My friends and I alone can recount several times being on the receiving end of some sort of catcall. My one friend and her mother were once whistled at by a much older man on the street. I was catcalled by several middle school boys one day (middle school boys!!!), and one lovely evening with my friends was once interrupted by a group of young guys driving by catcalling us collectively. My mother wasn't catcalled per se, but was once groped in a store by some random creep. It's something that really aggravates me, and one time, when I expressed this aggravation to my sister, she said that it's really no big deal and that I should take it as a compliment. A compliment? Really?
No. It's not a compliment to be catcalled. Firstly, it's flat-out annoying. It's annoying to have strange men whistling at you, saying things like, "hey, baby, nice ass", and possibly even following you.
Secondly, it's sexual harassment. No, it doesn't usually happen in the workplace, but it still falls under that category. Sexual harassment includes "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature." (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Also, according to the blog Catcalled, many women and girls have mentioned that they become less inclined to dress how they want out of fear of wearing something sexy that may provoke catcalling, and that men have occasionally become aggressive after the women they catcall ignore their remarks (as if they feel they deserved to get attention from the woman and would use aggression to get it if the initial catcall failed to work).
Also, it is psychologically upsetting to women. Women have reported feeling degraded, vulnerable, terrified, and objectified. They don't feel this way because they can't take a compliment, they feel this way because that's what catcalling does. It allows men to think they can view innocent women as being nothing but a mere sex object, and for them to think that they deserve attention from women just because they want it. And the fact that I have been catcalled by several boys who were probably no older than 12 just goes to show that boys are taught at a young age that public objectification of women is okay when it's actually anything but. I hope that the boys and men that catcall women and girls grow up eventually, and realize that what they're doing is not a compliment.
~Abbey xoxo
No. It's not a compliment to be catcalled. Firstly, it's flat-out annoying. It's annoying to have strange men whistling at you, saying things like, "hey, baby, nice ass", and possibly even following you.
Secondly, it's sexual harassment. No, it doesn't usually happen in the workplace, but it still falls under that category. Sexual harassment includes "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature." (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Also, according to the blog Catcalled, many women and girls have mentioned that they become less inclined to dress how they want out of fear of wearing something sexy that may provoke catcalling, and that men have occasionally become aggressive after the women they catcall ignore their remarks (as if they feel they deserved to get attention from the woman and would use aggression to get it if the initial catcall failed to work).
Also, it is psychologically upsetting to women. Women have reported feeling degraded, vulnerable, terrified, and objectified. They don't feel this way because they can't take a compliment, they feel this way because that's what catcalling does. It allows men to think they can view innocent women as being nothing but a mere sex object, and for them to think that they deserve attention from women just because they want it. And the fact that I have been catcalled by several boys who were probably no older than 12 just goes to show that boys are taught at a young age that public objectification of women is okay when it's actually anything but. I hope that the boys and men that catcall women and girls grow up eventually, and realize that what they're doing is not a compliment.
~Abbey xoxo
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