stuff doesn't seem like it's going to do much harm.

On my way home from a party tonight, my boyfriend, a male friend and I were crossing the road to Camden Town underground station in a rush to make sure we caught the last tube train. As we crossed the road, a group of drunk, “jokily” aggressive guys ran across the road in the opposite direction. My boyfriend and my friend were ignored, however one of them found the time to drag his hands across my chest as he ran past. I am short, and I was wearing a dark, thick winter coat buttoned up. He must have thought about where to place his hand. I couldn’t do anything for a split second as I was so shocked. When I recovered enough to realise how angry I was, I turned back and shouted “****ing losers!” I wish I’d grabbed his hand and bitten on it. And then kneed him in his crotch, hard. My friend, who had seen what had happened (my boyfriend didn’t), congratulated me for shouting back at the guys, as he thought not enough women fight back. But that made me think, why didn’t he say anything? It’s hard to fight back when something like that happens to you, even when you want to, because you are so paralysed by the shock. It’s not that not enough women fight back, but rather that not enough people stick up for them.

That's a sample post from the London chapter which I had a look at out of curiosity. Something like that I obviously don't have a problem with and seems no different to something you might see here. If I'm not mistaken wasn't there a thread in here not so long ago along these lines?

Just to stress I would be opposed to anything along the lines of naming and shaming for the reasons that have been outlined already in the thread.

Also on the organisations home page they talk about some of the work they do and again some of it seems like good stuff, this for example.

First, our International Fellow Shahinaz led a workshop at Planned Parenthood of New York City about bystander intervention with a mixed gender group of late high school/early college-aged peer educators. She also facilitated a similar event with middle-school youth.

If the majority of decent people stood up to dickheads it would do so much to eliminate this type of thing. It's not just a problem in terms of sexual harassment. I was talking to an elderly lady at a bus stop recently who said her and her husband are regularly a target for abuse.

I would be fairly sceptical about the proportion of women who would feel afraid when turning a guy down though. The more extreme cases would be more of a job for the cops eg. being followed home or threatened. When it comes to just nasty comments and such from what I have seen in pubs and such girls can be just as bad as guys.

SEPT 23 1989

The spokesperson from this group is on the Ryan Tuburty show now

its not going down too well with the public

Daroxtar

Just listened to her and had to post the following on her website. Don't know if she'll publish it but I had to share my pain

"I recently had my lifestyle choice and intelligence severely insulted by a woman in public. While listening to the radio I was seriously disturbed by the allegations of a neanderthal female who kept referring to men who worked on building sites as pests and sexual predators intent on harassing female passers by.

As a carpenter I found this highly offensive to all in my trade and myself. This silly girl needs to realise that when we are at work the overwhelming majority of construction workers are too busy to be bothered by a trivial matter like women passing .

However, despite my distress at the wild accusations being hurled, I managed to compose myself enough to endure the remains of her "Interview". That was when the second affront to me happened; She blatantly lied and in doing so delivered a crushing blow to my intelligence.

While describing a tale of her own harassment which involved a car driving by and the occupants abusing her, she said that she called the Gardai to complain. She was then asked if she had taken a picture of the car and its occupants to which she replied that she couldn't BECAUSE HER PHONE WAS DEAD. Sooooooo .....

With crushed spirit and no self esteem I felt I had to report this terrible injustice, the baseless accusations and tar-brushing, the insufferable narrowmindedness but above all the horror of some backward fool lying through their teeth to push their own ridiculous agenda to the forefront, to climb the mountain of first world problems at such an unrecoverable cost to my person.

Thank you Hollaback for allowing me to re live my harrowing episode and share my horror, disgust and hurt on your website. Now I must go and shower to symbolically wash the dirt of this putrid tale off myself"

Emeraldy Pebbles

Also, the whole thing just assumes that sexual harrassment only happens to women.

Starokan

There is something very wrong with the Hollaback concept imo.

I fully accept there are a small percentage of men who make women feel threatened when rejected. Speaking as a bloke though I would guess its a tiny percentage of our gender as a whole, most guys simply move on when knocked back. Likewise women I would imagine

Hollaback is all about sensationalism, if the harassment is significant enough it should be reported to the gardai, if you have time enough to take a picture of the guy in question then provide it to the gardai. Posting on a website is not an answer. There are to many pitfalls, what happens when someone posts up something out of spite or for kicks, to think that wont happen is naive, it will see innocent people being maligned for nothing.

Being harassed is horrific, a friend of mine was stalked , it was the single worst experience of her life, i dont think posting up about that person would have helped in any way. In fact the person doing the stalking was so deranged in general I believe it would have made it worse.

As others have posted I would imagine it will open the posters and the site to the possibility of legal action.

FrogMarch

What's to stop scorned women posting photos of their exes? What's to stop personality disordered women, sociopaths, psychopaths or other types of unstable personalities posting photos of people they don't like or even just random guys?

Even on Ladies Lounge, we are aware that there are severely unstable women (just as there are severely unstable men) out there in the big bad world, right?

This Hollaback incentive, I'm quite sure, is highly illegal and I hope the self-defined victims (abusers) who set it up are arrested and punished if they post a single photo on their site without evidence.

We have a system of justice for a reason. :cool:

Sorcha16

At the end of the day, this website is just some stranger's unsubstantiated word against somebody else's and therefore worthy of about as much attention as the contents of your wheelie bin

FrogMarch

Sorcha16 wrote: »

At the end of the day, this website is just some stranger's unsubstantiated word against somebody else's and therefore worthy of about as much attention as the contents of your wheelie bin

Yep. Unless your photo is uploaded to it and you're innocent. In which case I'm sure you'd want to give it your full attention!

mackg

FrogMarch wrote: »

Yep. Unless your photo is uploaded to it and you're innocent. In which case I'm sure you'd want to give it your full attention!

http://ldn.ihollaback.org/

There doesn't seem to be any instances of uploaded photos here.

Daroxtar

Oh there's some fcuking gems on that site--



".....so perhaps there’d been some kind of perverts convention or something, who knows. Anyway, I go into a corner shop to buy a quick snack before the gym. Before I’ve even made eye contact with the man behind the counter he leers and says ‘Hello gorgeous, how are you?’. I turn and walk out. He’s just lost a customer for life...."

A shopkeeper in London called a girl "gorgeous"

I suppose you had to be there:rolleyes:

She'll probably be off reporting Eastenders to the broadcasting commisioner

Molecule

Not sure what I think of this. I think in theory a site that highlights that it is NOT ok to grope, follow, harass or make sexual innuendos to people who are just going about their daily business is a good idea. I can't imagine they'll actually put up any photographs or print any names - it would be a legal world of pain for all parties involved. Realistically though I don't know how much it will achieve. I somehow doubt the type of person who thinks it's grand to grab a girl's ass in public or make comments about the size of her breasts as she walks by is going to repent their ways after being featured on the site. If anything, as another poster said, I'd worry that it would give rise to competition for inclusion

There seems to be a lot of lucky people here who've never had unwanted 'attentions' while out and about. I wish I could say the same. A particular stand-out is having a guy grab me between the legs as I walked into a shop in a country town at about 3pm in the afternoon. Tbh I was so shocked that whoever did it was gone before I had time to react, but if I'd actually had a good look at who it was I would have gone to the Guards instead of putting it on a website. Edit: Actually I must be honest here - I was so angry and humiliated by what happened that at the time, if I'd had the chance and the site had existed back then, I would happily have put up the photo of whatever pr*ck did that.

Oh and I know it does happen to guys too! A friend of mine had his crotch groped by another man while on a train (not in Ireland). Again though, I doubt describing him on a site would be of much use...unless he did that sort of thing there frequently and the police were able to use the details on the site to catch him. I think I'm being very optimistic there though.

jaffacakesyum

The whole idea of the website is ridiculous for reasons that have been mentioned already.

However, I do think something has to be done. I can't even count the number of times I've been harassed and groped, abuse shouted at me, followed, teased, jeered at, objectified... and I'm only 21 for fúck sake. This shouldn't be happening as often as it is to women. Why do some men think it is acceptable behavious? The scary thing is I don't consider myself a very attractive woman and I don't dress very sexy when I am out yet i still get my ass and tits grabbed with no warning, still get hit on and when politely refused get abuse...it's horrible.

The Hollaback concept just won't work though and it's not right, fair or legal.

The Corinthian

xDramaxQueenx wrote: »

The same guy to wolf whistle at the hot blonde with super long legs, would probably whistle at a granny with a blue rinse in.

I wonder, with the change in economic situation, if a woman will more likely get wolf whistles from a Dole cue than a building site nowadays?

Emeraldy Pebbles wrote: »

Also, the whole thing just assumes that sexual harrassment only happens to women.

It does happen to men, but I can't imagine it happens that often as it tends only to do so when women have the Dutch courage to be that aggressive.

When I was a much younger 'pretty boy' I would occasionally get the odd comment from groups of girls I'd pass on the street. One even sang to me on Grafton street. TBH, I generally found those occasions flattering, even when the ladies in question were, ahem, aesthetically questionable.

Places like Copper Face Jacks are a case in point as a man is just as likely (maybe more so) to be groped as a woman. Also, in my experience, women really do not take rejection very well and will often resort to pleading ("oh, please, why won't you kiss me?"), coercion (physically trying to kiss or feel you up even though you've clearly said no) or abuse (name calling or throwing a drink in your face).

I suspect this is more common in Ireland, due to the over-reliance on alcohol and the general passivity of Irish men.

FrogMarch wrote: »

What's to stop scorned women posting photos of their exes? What's to stop personality disordered women, sociopaths, psychopaths or other types of unstable personalities posting photos of people they don't like or even just random guys?

Who says it has to be a woman? A male work colleague who what's to screw you over for your promotion by damaging your reputation could just as easily do the same - it's not as if the site verifies your gender, after all.

Princess Peach

Whispered wrote: »

I don't think anybody means that every girl is worried every time she rejects someone, but there have been times that I've felt threatened for not being interested in someone. Twice to be exact, once I was followed into the girls toilet and had to shout for someone to get the bouncers while I was locked into a cubicle and another time I was followed down the street being called a "cock tease" because I politely said no thanks when I was offered to share a taxi home with a guy who I had never ever seen before in my life.

The bathroom thing has happened to me too!! What is wrong with guys??

I have also been grabbed in a pub by some filthy old man, "nice tits love" followed by a good grope while his filthy old man friends stood around jeering. He got threatening too when I told him to keep his smelly hands off me. Apparently I was in "his pub".

Oh my God, I have gotten similar responses! Men saying its ok cause I'm in a nightclub or at a concert, they genuinely said that, "Calm down, your at a concert to have some fun." Yes but not be harassed!! I've also had bouncers shrug it off places. Not big enough of a deal to have words with the guy I guess.

With regards to fearing for myself saying no to a guy, I did have a fear of that for a long time, due to an experience I had when I was young, but I think that was more a reflection on myself than anything.

I like the idea of the site, and having a place for people to discuss these instances and maybe ways of dealing with them. But the execution is bad.