When It's Time To Hollaback, Girl

Not to go all Laura Mulvey on you folks here with the gender-issue stuff, but this one came into my mailbox. It was too interesting to pass up. And hence my commentary:

If you're a construction worker, and want to pull that decades old stunt of whistling and catcalling a chickiepoo walking by, that chickiepoo is now just as likely to whip out a cellphone and berate you on camera. What's more, she might put that video of her totally grabbing you by the cojones up on the Web for all the world to see.

At least, as a result of the following vblog post, I now understand what Gwen Stefani was going on about in "Hollaback Girl":

From RyanEdit (aka Ryanne's Video Blog):

I was just walking to Hat Factory yesterday with a big load of laundry (yeah we have laundry in the building!) and these dudes just started yelling out at me - "Woof Woof!" and "Hey Slim!". At first I just ignored and walked by - the usual eye rolling moment. Then I remembered that, hell, I have a camera in my bag, I need to holla back. So I did. And I think they were a little surprised.
This video is inspired by Brittany Shoot's HollaBackBoston, where she encourages ladies to turn the camera on their harassers and put it on the internet. So I holla'ed back! Maybe today they'll just say "Hello" instead of "Woof Woof" when I walk by.

Wow. You know, I'm not even going to touch the issue of race on this particular issue. (You'll see what I mean if you watch the video on the site linked to above.) Not going there with a 10-foot pole.

But, aside from that, I think I can say that I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm all for girl empowerment and all that, but, you know, I kinda thought we had the police for a reason. (I see lotsa women in blue these days, and it ain't the sausage institution that it once was, you know.)

The write-up above is a bit misleading, too. It's clear to me just from the set-up that the lady went back and tried to even the score. Thus, I worry that this isn't being assertive insomuch as being passive-aggressive: going back to the scene of the crime to basically goad a bunch of guys on camera. Not so good. That isn't brave. That's just stupid and vengeful. And, in fact, she's probably lucky that the situation didn't escalate.

As someone on the RyanEdit blog points out:

Those boys were MEEK!

In the end, though, the lads probably got what they deserved and should be thankful that nobody opened a can of whoomp-ass! on them. Because - and believe me on this one folks - there is nothing worse that a woman scorned. Especially when she's laying down a karate chop on the back of your head.

Not that I know from experience or anything.

I'm just, like, pointing that out.

Um, yeah.

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When It's Time To Hollaback, Girl

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