(and hopefully, the last one for today).
There is another reason why I dislike this whole affair so much (at least in the Global South context): the premise could potentially get women killed.
Now, let’s contextualize this. The reasoning behind Hollaback is that when a woman is a victim of street harassment, she turns the cards at the harasser and answers back. That sounds great in theory, right? Empowering even.
However, in a country like Argentina, where last year alone, there were at least 260 reported femicides, this utopian “turning of cards” could potentially lead to a serious, life threatening attack.
So while it is realistic to expect that I, in Amsterdam, could respond to a street harasser without much of a physical consequence for me (further than the rhetoric violence, at least), depending on circumstance and environment, if I attempted the same in Buenos Aires, I might end up in hospital. Or worse.
And that’s why I do not like imported models. They never take into consideration the unique cultural circumstances.
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