romy

NOTES ON CLASS: https://romyhoolwerf.hotglue.me

MY CONCEPT: http://hears.online

HEARS is a shared platform to speak up about the abuse of woman. Together we create an archive of stories. You can listen to the stories of woman and be able join our forces yourself by leaving your story in the form of a text or voice recording. Any kind of abuse, such as harassment, rape, objectifying, misogyny and catcalling can be mentioned.

What do we collect and why?

HEARS collect voices that need to be heard. We believe that there are a lot of hidden stories that need to be shared to collectively heal. We need to change our perception of normalising sexual objectifying woman, the abuse of woman and the stereotype roles we are still accepting as woman and man within the Dutch society. HEARS want to stimulate conversations online. And release old embodied trauma. No taboos needed.

To all the woman,

For my minor, I create an archive of stories of women who have or had to deal with harassment such as catcalling, abuse, misogyny, ed. For this manner I'd like to ask you to record a voice memo and share your story with me answering which category the harassment you have experienced belong to? Do you notice this affected your everyday life and in what way?

You can send your file to: 0610670926 or email romyhoolwerf@hotmail.com
I assure you that I will handle the content very carefully. I do ask your permission to use the content of the stories to create an online archive. But if you wish to remain anonymous with your story this is possible and I will not use your name.

Don't ever think that the impact of your situation isn't intense enough, or that something that happened years ago doesn't matter anymore. These kinds of trivializing thoughts make that stories are not being shared. All information is relevant and has shaped you into who you are as a woman, or how you look at yourself and the world around you. It is necessary to give your inner voice a sound.

Every woman is welcome to share her story with me, so if you know someone who would like to help build up this archive feel free to share.

Thank you, sending you love!
Romy

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For me creating this space for others is also part of my own healing process because it gave me space to also open up to some of them while we were talking together. It felt really beautiful to hear, that when I started to share the voice memo’s online, they experienced listening to each others stories really effected them. They appreciated hearing the stories of the other woman because they could reflect on them and felt less alone. To hear same experiences from woman of different culture, age, class and religion, having common emotions, grief and heavy experiences to deal with every day, the rest of our life, helped to find strength in being vulnerable and being there for each other.

"My research comes trough the filter of a white Western woman, born and raised in the Netherlands. I grew up in a culture where people, in my opinion, are billitling many problems such as racial inequality, gender studies, mental health issues, still accepting stereotype role-plays and denying stigmas within our society. There is a Dutch statement that says ''wat niet weet wat niet deert’’, which for me summarises how I see the mentality of many people from my culture; with a lack of empathy. A culture filled with taboos, hidden stories and unresolved trauma.

I choose to research the trauma of sexual abuse within Dutch society because I experienced it myself. It is a part of my own personal background and perception on what forms me. But what I think is so beautiful about this subject is that it's an issue that transcends age, race, religion, nationality and class, because of its intersectional level. In the Netherlands has 41%, so almost half of all woman experienced a form of sexual abuse. So to be able as a woman with a Dutch background to talk to woman of all cultural backgrounds within Dutch society helped me to connect on a deeper level and create a better understanding having the same difficulties - while breaking taboos talking with each other about its similarities, so we were able to heal embodied trauma as a collective."

Archives of songtexts

http://wiki.preventconnect.org/songs-related-to-violence-against-women/

https://spinditty.com/playlists/Songs-About-Domestic-Violence-and-Child-Abuse

https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/10/17/558098166/songs-that-say-me-too?t=1601733499484

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/arts/gender_songs.html

https://mediamilwaukee.com/headlines/rape-culture-hip-hop-rap-songs-misogony