Sexually Harassed? There's An App For That

By Dodai Stewart | May 7, 2010 | 5:00pm

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Emily May’s project, Hollaback — which targets those who sexually harass women on the street — is moving beyond a blog and into the 21st century, with an iPhone app.

Hollaback is a well-known blog — and by the end of June, an iPhone app — where women (and LGBT people) can take a picture of the person harassing them, write a quick story about it, and post it online. Which beats fantasizing that you have a gun and can shoot the dude in the head, which was what I used to do.

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May explains:

We found that one of the main reasons that women don’t Hollaback is because by the time they get home, they just kind of want to forget that it happened. The real fierceness of Holla-ing back is that it’s in the moment.

The iPhone app — and a mobile texting application — will allow women to report creeps, immediately and on the go. And while Hollaback began as a local effort, it’s being reorganized into a global one: May plans to have a map, so “we can really look at this as a society and say that this is not just a problem. This is of epidemic proportions.” (Stop Street Harassment already has a web-based map, which is very illuminating.) Being cat-called or, worse, groped, can be humiliating, anxiety-inducing and enraging. While Hollaback’s app may not stop sexual harassment, if might offer some people a little peace of mind.

Hollaback Moves Forward [The American Prospect]

Related: iHollaback.org [Official Site]
HollabackNYC.com [Official Site]
Street Harassment, Around the World [The Sexist]
Stop Street Harassment [Official Site]