When most women are catcalled, all they want to do is get far, far away from the creep who's "complimenting" them. But Noa Jansma decided to switch things up this past month–instead of backing away, she took selfies with all the men who catcalled her.
Jansma, 20, a design student living in the Netherlands, documented her project on an Instagram page called Dear Catcallers. Over the course of one month, she shared 24 selfies to the page, most of which are captioned with what the harasser said to her.
As explained by BuzzFeed, she only took selfies with the men she felt safe approaching, and never when it was dark out. Jansma also told the outlet about the inspiration behind the project.
"We were talking about this topic in class," she told BuzzFeed, about catcalling. "I realized that half of the class, the women, knew what I was talking about and lived it on a daily basis. And the other half, the men, didn't even think that this is still happening. They were really surprised and curious. Some of them even did not believe me."
She further explained her motive in her first post on the page. "It's not a compliment," she began. "This Instagram has the aim to create awareness about the objectification of women in daily life."
After the month ended, Jansma wrote one last post, announcing the future of @dearcatcallers. She plans to turn the account over to "different girls around the world" who want to share their catcalling experiences, to shed more light on how common catcalling is.
Jansma's message seems to have gotten through to many people–even some men. She told BuzzFeed that some men messaged her to thank her for "opening their eyes" to how problematic catcalling is. However, in an ironic twist, some people harassed her online for doing this project. Seems like they completely missed the point.