Join the conversation with the faces behind Catcallsofgrunn

During the talk, the various members of Catcallsofgrunn will discuss how they ended up with the account and how they see themselves as activists. Have they always been outspoken? Has it come with age? Do they actually call themselves activists? Or would they prefer something else? What happens behind the scenes? What are the highs and lows of Catcallsofgrunn?

Catcallsofgrunn is an Instagram account that highlights street harassment in the city of Groningen and fights against it. It was created in the summer of 2019, inspired by the @catcallsofnyc account. Roos de Boer started by writing about her own experiences with street harassment, but before she could post her third experience, her DMs were flooded. Three years ago, she stepped down and we took over the account with four new girls. The concept remained the same: someone shares their experience, we go to the place where it happened with chalk under our arms, write down what was said and post it online. It’s a vicious circle that has kept the account going for six years, and if we maintain an average of one chalking per week, it can continue for another six years with all the catcalls we’ve already received…

In 2022, one of us (Birgit Eggink) delved into this database to write her thesis on the state of street harassment in Groningen. This yielded many obvious conclusions, namely that street harassment occurs more frequently at terraces, pubs and other catering establishments, and that commenting on someone’s body is one of the most common forms of street harassment. It also provided new insights, such as the fact that cars merging into pedestrian and bicycle traffic led to an explosion of street harassment and that street harassment mostly consists of strange and inappropriate questions or comments that are not necessarily about sex. Having mapped this out and with the change in the law making street harassment a criminal offence, street harassment is now seen in a new light. Yet it still happens. How should we proceed now?