Friday Feminist Fuck YEAH: Holla Back and Friends

We were thrilled when Ann thought up of the brilliant idea to switch up our Friday Feminist Fuck Yous once in a while to a Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah; after all, it is Friday and it’s nice to start off the weekend with some happy feelings.
So considering the good news us New Yorkers have had this week about the MTA putting up anti-harassment ads up in the subways, this is our first Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah to Holla Back NYC, Girls for Gender Equity, Right Rides and all of the other advocacy groups and organizations that are fighting subway (and street) harassment.

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Transcript below the jump.

Fuck yeah Holla Back and friends who helped to push the New York City MTA to put anti-harassment ads up in their subways. The ads are going to be going up in September in their trains and subways that say, “Sexual harassment is a crime in the subway too” urging those who are harassed to come forward and report it as well. This is quite a victory for us, considering the scary regularity of harassment that many of us have to experience in the subway. And this Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah – our first one ever – is for groups like HollaBack NYC, Girls for Gender Equity and Right Rides who acknowledge and support our right to simply transport ourselves from one place to another without being catcalled or grabbed.
Hollaback NYC urges women to snap pictures of their harassers and post it on their blog – under their header on the site is says, “Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you’re commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some turd’s fantasy.” Which is why I said this because I thought that it was hilarious they used the word “turd.” Awesome. And Girls for Gender Equity also had a hand in this – this is actually my old feminist stomping grounds – and they do so, so much for the girls in Brooklyn and other parts of New York City, there’s too many programs to list. But related to this issue, they actually made an anti-harassment film with their Sisters in Strength program called “War Zone” and spreading the message about the importance of stopping street harassment throughout the media, which is great. And then there’s Right Rides for Women’s Safety, which is a New York-based organization, it’s been around for a long time, and they literally provide car rides for women, transpeople and gender queer individuals to ensure their safe trip home, or through high-risk areas, their motto being “Because getting home safely shouldn’t be a luxury.”
And there are so many other organizations that have been working against street and subway harassment, like the Street Harassment Project and INCITE Women of Color Against Violence, which is actually – I went to my first street harassment workshop given by them way back when. But there’s also a lot more to be done. While I think that it is so great that they’re putting up this ad because one of the problems with harassment is that many people don’t recognize what harassment is or don’t know what qualifies as harassment or don’t pay attention to it because it’s so common and consider it the “norm.” So this ad is really calling it for what it is, which is a crime, so it’s really great. But these groups need supporters, and we need more groups like this in other areas, not just cities. But in the meantime, a big, fat feminist fuck yeah to all of these amazing groups who are working to fight for women’s right to be and feel safe in public.