20 March 10
More ways that online tech is fighting sexism
and making people’s lives safer.
Someone had asked where they could find more things online to demonstrate ways that social media and social tech were fighting sexism, making people’s lives safer, utilizing feminist connections, etc.
I didn’t have a good source to give her (and if anyone has a good source that focuses on this, I’d love to know what it is), but I did want to take this opportunity to put up a few other things that I had to cut out of my talk because there simply wasn’t enough time. The time constraint, and not the quality of these items, was what resulted in them being left out.
The first one:
Safe2Pee.org
This site is now in Beta and is much better designed than it was when I first heard about it almost a year ago. Just click on the name of the city and you’ll get a Google map showing you where all of the businesses are that have gender neutral bathrooms.
Now why is this necessary? If you’re a trans person, or even just gender-queer, you may find yourself getting harrassed if you go into what someone perceives as being the wrong bathroom. Having gender-neutral bathrooms means that you don’t have to pick a bathroom that calls out what you think your gender is, while giving someone else the chance to disagree with you. Being able to safely perform the most common of bodily function is a good thing.
But it’s not just a place where you can go to find bathrooms, it’s also got the ability for you to add bathrooms to the map. It’s a fairly simple form that anyone can enter information into. When I first found out about this map, I sent it to a genderqueer friend who had moved out of Chicago and into an area that was less than accepting. I thought it would be a good way for him to explore his surroundings a bit more safely. He thanked me. But once I realized that I could add locations to it, I realized that this was a great way for me, as an ally, to add information to a tool that could be used by my friend and others. This tool doesn’t require me to out myself as an ally or claim anything publicly. So even though I’d like to see every ally state their affiliation loudly and proudly, I understand that not everyone is ready for that confrontation.
Hollaback NYC
If you’re looking for a brief synopsis of who/how Hollaback got created, what achievements they’ve had, and want background as to why an iPhone app would help fight street harassment, then you’ll want to read this article. I touched on this group briefly since I’d figured most people had heard of them and wanted to focus more on ECWR. But I want to point out that a survey done in 2008 showed that 62 percent of women on the subway in NYC had been harrassed. Compare that with the 85% of Egyptian women, and you’ll realize that NYC isn’t that much safer than Egypt, a country where women can’t even hold a judiciary position.
More to come, but here’s a few that I hope you like.
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