Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands, has begun a campaign against sexual harassment on the streets by catcalling men as they walk past.
Catcalling is something half the women and children living in Utrecht have experienced at some point in their lives, so the city has decided to put their foot down and give men a taste of their own sexual harassment.
The campaign will attempt to make men realise “how uncomfortable and sometimes even threatening” catcalling can be, by setting up a screen on a popular sidewalk that catcalled men as they walked past. The men were then pulled aside and asked about their experience and how they feel about the city’s upcoming campaign.
The screen was only set up between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm yesterday afternoon, but the experiment has kicked off a campaign that will run on social media and around the city from the 23rd of May.
A representative for the city said they wanted the campaign to kick off in an abrasive manor. “With this action, men and boys are really addressed or harassed as women often are,” they explained. “Men can be part of the solution by confronting their friends about this kind of behavior.”
The campaign will focus on protecting women from sexual harassment, as well as other groups who are often the targets of harassment on the street, including the LGBTQI+ community and anyone who visibly proclaims their faith.
Reckon we should get this going in Australia too?
