Campaigns, Events, News, Resources, The Movement

We just made it past the halfway mark! Your support means the world to us!

Erin working on comicWe just made it past the halfway mark! Thank you for your generosity, both in donating and in spreading the word to your families and friends. It means the world to us!

Erin is hard at work creating gorgeous illustrations, and we are almost finished revising the script. It’s really coming together now, and we’re beyond excited. Stay tuned – we will be posting more sneak-peak drawings soon. 

-Rochelle, Anna & Erin

 

 

Round-up of some comic book related posts this week:

Good video snapshot of the ways women are pushed away from the comic book world (Reposted from DC Women Kicking Ass!)
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/44252245721/all-the-reasons-comic-book-men-is-the-worst-pr-for

 

Who are your favorite women/LGBT friendly comics? We love Batwoman, Wonderwoman, Rogue, and Storm – but would love to expand our reading list to less mainstream comics. Share your faves in the comments!

  • People suggested Promethea and Octopus Pie
  • Do you have any suggestions to add? Put them in the comments!

 

We are so excited about “Wonder Women, The Untold Story of American Superheroines!” The trailer looks amazing: http://bit.ly/YU72mb.

Coming to the Philadelphia area (Westchester, specifically) soon!: http://ow.ly/i4O5w

 

www.octopuspie.com

Published on March 5,2013 at 6:43 am in Campaigns, Events, News, Resources, The Movement,
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Campaigns, Events, Resources, The Movement

“Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue.” Street Harassment Meets Comic Books.

Catcalls, creepy staring, kissing noises, hissing, following… if you haven’t personally experienced it, you’ve probably seen it happening. Ugh.
Meet Red, Yellow, and Blue, the stars of our comic book. Red and Yellow are girls who get harassed and have to figure out how to deal with it. Blue is Red’s boyfriend, and he has seen other dudes harass girls but doesn’t realize the impact, or that he can help, until Red fills him in.
Here’s a sneak peak of covers introducing you to the three main characters, and storyline sketches from pages in the book:
Meet Red!Meet Red!Meet Yellow!Meet Yellow!Meet BlueRed waiting for the SubwayRed waiting for the busRed's Thoughts/Fears

Hollaback: Red, Yellow, Blue, a set on Flickr.

We are excited to be working on this project, which will be used for educational workshops on street harassment against women and LGBT folks and bystander intervention.
The book will be 24 full-color pages, created by artist Erin Filson, with input from HollabackPHILLY activists Rochelle Keyhan and Anna Kegler. We will also be creating an online, interactive comic (choose your own adventure!), and making the comic book available for sale as an e-book.
Who we are
Rochelle and Anna work with HollabackPHILLY, the Philadelphia branch of the global anti-street harassment Hollaback! network to plan events and projects that raise awareness of the problem of street harassment (check out our website to see what we’re up to). Rochelle has been passionate about street harassment issues for a long time, and serves on the Board of Directors for the main Hollaback! organization. Anna loves thinking about creative and effective ways to get the word out, and Erin is a brilliant Philadelphia artist and creator of theRanger Elf comic. She was recently spotlighted by the ActionStudioWorks blog with a great interview. All three of us love it when smart people kick butt and stand up for each other.
Why support us?
By supporting our effort, you are supporting a global educational effort with a proven track record. Comic books are used by the United Nations and other organizations as best practices for youth education on tough issues. Street harassment is a tricky thing to talk about, and it starts young. Yep. Nobody likes to think about 10-year-old girls being sexually harassed on their way to school, but for a lot of kids, it’s a reality. We want to use this comic book to start the discussion through educational workshops in local schools and communities. Lucky for us, we already have a built-in global Hollaback! network (62 cities and 25 countries) and many, many more allies in other anti-street harassment organizations around the world to help with translation and distribution, so this won’t just be a Philadelphia effort. It will be a global effort.
Our goal is to spread the word that street harassment is not okay. It’s not a compliment, and it’s not something to be taken lightly.  Street harassment affects women and girls, and can be particularly violent when directed towards members of the LGBT community. Not only can it have serious effects on people’s self-esteem and sense of safety, but it also says something big about who we are as a culture: if we accept street harassment, that means we accept the objectification of women, gender-policing, and gender-based violence. We can do better! The first step is to start talking about it. The comic book, and especially the choose your own adventure computer based version, will help youth think through this difficult issue in an accessible way. Your support will help make that conversation happen.
Women and Comic Books
There’s another big reason you should get behind our project. For many years, the world of comic books and gaming was boys-only, no- girls-allowed. This is changing – slowly – and every effort towards expanding the culture makes a difference. We are part of a growing movement to support talented female comic book artists, strong female comic book characters, and the community of women and girls who love comics.
By donating to our project, you are helping to chip away at sexism in two places – on the streets, and in the world of comics. Throughout our campaign, we will be posting interesting Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest updates on women in the field of comics and gaming, as well as highlighting activists we admire, such as Anita Sarkeesian, media critic and creator of Feminist Frequency. Stay tuned!
Budget

We have had an incredible amount of in-kind support on this comic book, from Erin Filson donating her superior artist skills, to numerous people volunteering their time to translate the final comic book into Spanish, Farsi, German, Romanian, French, Hebrew, Korean and hopefully more as the campaign progresses, to Rochelle and Anna hard at work on publicity, publishing, and fundraising. Now we need your help to bring the comic to life! Our goal is to raise $5,000. In addition to an initial publishing cost of $4,000 (2,000 copies) and setting up a table with merchandise at Philadelphia’s Comic Book Convention ($500), we will be using the funds for the following:

  • Shipping our books to Hollaback! branches in 62 cities and 25 countries around the world, and working with those branches to translate the comic
  • Funding educational workshops to teach youth about street harassment Developing an online, interactive version of the comic (choose your own adventure style!)
  • Making copies of the book available at local and online comic book stores as a woman-centered and created book, to provide more options for an inclusive and empowered comic book world If we raise more than the requested $5,000, we will be able to:
  • Further promote the comic book and online version at comic book stores and conventions to increase visibility and help break down sexism in the comic book world
  • Provide a platform to share our comic book and the corresponding workshop curriculum with educators outside the Hollaback! network, and expand the reach of this effort

Any funds that we receive from selling the comic book in stores and online will go directly towards our mission of creating more educational workshops, and expanding that curriculum beyond just the 2013-2014 school year, as is currently planned and budgeted for.

When will the book be done?
We plan to publish it in Summer 2013. Stay tuned to our Twitter and Facebook pages, because we will keep you updated with all of the major milestones along the way.
Reward Levels!
For every donation, beyond the warm and fuzzy feeling you’ll get for supporting the global anti-street harassment movement, and a more inclusive gaming and comics community, you’ll get swag too! Check out the Rewards Levels buttons below our video on this page for the different swag options!
How you can help

Any amount you can give is sincerely appreciated, since even the smallest amount will help us make this comic book. If you’re strapped for cash, we completely understand and would be very grateful if you could help by doing any of the following:

  • Personally contact (email, text, call, Facebook message) 2-3 friends who you think might give $5 or more to our project.
  • Post about our project on your Facebook page.
  • Follow HollabackPHILLY on Facebook and Twitter for updates and share/retweet.
  • If you can refer us to anyone who can help, we’d love all the help we can get!
  • If you can offer an in-kind service or discount in the form of printing/shipping costs, supplies, translation, web-design, etc. please let us know.
  • If you could help us get press for our project (newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc.) we would be most grateful!

 

Thank you so much for your support!

-Rochelle, Anna, & Erin

Published on February 25,2013 at 2:12 pm in Campaigns, Events, Resources, The Movement,
2 comments 
Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, User Submissions

Anonymous’ Story: Harasser right now near City Hall and the Criminal Justice Center in Center City

“I’m fine, I’m on my train now. But a creepy guy got pissed that I didn’t say hi to him on the street and changed direction to follow me, mumbling something abotu disrespect. I went into a hotel and he followed me in, I went to the coffee shop and he couldn’t see me so he left. I waited a bit then ran for my train.

I’m home now; I’m pretty shaken up, but I’m safe. My husband met me at the train station, but I wanted to put .

 

**Note:  This happened in the four square block area around City Hall 02/22/13 in the late afternoon, early evening. She  describes the man as on the husky side, wearing work boots, a grey zip-up hoodie, jeans, and a wool hat.

 

I've got your back!
19+

Published on February 21,2013 at 5:22 pm in Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, User Submissions,
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Campaigns, Events, Resources, The Movement

HollabackPHILLY Joins Various UN Affiliated Organizations for February 19 Day of Action

 

On February 19 we will reach out to local legislators in an attempt to collaborate on ways to make Philadelphia a safer place, one that is less permissive of gender-based violence.

Check out the other global organizations and their commitments to partnering with legislators and policy makers to better their communities! View the map here.

Delhi and Beyond: Concrete Action for Safer Cities

On Tuesday, February 19, we (the Huairou Commission, Women in Cities International, Women and Habitat Network Latin America, Jagori, GROOTS International, ICWIF and FEMUM-ALC) are calling upon feminist organizations and grassroots women’s groups to participate in a global day of action, Delhi and Beyond: Concrete Actions for Safer Cities. On this day, women and local authorities will jointly sign agreements identifying a concrete action they will advance to make their city safer for women and girls.

Published on January 31,2013 at 12:00 pm in Campaigns, Events, Resources, The Movement,
one comment 
Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions

Rachel’s Story: A man hit her daughter with his car to try to get her to willingly leave with him.

This is about an event that happened to my daughter several years ago. She was about 16 or 17 years old at the time. She was a student at Franklin Learning Center on 16th Street. Her walk to and from school was relatively short and during times of the day I felt were safe-ish. I would have preferred to never leave her alone. Anyway, as she was walking home crossing the intersection a man in a car slowed down as if to let her pass. But rather than stopping he very slowly hit her with his vehicle and knocked her down. She judged that he should have been able to stop and felt strongly that he’d intentionally hit her with just enough force to knock her down. Then he got out of the car with many profuse apologies and expressions of deep concern. He repeatedly offered to drive her home or to a hospital or where-ever she needed to go. She instinctively felt that his plan all along was to get her into his car and then… who knows what? She was smart enough to refuse a ride and hobbled the rest of the way home. She had a huge bruise on her thigh. I was very alarmed. We reported it to police. But nothing ever came of it. I imagine this criminal has continued to use the same tactic to lure other girls and women into his vehicle.

I've got your back!
20+

Published on January 25,2013 at 2:24 pm in Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions,
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Campaigns, News, Resources

Week In Our Shoes: VICE EDITION

Cross-posted, Originally posted at ihollaback.org, January 25, 2013, 8:36am.

 

Hello Hollabackers!–

Welcome to our weekly update! Let’s get started.

The mothership got some nice press this week — we were mentioned in this MS Magazine’s article, How Some Men Harass Women Online and What Other Men Can Do to Stop It, profiled in The Story Exchange, and interviewed for Vice Magazine! When Vice starts to care about street harassment — you know change is in the air.

And now, without further ado, our sites have had quite a week:

Hollaback! Des Moines published their very awesome 5 Things You Can Do Right Now To End Street Harassment on the Hollaback Des Moines website! They are continuing to bring in stories for their Story Drive. The goal is to collect 50 stories by March 1st, so share your story if you haven’t already! We are also very excited to announce Hollaback! Des Moines’ newest team member: welcome, Alysa Mozak to our Hollaback! family! Alysa currently works as a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator and Healthy Relationship Promoter at Drake University. Very Cool.

Hollaback! Alberta did a screening this past Wednesday of the documentary The Invisible War at local theatre in Edmonton. The site posted an important lesson on the harmful effects of the improper use of the word “rape.”View the post here.

Hollaback! IstanbulHollaback! Istanbul got some big press this week. After friend of our site leader and acclaimed journalist Alyson Neel published widely-read article in the Washington Post, In Istanbul, street harassment is a constant, both Alyson Neel and our Hollaback! Istanbul Programs Director, Ezgi Cincin, were interviewed on Television! Watch them talk about the effects of street harassment HERE! (note: it’s in Turkish).

Hollaback! West Yorkshire has done a great job collecting stories this week. Read the most recent stories and posts on their site.

Hollaback! Winnipeg has a new filmmaker on board! A very warm Hollaback! welcome to Cleo! Cleo is already doing some amazing work filming for Hollaback! Winnipeg’s vlogs.

Hollaback! Philly’s site leader Rochelle Keyhan was featured in a groundbreaking 20-minute documentary titled Trigger Warning. The documentary explores the harmful effects of rape jokes and violent discourse in comedy as we have grown accustomed to it. Definitely a must-watch.

 

COMING SOON:  One Billion Rising is quickly approaching, and a whole bunch of incredible programs are in the works at Hollaback! sites all over the world. Get involved with you local Hollaback! site, it’s going to be the best V-Day yet.

Our  Hollaback! community is making street harassment a known issue and a paramount international conversation. THANK YOU to our incredible site leaders and supporters worldwide.  Let’s keep it going!

Holla and out–

Emily

Published on January 25,2013 at 9:44 am in Campaigns, News, Resources,
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Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, Uncategorized, User Submissions

Anonymous Submission: “I am being stalked via email text phone calls.”

I am being stalked via email text phone calls. I’m scared this guy may harm me or rape me.

Published on January 11,2013 at 5:12 am in Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, Uncategorized, User Submissions,
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Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions

Jamie’s Story: Christmastime Street Harassment

Was walking past the Walgreens to our parked car with husband. A group of 4 people including a man with a can were assembled there on the sidewalk. One of the men steps out in front of us and shouts ‘Merry Christmas’ etc.. we say thank you and keep walking and one of the other persons in the group called me a bitch.

I've got your back!
16+

Published on December 25,2012 at 6:18 pm in Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions,
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Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions

Lisa’s Story: Harassed for her appearance by SEPTA bus driver, bystander shows support

I recently saw a post on body image and thought I’d share. I took the bus when I went to school at DCCC and that morning just got off and went to the bathroom. It was windy that day and I had on hair extensions that got pretty messed up and I needed to fix it. As I was brushing my hair the driver of the bus I just got off left the stall and proceeded to the sinks to wash her hands. I was standing next to the towel dispenser and as she walked over to it, she stopped behind me and eyeballed me up and down with a disgusted look on her face. She then goes “Your hair is really tangly.” Self conscious about it as I was in the first place, this made it 10x worse. I was angry at her immediately and said “Excuse me, that was really fucking rude.” She got her towel and said “And you’re vain,so I don’t know why you’re talking.” as she was walking out of the door. I didn’t realize there was another girl at the sinks who also witnessed the whole thing. When I turned around she looked appalled. She told me that she had just gotten off the same bus and was going to call Septa to report this. Needless to say, I never saw the driver again after that day.

I've got your back!
21+

Published on December 18,2012 at 2:27 pm in Campaigns, The Movement, User Submissions,
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Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, User Submissions

Lisa’s Story: “After this incident, I take Regional Rail and refuse to get on the El without a group of friends with me.”

It was about a few years ago. My dad used Calvin Klein cologne and would get free overnight bags with them. He gave some to me to use while I go back and forth from school and my mother’s house. I took the El from Suburban Station after making sure my friend got her train to New York safely one morning. I was on my way to my mother’s house and had just gotten off the El at the 69th Street Terminal. This young man walks next to me and says “Ya’ll like him?” pointing to my Calvin Klein bag. I have my ear buds in but no music playing and act like I didn’t hear him. He persists. “Hey miss, can I carry your bag?” At this point, I’m thinking “Does he really think I’m THAT stupid?” and kind of mentally laughing at his stupidity. I’m walking up the stairs to get to the main concourse and he keeps following and repeating “Miss, can I carry your bag for you?” Then he tries a more aggressive approach, trying to pry it out of my hands. When he tried this, I jerked my arm, brushing him off. This seemed to get him off me, but after this incident, I take Regional Rail and refuse to get on the El without a group of friends with me.

I've got your back!
15+

Published on December 18,2012 at 12:40 am in Campaigns, Resources, The Movement, User Submissions,
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