my name is NOT yo mama

i just came across this article in the uk guardian about a NEW YORK website (why do i have to read about these things in a EUROPEAN paper i wonder to myself? although the entries ARE from places other than nyc and some indeed ARE from europe) and had to check it out. it involves photos of men who have harrassed women (usually the photos are taken with camera phones). some entries are just little stories, no pictures. it's very interesting. MOST of the comments listed have been thrust upon me and i'm sure 99.9% of the rest of the women i know (and don't know). this site could very well be abused, let's say by someone angry at their boyfriend, lover, neighbor. all in all i think it's on the up and up though. it's so hard to explain to a man (who doesn't already understand) how skeevy it is to have something untoward said to you as you're walking past them. how it makes you feel when they talk about your ass or your breasteseseseseseses or what they want to do to you or you to them. most entries look like they've been made by younger women and grrrls too. however, i'm NOT that young anymore (nor am 'classically attractive') but I STILL GET the grunts and comments and lewd actions.

Mobile vigilantes snap sex pests in action Harassed women in New York are using a website to shame men behaving badly
David Smith, technology correspondent Sunday April 30, 2006 The Observer
The day that a man was caught masturbating on the subway was the day that the women of New York said enough was enough. Thao Nguyen, a disgusted fellow passenger, took a picture of the man with her camera phone and posted it on the internet.
A cyber-storm gathered, the photo made it to the front page of the New York Daily News and the man, 43-year-old Daniel Hoyt - a repeat offender - was convicted of public lewdness. Supporters compared Nguyen, 23, with civil rights activist Rosa Parks who famously refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus.
Inspired by Nguyen's use of technology, Lauren Spees and six friends launched a website, hollabacknyc.com, which invites people who have been sexually harassed in public to take a picture of the offender and post it online, thus shaming the guilty party.
The growing interest in the site, which receives an average of 1,500 hits a day, has been described as 'cyber vigilantism' by critics and raises new questions about where society draws the line between an innocent chat-up line and 'harassment'.
In the eight months, about 100 camera phone pictures have been posted on the site along with text accounts, or 'blogs', of the harassment suffered. Next month, British and European sites will launch under the banner: 'If you can't slap 'em, snap 'em!'.........................

the site:

hollabacknyc