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A 20-year-old woman named Noa Jansma is a design student in Eindhoven, Netherlands. She wanted to make a difference in the world no matter how small. Therefore, she turned to the tools social media put at the disposal of users to create a project. Her idea was to spend an entire month taking selfies with catcallers that invade her privacy in public. This type of initiative enriches the growing awareness women started raising to disclose the street harassment they frequently experience.
The Dutch Woman Took Pictures of Some of Her Catcallers for a Month
“You wanna kiss?” “Can he have your number?” “Wanna come in my car?” These are a few of the remarks that Noa received within a month from normal-looking men on the street.
The design student recalled how she was talking with her colleagues at school about catcallers. What started out as a topic of discussion ended up being an entire awareness project.
Noa realized that her girlfriends were well aware of this harassing behavior of the streets. On the other hand, her male colleagues were surprised to learn that girls are still treated this way even in these modern days.
As a result of this group debate, Noa concluded that she needs to document this unwanted part of her life better. Therefore, she actually started to respond to catcallers by asking them for a selfie with her. In a month’s time, Noa gathered 24 pictures of men who disrespected her as a human being.
The Instagram Pictures Documented the Street Harassment Many Women and Girls Are Still Subjected to Nowadays
Contrary to her fears, these men were happy to take a photo with her. They probably believed that their harassment was taken as a compliment.
“By making the selfie, both the objectifier and the object are assembled in one composition.”
Noa further explained that the photos represent the same invasion of privacy that her catcallers were guilty of. Therefore, she didn’t ask for their permission to post their pictures on social media just as they disregarded her right to privacy as well.
The entire collections of images can be found on Instagram under the hashtag of #dearcatcallers. Noa ended her month of documenting street harassment. However, she handed on this torch to other women in distress who can continue posting photos with their catcallers under the same hashtag.
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