Catcalling: "Fuck off x 30"

Title Credit: What a good friend had to say about catcalling.

Catcalling- It’s the whistle, the “hey, pretty lady”, or the honk of the horn and the car full of guys. You’ve either seen it, been subjected to it, or participated in it. It’s nothing new and has been around for centuries. For guys, it’s fun and games. And for women, it’s a daily and repetitive nuisance and a threat.

Historically speaking catcalling refers to the “shrill, whistlelike sound or loud raucous shout made to express disapproval at a theater, meeting, etc.” It originated in 1659 as a type of noisemaker, presumably sounding like an angry cat, used to express dissatisfaction in playhouses (Imagine Shakespearean theatre- the raucous crowd, the throwing of tomatoes… you get the picture, right?).

And if you find the origins of words to be important like I do, then the semantics of that definition matters. It points out that catcalling is a rating of a performance. And when used in conjunction with the modern day definition, it means that women are supposedly performing for men…

But hang on a minute… Does that mean that when I walk down the street with my headphones in, on my cell phone or just daydreaming, that I am doing it for men? Does it mean that when I wear a cute skirt, a long skirt, a misshapen skirt or a (insert any adjective) skirt, that men can vocally rate my performance as a woman?

I feel like I’m missing something here because I never consented to raucous shouts from cars filled with boys, from random strangers or from construction works leering from above. I didn’t consent to being reduced to my body and my sexuality.

And that is exactly what catcalling is. It is about the body. It is about sexuality. And it is about objectification. I am more than my legs, my ass or my appearance. And if a guy really wanted to complement me and start a conversation he would start talking to me, not at me. Somehow men have assumed that their yells for affection are appreciated and even desired. They aren’t. Somehow catcallers have mistakenly equated my silence and passivity (aka. walking down the street) as an invitation for more harassment. It isn’t. Instead, those loud whistles and the subsequent shouts are sexual harassment. 

And before I go too far, I do want to point out that most of the men in my life don’t catcall women. Or at least they don’t when I’m around (scary feminist, much?). And if they have, they probably didn’t mean any harm. But life is not just about good intention. The fact of the matter is that when a man “compliments” me while walking down the street, I feel scared, I feel uncomfortable and I feel unable to respond. Perhaps if catcallers took a moment to think about it, they would realize that catcalling is also fear inducing. Most women I know live in a climate of fear. In other words, a rape culture. An unsolicited remark on your sexuality does not make you feel good, it instead falls on the long spectrum of “threat to my personal safety”.

And to be honest, sometimes I might crack a smile because I want to make light of the situation. But that is not condoning or encouraging catcalling- it is instead a result of feeling uncomfortable and unsafe. That is one of the reasons I love Katie Baker’s piece on catcalling. She challenges women to talk back. She states:

“So I have a radical idea: Instead of thinking of all street harassers solely as criminals who deserve penalization and public ridicule, we need to communicate with them about how it feels to be the target of their actions.”

And this is my written version of talking back because I rarely feel comfortable enough to respond, let alone fast enough to have a witty come back.

So next time you see a pretty lady, don’t roll down your window, slow down, honk your horn and yell comments at her. Take some guts and talk to her like a human being and not an inanimate object created for your viewing pleasure. She isn’t and doesn’t like being treated like that. So for once and for all, just treat her like the human being that she is.

Photo Credit: Shakespearean Theatre, Catcallers, and a Cat Calling.