The Everyday Sexism Project: a year of shouting back

[redqueen]

When I started the Everyday Sexism Project a year ago, I never imagined that by now it would have attracted some 25,000 entries and be about to spread to 15 countries. Nor even that I'd be writing about it in the Guardian – or that this would be the latest in a chain of articles that has encompassed the Times of India, Gulf News, Grazia South Africa, the Toronto Standard, French Glamour and the LA Times.

When the project was launched, with no funding or publicity, I thought it might provide a talking point for my friends and hoped that some of them might have stories to share. I hoped to gather 100 women's stories, if I was lucky. Instead, it spread like wildfire, as more and more women began to add their experiences – women of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world. A seven-year-old disabled girl and a 74-year-old wheelchair user recorded almost identical experiences of shouted jibes about "female drivers". A video-shop cashier, a midwife and a marketing consultant suffered indistinguishable experiences of sexual assault by senior male colleagues.

...

Every time the project was featured in the foreign press, I would receive emails from women in those countries asking if they could start a version of the project there because it was desperately needed. Women in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Austria and France have all volunteered to moderate the local content. We hope to make a great collective resource where we'll be able to compare trends from different countries. In some ways we already can.

...

And the huge success of the project wasn't the only thing I didn't anticipate. One of the earliest entries read: "You experience sexism because women are inferior in every single way to men. The only reason you have been put on this planet is so we can fuck you." The message ended: "Please die." The sheer level of vitriol took me by surprise, as hate-filled missives poured in, ranging from graphic descriptions of domestic violence to threats of torture, death and rape.

But as the threats worsened, I discovered the most incredible support network. Anyone who describes feminism as an in-fighting, back-biting movement has clearly never been as lucky as I was, at those lowest moments, to discover in it the strength and kindness, advice and support of so many other women and men. A team of around eight volunteers helps collate the entries – about 1,000 a week –collecting together the ones that come in via Twitter and through the website. They are coordinated by Emer O'Toole, who rounded up a group of feminist volunteers and has been organising them on a rota system ever since.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2013/apr/16/everyday-sexism-project-shouting-back

And now there is a site for the US.
http://usa.everydaysexism.com/

[ismnotwasm]

1. This is such an uplifting project

Sad and tragic it's so nessisary, but so cool women worldwide are fighting together

Every time the project was featured in the foreign press, I would receive emails from women in those countries asking if they could start a version of the project there because it was desperately needed. Women in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Austria and France have all volunteered to moderate the local content. We hope to make a great collective resource where we'll be able to compare trends from different countries. In some ways we already can.

[redqueen]

2. It really is.

So many girls and women have said how they felt shamed into silence. As if talking about sexual harassment was 'making a big deal' out of it. It's heartbreaking that it took something like this for them to feel like their voices mattered, that their experience mattered, and that it wasn't meaningless or harmless, that their feelings were valid and they weren't just 'being overly sensitive'.

It's so way past overdue, and I'm so happy to see this taking shape.

[seabeyond]

4. this is what is making feminism so effective. i have seem articles on feminism in times magazine

for the last 3 or 4 weeks consistently.

i never saw actual feminist articles in times for years.

[seabeyond]

3. excellent. love. and so true. that is what i was saying a while ago. the harder some on du

fight to silence us the silent and vocal support becomes such, it makes us stronger. louder. more articulate and effective.