On October 28th, a video titled “10 hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” was released by an organization called Hollaback! to bring attention to the issue of street harassment. Within the past week, the video has gone incredibly viral. It seems that almost everyone has something to say about the video, from special guests on CNN to probably half the people on your facebook newsfeed.
But some of the most vocal responses are on Twitter. The original video has sparked a number of different conversations, manifesting as different hashtags on Twitter. Here are some of my favorites:
#DudesGreetingDudes
This hashtag was started by the comedian and blogger Elon James White in response to the common argument that so-called “harassers” like the men in the video are simply being friendly and saying ‘hi.’ #DudesGreetingDudes attempts to show the absurdity of this argument by showing how unusual and uncomfortable it would seem if men greeted other men the way they greet women on the street.
#WhatIdRatherHearThanImBeautiful
This hashtag, promoted by children’s book author Shannon Hale, was created in reaction to the argument publically put forward by Steve Santagati on CNN that there is nothing that a woman loves to hear more than that she’s beautiful.
And simplest of all…
#StreetHarassment
All over twitter, people are sharing their stories and participating in the conversation about street harassment.
Street harassment appears to be one of the big topics of the year with regard to women’s issues, and Twitter has turned out to be a great platform for an often silenced group to be heard. Just since this summer, we’ve seen the birth of numerous hashtags about harassment, including: #YesAllWomen, #NotJustHello, #YouOKsis, #ShoutingBack, and #ThatsWhatHeSaid. These latest hashtags broaden the conversation even more. I will be surprised if this is the last we hear on the topic.