Street harassment has become a reality of our society, that it seems ‘normal’. We are angry, and perplexed as to what to do with this anger. Meet Hannah Michelle, who’s channeling all her anger and energy to illustrate numerous accounts of catcalling, victim blaming, and harassment that women are subjected to, on a regular basis.
According to Huffington Post, Hannah Michelle is a 23-year-old illustrator, whose project, ‘Cats Calling Back’ invites people to share their accounts of harassment. She illustrates these accounts in a peculiar style, that are jarring and empowering enough.
New York-based illustrator, Hannah, posted her first illustration after Donald Trump won the elections in 2016. According to Huffington Post, it was a portrait of a young woman with “I am a powerful woman” written above it.
On receiving positive response from her followers on Instagram, Hannah was encouraged to channel her anger regarding predicament of women in society into illustrating the living hell out of them, so that people know, this is what women endure. An empowering act, really, this also helps victims process their trauma.
On deciding to take up the project, ‘Cat Calling Back’, Hannah told Huffington Post,
“Shock, society, and obligation often force us to move on so quickly after events like this … and we deny that trauma its full time to exist… We deny ourselves proper time to heal. We are just forced to accept it, normalize it, and pretend it doesn’t hurt. But many of us don’t want to accept it or normalize it, and we are hurting from it in our emotional, mental, and social lives.”
Her post allows women a space to share their stories. The caption of her posts comprise of accounts of harassment, cat calling, and victim blaming.
The magnitude of these accounts are a signifier to the number of adjustments women make in their lifestyle, way of talking, dressing, sitting and what not. How they have become accustomed to this lifestyle that now it all seems ‘normal’.
She told Huffigton Post, that she wants to give proper acknowledgement to these accounts, and that she believes them.
“I want to be able to let each person who shares a story with me be relieved of their burden for just a moment. I want them to know that I am handling their story with the compassion and attention it deserves.”
Hannah understands where the insensitivity of people stems from. If a person has not experienced something, that doesn’t mean a certain phenomena is baseless. She wants to educate people and provide them clarity, ‘for the very well-meaning, lovely, smart, open-minded people in this world who just don’t know’, she told Huffington Post.
The act of using words, symbols, and illustrations functions to transfers power back to the person, who endures harassment or any kind of atrocity for that matter.
A word, after a word, after a word is power. It’s true. And Hannah’s project is commendable as it ventures to undo the normalisation of cat calling and victim blaming.
Follow Hannah, here.