Tired of hearing grown men yelling pick-up lines at her, 20-year old Noa Jansma decided to launch an art project dubbed DearCatcallers on Instagram "to create awareness about the objectification of women in daily life."
The project was simple, take selfies with the catcaller and post them on the social media platform over the period of one month.
"By making this selfie, both the objectifier and the object are assembled in one composition," Jansma wrote on Instagram August 29. "Myself, as the object, standing in front of the catcallers represents the reversed power ratio which is caused by this project."
And with that, she began.
On August 29, Jansma uploaded four different encounters — one used the classic "Sexy girl, where you going?"
Six posts later, the Amsterdam native got the "Hey beautiful, why are you sad?"
And yet, four posts later show that catcalling has no age limits, sometimes even grandpa-aged men like to get in on the decades-long trend.
"My god he could be your grandpa!!" one shocked user wrote. "WTF."
Sharing a total of 24 photos, Jansma revealed to Dutch newspaper Het Parool, that only one man asked why she was taking the selfie.
"They're not all suspicious because they find what they do completely normal," she told the outlet.
Per Jansma, more photos would have been uploaded, however, due to safety concerns and the catcallers running away, only 24 images were snapped and published.
Amassing more than 181,000 followers, the project creator has been praised by several netizens for being "brave," "inspiring" and shedding light on the issue.
"This makes me want to puke," one user wrote. "Thank you for capturing this."
Despite the positive feedback, not everyone (as usual) was thrilled.
"Lots of sadness comes out of this beautiful girl," a commenter wrote. "Hope you [someday] meet a nice guy or girl… you must be a lesbian… you hate men… I am sorry for you."
Though Jansma wrapped at the end of September, it doesn't mean the project is officially dead.
"My month of posts has ended, but it doesn't mean that catcallers are in the past as well," she wrote September 30. "To show that it's a global phenomenon and that this art-project is not only about me, I'll pass on the account to different girls around the world."
As of January 1, 2018, street harassment will be punishable by law in the Netherlands, the Independent reported. Though offenders will be subjected to fines of roughly $220, Jansma told the outlet that the move is "symbolic."
