Gemma Whitfield

“I’m sorry to anyone who received a flyer on their way in” Laura Bates, author of Everyday Sexism began. Bates was referring to the attempted boycott on her talk at Waterstones by pamphlet wielding member of the “Justice for Men and Boys (and the women who love them)” party, who dished out vitriolic leaflets reading “feminists lie about rape” to attendees of the Hampstead event.

This comes just days after feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian was forced to cancel her speech on video games at Utah State University after staff received an anonymous threat of a “Montreal Massacre-style attack” against all present. Bates has also received multiple, anonymous threats of death and rape since starting the Everyday Sexism project – but two and a half years on and 80,000 women’s testimonies later, Laura is still shouting back against sexism.

The Everyday Sexism project has been acknowledged as one of the most succesful social media campaigns of all time, but for Laura Bates, this was initially just a blog born out of her sheer frustration. Being shouted at out of car windows, followed home, groped on public transport and objectified by builders (“look at the tits on THAT!”) all within one week pushed the author to start a website where she and other women could document and share their stories. Of the thousands of accounts that came flooding in from women all over the world – those that took place on public transport were taken to the ...