This Week in Street Harassment...

Our launch party is coming - which means the new site and iPhone app are too! Will you be there to see it all begin? Only a little over ONE WEEK TO GO to get your VOTE in for our Changemaker's "Action to Revelation" competition! This isn't like the 2000 election: your vote matters here. The three groups that get the most votes win $5,000 and will be honored in front of over 200 people! In my favorite response to ‘eve-teasing’ so far, Indian women learn how to use a dupatta, a traditional scarf that denotes modesty, for self-defense! Mobile technology and web 2.0 media are powerful tools for social change, and they are becoming increasingly accessible. Egyptian women use ‘citizen media’ to highlight the problem of street harassment and my favorite blogger at the Economist discusses the increasing ubiquity of cell phones, even in impoverished areas. A disproportionate number of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. LGBTQ folks already often experience harassment and violence in public spaces, and of course the risks are much greater when you are unable to retreat from those spaces. In this shout-out to Hollaback! NYC and Hollaback! DC, Emily Hauser reminds us that street harassment is part of a continuum of violence against women and that so-called “compliments” can still be used to express dominance.