Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Forsyth Gawker


I was walking home from work through the field in Forsyth Park at around 3:55pm. There was a young woman lying on her back next to her bike, reading a book in the middle of the field. She was obviously sunning and had her shirt pulled up to expose her belly - no different than all the swimsuit-wearers who sun there.

Anyway, there was no one nearby on this end of the field, save for her, myself, ... and then this old man who walks up to her. He stops no more than 10 feet away from her and stares. Actually, no, I should say leers. He made such an obvious show of it, he even shaded his eyes and leaned forward. He did this for a couple of minutes. He even circled around her, shading his eyes and staring.

The woman clearly didn't know him and was obviously growing uncomfortable. She pulled her shirt down and kept shifting. I stopped walking and stared back at the man. He noticed me and he, too, grew uncomfortable, but he kept staring at her and kept making a show of it! So I pulled out my phone camera to take a pic... but the damn thing froze! Pulling out the camera was enough, however. The guy eventually hesitated and walked away. I managed to unfreeze the phone and snap a pic as he wandered off. His hair is a little more grey/white than the photo shows.

I saw him veer really close to another young woman, then veer in a completely opposite direction to go sit on the boxes that house the machinery near the stage fountain. He seemed to have nothing better to do than to aimlessly wander around, creeping young women out.

I hope he got the message: We stand in solidarity, douchebags! And if I had to, I would so have offered to help the other women kick him in the balls!


Submitted by Another Young Woman 10/05/2010

Location: Forsyth Park

Support for the Forsyth Cafe Victim!

Remember the woman who experienced this jerk from the Forsyth Cafe? Well, a reader wrote in with some supportive statements!

Hi,

I've been following the story on the HollaBack Savannah blog. I think the woman who was harassed should contact the cafe again, and if they act uncooperative she should ask for someone who's higher up than the DeNato person she had spoken to. I hope she does get justice for what happened to her. Men who harass on the job need to be reprimanded.
I hope the woman who submitted the story knows that there are people out there who support her 100%.
   - Dienna, DC Metro Area

Love the support! <3

Monday, October 4, 2010

New Site!

Hollaback main has a new site!



(Just to avoid any confusion, the Savannah branch will be still be operating this blog.)

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Forsyth Park Cafe III

The woman who was harassed by the Forsyth Park Cafe employee sent us another update. Forsyth Park Cafe never e-mailed her back after promising they would and agreeing that the situation was bad.

Here's our opinion: Shame on you, Forsyth Park Cafe! You made a promise to follow up with a victim of harassment by one of your employees - an employee who did it while he was on the job, no less - and you're not following through! Shame on you for not supporting your community!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Forsyth Park Cafe Update

The woman who submitted the story about the Forsyth Cafe employee sent us an update. It seems the business is on track for doing the right thing and supporting its patrons!

You can read the update here.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Forsyth Park Cafe Not That Classy?


You would think that with the Mansion on Forsyth managing the Forsyth Park Cafe, they would know how to hire classy workers. Not so much.

Today at around 1:30pm, I'm walking home through the park with my groceries. I have my work clothes and sunglasses on. As I'm passing the fountain heading west, I see this guy up ahead of me. He exits out a back door of the Forsyth Cafe and heads away from me. He looks back over his shoulder and notices me walking in the distance behind him. He keeps looking back over his shoulder and alters his course so he's heading in the same direction I am. I keep trying to mind my business, looking straight ahead, not making eye contact. He looks back a few more times and chooses a seat right where I'm about to walk by him... as you can see from the pics, it's not a very comfortable seat. There were plenty of open benches around the area. Since he kept looking back at me and since he altered his course, I'm pretty sure his seat of choice was deliberate so he could get my attention. I thought to myself, "Here it comes." and not a moment later, he tries to get my attention.

He calls to me, "If I weren't on break, I'd sure love to carry those bags." While that is a catcall (and a bit patronizing of him to assume without asking me if I even needed help), it wasn't that bad in my opinion, so I called back, without looking back over my shoulder, "I don't need it!"

If this man were a true gentleman, he would have been able to accept a woman's "no" gracefully and gone about his business. Not this guy. He isn't a gentleman, he just pretends to be one for the first five seconds. He's a fraud.

He starts mocking me, ranting about how I'm "feisty" (even more patronizing!), and talks about my walk and my body. It's really hard to make the whole sentences out because I had walked a bit ahead by now, but I was catching words here and there.

I have experienced street harassment of all kinds in Savannah for a long time, and I'm fed up with it. I deserve to feel safe and non-harassed in the very park I help pay for! This was one of those last straws, so I stopped, walked back toward him and told him that what he was doing was street harassment. He pretended to be dumb and kept saying "For speaking to you?!" over and over, like a broken record. I explained that making sexual comments about women and trying to force them to interact with him unsolicited, and making women feel unsafe is all considered street harassment. I told him that it is not a respectful way to speak to women. He kept repeating his stupid broken record phrase. I kept repeating that it was street harassment. He then starts insulting me under his breath. I told him that if he did not stop speaking, I would talk to his employer, because women should not be treated like this.

He says, "I know what you are." I pull my camera out and take two pictures. As I'm walking away, I hear him call me a bitch under his breath. He says some more insults, but by now I'm too far away again to hear them. You know, if he's that bad about taking "no" from a woman who is just walking by, I'd hate to think of what he'll do to the next woman that turns him down for sex. He seems to have a huge ego problem when it comes to women denying him.

All this while he was on the clock for the Forsyth Cafe! He's even wearing his work uniform and his black apron. I'm going to go talk to the managers with my boyfriend this weekend. And I'm bringing the pictures with me. I hope Forsyth Cafe is helpful, so it will just be the individual that's a bad egg, and not the company as a whole. I will e-mail HollaBack an update on what happens. Thanks for being here for me to vent. It makes me really sad to know this wouldn't have happened if I were a guy.

UPDATE: I wanted to write back and let you know I spoke to someone at Forsyth Cafe. My boyfriend and I went and talked to someone named "DeNatto" or "Denato" on Saturday. I didn't catch the spelling of his name, sorry! He was a really sympathetic and helpful person. He asked me if there was anything they could do for me. I stressed that what I wanted most was for management to have a discussion with the employee. "Denato" (Sorry for the spelling again!) agreed that it wasn't appropriate and I should be able to just walk home through the park minding my own business. He said the discussion would happen and took down my information and let me know that management would be in contact with me for a follow up. I'm comforted to know that this business does hire good people and that the harasser was probably a bad egg.

Interesting fact! "Denato" knew exactly who I was talking about before I gave him a description or showed a picture of the harasser. In fact, "Denato" described who he thought I was talking about to me first and I confirmed it. That makes me wonder if Mr. Harasser has a history...

UPDATE: It's been over a week. I never heard back from them. I'm really disappointed and I worry that they just tossed my info in the paper when I left the store. Maybe I will try a follow-up again? I don't know if I have the heart for more disappointment. They promised I'd be contacted in a few days.


Submitted by anonymous 08/19/2010

Location: Forsyth Park

Friday, July 9, 2010

iHollaBack Anticipation!

ihollaback.org is getting closer to launch! And articles are popping up everywhere in anticipation! Here are a few:

NY Daily News

Tech President

The Frisky

Enjoy!
Word of mouth is that the NYC launch party was a blast!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Vote for HollaBack!

HollaBack! is a finalist in the "Revelation to Action" competition! Vote and if HollaBack! wins, that's $5,000 to put toward marketing costs which will help all of us get the word out about HollaBack! You'll need to log in before you vote.

Thanks for the support!
<3

HollaBack in London!

Welcome HollaBack LDN to the cause!
HollaBack LDN lets women Holla Back at street harassers! London is not a playground for pervy dudes to call out at us when we're going about our daily business! So stop walkin' on and ignoring it and Holla Back: Send us pics of street harassers and tell us your story...
I couldn't have said it better myself. Good luck, HollaBack LDN!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Forsyth Harassers

It was 5:35 PM today and my sister and I were walking through the crowded Forsyth Park after grocery shopping. We were minding our business, just chatting with each other, when seemingly out of nowhere, I hear kissing sounds. I glance over my shoulder and it's the two older men in the photo. They keep making kissing sounds and one of them mumbles something. I didn't hear it, but it would be no surprise to me if it were something foul and offensive. They keep making the sounds, so I turn and give them the finger. When they saw, they just smiled creepy shit-eating grins, with no respect for me or my sister (or likely any other woman), just happy that they got attention.

I've been told to ignore this behavior, but I know better and I know that ignoring does nothing, because this continually happens. Then I remembered this site!

I told my sister to keep going while I grabbed my cellphone and walked back. The park was crowded, so I wasn't afraid. I started snapping pictures of the douches. Both of them became uncomfortable when I started taking pictures. Blue shirt turned completely around and the man in the black hoodie kept looking away. That made me feel a lot better and made me feel like I taken the power they felt away from them. Watch out for these disrespectful men, Savannah.


Submitted by anonymous 02/21/2010

Location: Forsyth Park