Think catcalling is okay? Well, think again. This woman is making sure that people are aware of how disgusting it is.
Noa Jansma created the Instagram @DearCatCallers after she grew fed up of dealing with constant street harassment from men. This project grew from a place to air out frustrations, to a network of over 50 thousand people who follow the page. This Instagram has loads of comments from women who share similar experiences and praise the work this young woman is doing.
Noa explained her reasons for doing this to Red Pers, a dutch site.
“Women often don’t know how to respond to a sexist comment. Carrying on seems like the only solution but that has no consequence for the harassers.
Sometimes I give them the middle finger, but I feel stupid afterwards. I wanted to do something that gave me power over them.”
The selfies on Instagram consist of Noa showing a stoic face while standing next to the men that catcall her. Some men get very comfortable and even place their arm around her.
Startlingly, Noa stated on Het Parool, that throughout the time of her project not one man asked why she wanted to take a selfie with him. She explains: “They’re not at all suspicious because they feel that what they’re doing is completely normal.”
On August 29th, the day she created @DearCatCallers, she shared this statement on Instagram.
“Dear catcallers, it’s not a compliment. This Instagram has the aim to create awareness about the objectification of women in daily life. Since many people still don’t know how often and in whatever context ‘catcalling’ happens, I’ll be showing my catcallers within the period of one month.”
One month has passed since this first statement. Noa has given women the incentive to join in the project she began. She encourages other girls to also take a stand against street harassment. Street harassment is a global phenomenon that requires global awareness. She posted her last post on September 29 with this statement:
“My month of posts has ended, but it doesn’t mean that catcallers are in the past as well. To show that it’s a global phenomenon and that this art-project is not only about me, I’ll pass on the account to different girls around the world.”
Noa Jansma is not so different from her predecessors. Strong women who advocated for the humane treatment of women. She has utilized social media, a tool relative to our time, for a great purpose and that’s to create awareness. Worldwide.
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