Could have just said its for anyone really.

Sounds like falling over themselves to be overly PC and inclusive. I doubt many people who could be pigeonholed as LGB (LG/LGBT/KYNTOMGWTFBBQ) care too much what they’re called, as long as their rights are respected.

Some would identify as neither male nor female, yes.

Sounds like a feminist man bashing site that just decided to be more inclusive so people wouldnt see their agenda

Hi there – that line was taken from Hollaback. Perhaps it could have been worded better, with ‘including’ rather than ‘and’, but I’m sure you understand that the meaning behind the sentence is that the site is not just open to women (which some assume), but people of all genders and orientations.
Aoife

I get it Aoife, I’m just a bit sarcastic. It’s part of my charm.

Feminism is about womens rights at the expense of all others , a lot of users on that site and even in these comments are saying theyre being harassed when just being hit on in a bar / in public etc.. Thats not abuse.

Also a lot of people do think like me, and a lot of them are very powerful people, long live the reign of the white straight male

You would consider grabbing someone and refusing to let them go “hitting on them”?
Hmmm.. I wonder if you’re one of those guys that comes up behind a girl when she’s dancing, grabs her hips and starts trying to dry hump her without consent on the dance floor.. Because whatever they may think, it’s not attractive, it’s just degrading and EXTREMELY annoying..

There’s a difference between over the top feminism and the women who just want to be treated with a bit of respect and to be seen as equals. It’s not an act of exaggerated feminism to fight against harassment on the streets. It’s disgraceful that this kind of carry on goes on as much as it does and it’s people like you who condone it and try to belittle it as nothing serious that make the problem worse.

Your last sentence also made you look like a fool. We’re not in the 19th century anymore, women are not subordinate to men, and should not be treated as such.

@Stephen Church: “long live the reign of the white straight male.” Thank you for so succinctly outlining why the hollaback site is so important. You should get some Sudocreme for your knuckles: they must be sore from dragging along the ground.

You know Stephen, when “being hit on in a bar” means somebody won’t go away and stop trying to talk to you, even though you’ve said, “look, I’m not interested [in talking to you'" or includes being followed down the street by somebody determined to strike up conversation [or whatever] its harassment. I was followed down the street by a pest in Limerick, and fortunately was going into a hotel, I really don’t know what I’d have done if there wasn’t good security.

I’ve always had a tactic of completely shutting out and ignoring people in bars and on the street who try to “engage” me – to a large extent it works, but where it really fails badly is the non-sexual harassment you get around LUAS stations on the red line between Abbey and the Docks, where if you try to ignore the aggressive beggars and/or other local loonies they actually start to get aggressive. Its maybe conflating two entirely different problems, but in my experience the more gender-based harassment is more “talk” than the other kind, which appears to really be coming from people who have absolutely no limits to their behaviour. I only hope that the more sexual harassment doesn’t follow suit in its extension of unlimited boundaries into what becomes everyday behaviorism, but I fear I might be wrong.

Terrified? Wow!

Ah Tom that’s funny. Have you got a passport by any chance.

I do but no thanks, I’m not that way inclined.

What I mean is that Ireland is a pussy cat compared to some other countries. I think your comment is wildly over the top.

Ya I suppose it was. I didn’t mean the comment to imply that it was just Ireland or indeed all streets in Ireland. I accept that it’s only certain places. But where better to make an over the top comment than on the journal.ie because you won’t get away with it.

I have lived in New York , Bon , Paris and London. Ive had my moments . But by far Dublin is a scary place by comparrision !

Just cause there is more animals elsewhere in the world doesn’t excuse that behaviour at home. And picking someone up around the ankles or telling them you’re going to rape them is hardly a “howya” in fairness like and if my sister / mother / daughter or partner was on the receiving end of that I certainly wouldn’t view it as flattery, would you?

Brussels is very bad, but it’s not a contest. Don’t try to detract from seriousness of the problem in Ireland.

You think Brussels is bad, ever been to a Turkish prison?

Wouldn’t it be great if she tried it? Just once, and got her ass handed to her in court!

@ryan
Whether you agree with her opinion or not you should at least try and have some manners. Your comment re having ‘her ass handed to her in court’ exemplifies the attitude some men have toward women that has no place in a civilised country.

Do you not think that a woman has the right to walk the street without being whistled at by some yob with no manners. It is not a pleasant experience , I can assure you!

@ Irene: Perhaps you think it’s proportionate for some boorish, wolf whistling eejit to have their details published on the internet, together with the label of “sexual deviant”.

While I’d agree that it’s hardly good manners to extend the “builders welcome” in the first place, this bra burner’s response to that might be just a touch hysterical, as is your childish accusation that I am somehow lacking in manners for pointing out that possibility.

If some people’s minds were as open as their misandry, we might all be better off.

@ ryan.
I was making a statement regarding your comment. Nothing more, nothing less. Re read my statement if that helps.
If you think that a statement such as having ‘her ass handed to her’ is appropriate for a grown man then I’m afraid that you are the one who exemplifies immaturity.

If some people developed a mature attitude toward respecting our fellow human beings then Im sure we would all be better off.

Open your mind.

What’s wrong with the phrase “having ones arse handed to one”? Essentially it means coming out of any type of exchange badly. For example: “how did the match go?” “Terrible, I had my arse handed to me”. It has no gender specific connotation, being merely a gender neutral colloquialism. I hardly think that having the word “arse” in an idiomatic phrase makes it instantly inappropriate.

Thank you, Ultan. That’s exactly my meaning with regard to that phrase. It had no gender specific intent whatsoever, and was meant entirely with regard to the legal difficulties some shrill individual might find themselves in, if they published someone’s details and referred to them as some sort of pervert.

The fact that some sensitive type seems to think it implies malevolence or some obscure sort of aspiration toward physical harm says more about that person, than it does about me.

Another slightly less salubrious version would consist of asking someone to untwist their knickers-but in the context of this discussion, the genitive connotations might result in someone’s head flying off in a fit of pique.

I certainly won’t be swayed by some hand wringer talking down to me as if they were my mother, all because they have no idea what a common or garden phrase actually means.

@Ryan Murphy – ‘salubrious’?…’genitive connotations’?? What on earth are you talking about? Get yourself a dictionary and look up ‘salubrious’ and ‘genitive’ ffs, especially before you lay into someone “because they have no idea what a common or garden phrase actually means”. What an absolute cretin.

Nowt as snappy as an angered leftie. I can sense the frustrated ire from here.

Anyway, in respect of your rather weak grammatical rebuttals

-salubrious [səˈluːbrɪəs]
adj
conducive or favourable to health; wholesome (<<<< see here, anonymous Twit!)

[from Latin salūbris, from salūs health]
salubriously adv
salubriousness , salubrity [səˈluːbrɪtɪ] n
(Collins)

-I'll leave you work out the perils of alienable possession (*her* knickers, the chip on *your* shoulder) for yourself.

@ryan

“I certainly won’t be swayed…..” Misogynists rarely are.

Well done though for being able to look up a dictionary. Good for you.

Actually its pretty childish and imamture to still be wolf whistling as an adult, but I’m not sure name and shame would do anything for the pathetic creatures who still engage in this neanderthal behaviour.

@ Laura…can you explain what u find so offensive about this. I’m not trying to be smart or sarcastic I’m just wondering?

It is surely your interpretation of his comment as sexist that is the problem is it not. I didnt realise only females can have their asses handed to them in court.

Ryan for an intellegent man you are rather stupid . I know you say what u say in jest! But women are really afraid out there.

Ryan it pains me to agree with you! But your clever , smart … Just show that you give a shit.

I do think women have a right to walk the street without being hassled of course. but come on, to go taking a picture and putting it up on the net of a man making him out to be some kind of menace to women is highly exaggerated and could ruin someone’s reputation. and in fact is against the law.

Agreed. I don’t appreciate being groped by ANYONE. I don’t give a toss if you can drag out the crocodile tears afterward, if you’re trying to feel me without my permission you’re going to feel my wrath (which is entirely verbal).

Michael you sound like a dysfunctional parent “you’re not getting equal rights until you stop groping people”

I walked past a bar before in Galway, minding my own business when a butch gay woman similar to one described above punched me in the gut for no reason.

I remember being groped by a male gay classmate on a night out, it was really aggressive (despite me knowing full well there was no sexual element to it) and it still upset me.
To be honest I’m not a fan of wolf whistles from the building site or random lads honking their horns when I’m standing at the bus stop. I wouldn’t class it as harassment, but it’s still not nice.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Questioning (LGBTQ)

Questioning what ?

Thanks. Didn’t know what it stood for.

Questioning….queer or not

Q stands for queer.

Q stands for Queer. It’s an umbrella term that encompasses mainstream LGBT people, people who are questioning their sexual identity, people that have a sexual identity that can’t be pigeonholed as LGBT, as well as Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals who don’t like the “culture” that has evolved around the term LGBT, but have no problem fitting in as “Q”.

At least that’s the explanation I got from a friend who’s involved in Trinity College’s Q Soc and the Gender Equality Society.

You should come to Galway. I work late at night and witness NUMEROUS women walking home alone, very drunk seven nights of the week. Scary.

Jesus, that’s a bit much Denise. These days it’s dark at half 4! And that’s letting them win, why shouldn’t you go about your life as normal?

@Paraic – a friend of mine (sober… not that her being drunk would have excused this in any way) was followed by three lads in a car trying to ‘give her a lift’ for a considerable distance in Galway just last week.

Part of it is going to be who’s sharing it – it’s fairly well known in feminist groups, but I would say so far it’s less known by the average person in the street. I think it’s more experience sharing than any kind of scientific evaluation as to who is harassing whom. But hopefully articles like this will make for more a wider variety of experiences shared.

Hopefully. Because there’s too much harassment of any sort going on..
Just one question, when you say it was well known in feminist groups – was this the parent site that was known or was it made known to them by the sites directors? I’d never heard of it until today, this is why I ask..

It’s been shared quite a bit on online forums for feminists (I specifically saw it from Trinity College’s Gender Equality Society) and the parent organisation tends to have a lot of links with student feminist groups – which is personally why I’d assume a lot of the ones I’ve read on the site come from young female students. So a bit of a bias that the submissions would come from young women who know about it.

Great to see that being ‘pissed’ is still considered an excuse for scaring people out of their wits.

Alan, if you are not excusing them, then what are you doing?

“I’m in no way excusing them”

as I said, “I’m in no way EXCUSING them” read it properly you hero.

Not excusing them, just making an excuse for them.

All Im saying is that I read this article thinking mainly women were getting harassed in town in broad day light while out going about their business. When I read the 2 examples given, it was aparrent that this is occuring late at night when town is full of drunk arse holes and therefore this comes as no shock suprise horror to anyone who has to work in town around these bell ends and witness far more serious incidents than the 2 mentioned on a regular bases.

Also excessive drinking isn’t an EXCUSE for this behaviour it’s a REASON. I haven’t had a drink in 10 years; I haven’t got in trouble in 10 years. The REASON why…drinking never suited me.

So you believe the website provides a much-needed, valuable service?

being pissed is no excuse. i’ve been leered at, lifted, cornered, touched up and shouted at on many occassoons by men since a teenager. its intimidating and frightening and in fact when drink is addes it makes you more fearful as you are unsure if a normal decent guy will do something out of the ordinary due to alcohol (which i think has been proven to be a huge factor in sexual assault cases time and again) a lot of men will never understand how frightening this type of behaviour is to women as most of us are well aware we could easily be overpowered by a man/men in a matter of minutes and the damage that could be done to our bodies and psyches could be potentially unfixable. so why not just take our words for it. its not just drunken banter or antics. its scary as shit and hugely intimidating.

I’ve no problem whatsoever with the web site, I’m sure it will provide a wonderful service for people who ventured out late at night and witnessed for themselves the carry on that takes place on our city streets, by drink fuled morons acting like they’re handsome invincible, charismatic comedians who can say what they want to who they want where they want while doing what they want. When in fact they are little more than glarey eyed incoherrant staggering bodies of alcohol wrapped in beer stained shirts with toxic breath and tar stained teeth who should be avoided at all cost. If people want to share their stories on their encounters with these type of people by all means do. I have no problem at all with that.

Alan stay deep inside your space suit , if u dare come out expect a stiletto right in your eye ..

Real men don’t act like thugs, that guy was an ass!

Who hurt you Lyndsey? who hurt you? tell us all on Hollaback

Whoa Lyndsey…. don’t lump us all in with that berk…

Whoa Darren….. The problem is she has lumped us all with some berk! Wise up!

Dan. U r not a man. U r a ham. A sham !

How are men being vilified? No one has EVER said that all men are like this. Some men seem to enjoy the power of harassing women and some men seem to not care if they make someone uncomfortable. It’s just the truth.

I had a man grab me at the Point Luas stop and not let go once, until a lovely male passerby stopped to help me. There are a lot of men who find this behaviour outrageous.. Why do you think highlighting what some men do applies to all of them?

Therein lies the problem. You think someone exposing themselves and threatening rape is mild harassment? Maybe try imagining it if it was your sister or daughter being subjected to it.

Yeah, whats t big deal, not like he actually raped anyone

Mild harassment? Being picked up by a total stranger and then being grabbed by your wrist and held there is mild harassment? Being threatened with rape is mild harassment? This is the problem. A lot of men see this kind of thing as a joke, or not big deal. It’s not a joke, it’s intimidating and very upsetting.

Thalia, not alot of men, very few men think that, please don’t start tarring “alot of men” because of the actions of a few animals!

Sorry Diarmaid! I didn’t mean to generalise!

No problem, honest mistake, it doesn’t take from how revolting these animals are either!

Stephen. This Christmas , expect in your stocking, an Odour-eater!

So people shouldn’t be made aware of the problem incase it affects tourism?

Maybe if it affects tourism then something will actually be done about it

Best keep this kind of abuse in private, eh?

BRRING! BRRING! “Hello, is that the 1940s?”

Why? WHY? WHY must there always be someone who tediously links an article on thejournal.ie back to the Government, the economy or bankers. What is the point? Really?! This article is about a website where people can air their stories of street harrassment. Has every single member of the Government actually harrassed every single person in Ireland on the street everyday? Nope.