[Photo from Monday]
Brokelyn and Gothamist have more on the No Catcall Zone signs that have popped up around parts of the city, such as here on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... they are the work of nonprofit clothing company Feminist Apparel and Pussy Division... as part of Anti-Street Harassment Week...
Updated
Per the comments, someone defaced the sign...
I hope they provided guidelines so the "callers" don't cross any.
ReplyDeleteHey, I have seen some cat calling get quite a bit over the top, but guys have been doing this for ages. My comment is not so much about the right or wrong of cat calling, but of the signs themselves. Great, it is a non-profit that decided to put the signs up to bring an awareness to the public. But if it were the city putting up the signs, I'd say "hell no." Don't we have enough of a nanny state?
ReplyDeleteThat block is not exactly a hot zone for catcalling.
ReplyDeleteDon't call me female!!!
ReplyDeleteThey look like they lost their cat and are trying to call it back. P.S. by advertising their wares they just showed the NYPD who to fine for posting illegal signs.
ReplyDeleteDummy. That's not the job of the NYPD to police signage, the sanitation dept.
DeleteDear Anonymous at 12:41 PM
ReplyDeleteYou need guidelines? Sure, don't try and interrupt anyone walking down the street minding her own business with some "complement" or comment on her clothes or some random crap spilling out of your mouth that shows how much of a wannabe aggressive loser you are.
Are they trying to say if you find a lost cat, don't call out to it? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteSadly, a lot of dudes think women like this sort of thing.
ReplyDelete"Why must I feel like that?
ReplyDeleteOh, why must I chase the cat?
Nothin' but the dog in me
Bow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah"
I like the awareness this problem is getting. Quite used to it and just a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things but really pervasive. As an average woman in her 40's I would love to no longer have to deal with this. At least once/week someone says something to me just on the way to and from work each day. I like to be friendly and have no problem with strangers saying good morning or interacting with my dog- I like that- but I do not like sexual comments or to be asked to smile on command in an aggressive tone. If this sign stops one person it's worth it.
ReplyDeletethis just makes me want to cat call and I never do it.
ReplyDeleteCat calling is never appropriate, but I feel like women could do more to show their appreciation for when someone acts like a gentleman.
ReplyDeleteFar too often I find myself holding a door open and not receiving so much as a nod or "thank you." Show men you appreciate being treated right and it will rub off (no pun intended).
olympiasepiriot
ReplyDelete"You need guidelines? Sure, don't try and interrupt anyone walking down the street minding her own business with some "complement" or comment on her clothes or some random crap spilling out of your mouth that shows how much of a wannabe aggressive loser you are."
you can't both, acceptable behavior without guidelines. When a gay man as myself "says what a cute dress" is that forbidden? If a man with a hard hat says "what a cute dress" is that acceptable behavior? So calling me a "wannabe aggressive loser" was acceptable behavior?
So I shouldn't cup my junk when I yell at a cat on the street? What if the cat is wearing a bikini?
ReplyDeleteTry flipping the bird next time you hear a cat call.
ReplyDeleteDummy? No need for name calling, please. :-) You're right, it's DOS, but that's after the fact.
ReplyDeleteThe point was that if the NYPD *caught* them in the act even putting up one, they could then tie the rest of the signs to the perp.
One sign maybe not end of the world. 50 signs? ADA is not going to like that.
@ Anon @ 3:58
ReplyDeleteI always say thank you; HOWEVER, just ask yourself, do you hold doors for men just as often? Do you make a big gesture of holding the door? Do you leer expectantly at the woman as she walks through?
I can sense when someone is making a big deal of this to show how much of a gentleman they are instead of just holding a door for someone whose hands are full, or holding a door that potentially would be hard for anyone (like the often man-eating doors at the backs of buses, or doors into a positive-pressure space). I do still say thank you, but I often tinge that with contempt for the guys who seem to act out their little chivalry game using me.
Being treated "right" by a guy is a helluva lot more than someone holding a door AND holding of a door is not a reliable indicator that the other things are going to be present.
Given the analytics recently performed on the treasure trove of data culled from numerous dating websites, it's been shown that while men generally find nearly 80% of women suitably attractive, women only rated 20% of the available male suitors attractive. Taking it to the streets, women are understandably appalled at displays of desire by the vast majority of men, men that they deem unworthy of their attention. Naturally, the "No Catcall Zone" does not apply to that rarified contingent of men who display all of the proper shibboleths of being sufficiently high status, however.
ReplyDeleteWomen might also wish to consider that their apparel is indistinguishable from the clothing worn by those certain "ladies of the night" from just a few decades past. That's not an excuse for bad behavior just a statement of fact. Or are you really surprised by the behavior of junkyard dogs when raw meat is tossed in their midst?
Now normal men, regrettably, but understandably given their complete lack of smarts, haven't read the full memorandum on the equality of the sexes and are still operating under all of the old rules. There simply isn't enough room in bed for equality and chivalry. Women are equals now, so treat them as you would men: with absolute rank indifference. That should also apply to the present subjects, those economically depressed men with their spray-n-prey mentality.
To the poster lamenting a lack of acknowledgement for their courtesy, either make a show of your expensive watch as you hold open the door or come to terms with your invisibility.
To the 40-something poster who can't wait to live in a world where she won't be harassed by these unseemly men, give it a few more years and time and gravity will supply the cure you so desperately desire. Then you too can come to terms with your invisibility.
A final plea to men: please, disregard women, acquire currency.
Peace.
Looks like anad for Monty Python's "Confuse-A-Cat"
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:21 -- Intelligent response. You won't last long here, sadly.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with chivalry - "game" or not - as long as there is nothing creepy or leering it's just plain nice and good manners! I can't stand when women get mad because a man holds the door - I just don't get it. And this is coming from someone who has had a ton of catcalling. There is a difference. Thank you to all the gentlemen out there.
ReplyDeleteHi, two things. (I am a 26-year-old female, for reference).
ReplyDelete1. Anon 1:06's comment of "Don't call me female!!!" is asinine to the point that it almost makes it seem like a nanny-state is necessary in regards to catcalling. Being born one gender or another does not determine what level of respect you are entitled to both on the streets or otherwise. Aside from catcalling being just generally rude, it can make females feel incredible vulnerable and sometimes even threatened, particularly if walking alone and/or after sunset. Additionally, the implication of catcalling is not that the recipient is of the female gender, it is that the recipient is deemed sexually attractive. I know this may be hard for some men to understand, but most girls walking down the street, minding their own business, NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF CLOTHES THEY ARE OR ARE NOT WEARING - are usually not thinking about sex. We do not want to be objectified or sexualized on our walk to the bodega or to the train. Unwanted sexual attention is innately and justifiably interpreted by us as sexual aggression, which threatens our sense of safety and well-being. I know it seems like I'm making a huge deal out of something that is 98% of the time harmless, but please understand how uncomfortable, self-conscious, and sometimes physically threatened it can make us feel.
2. However (lol, there's always a "however") I think it often gets lost in these "anti-catcalling" campaigns that it's really the WAY in which it is done that is so offensive and sometimes perceived as threatening. For instance, if I'm walking home in Greenpoint after sunset and a guy in a truck whistles at me and makes sexually suggestive motions at me, I'm immediately going to be repulsed, feel disrespected, and increase my walking pace because now I feel like people are eying me in a sexually aggressive manner and who knows what could happen because we ALL read those horrible stories in the news where somebody follows a girl into her apartment and does terrible things to her. But alternatively, if I'm walking around the east village in the middle of the day and a construction worker says "you look nice" (hey, it's happened before lol) that is in no way perceived as disrespectful or as a threat. That is literally what we call a compliment. Compliments and catcalling are not the same thing! They really, really really really are not. I cannot stress that enough lol. If a stranger says "I like your skirt" I'm going smile and say thank you, because it's nice when people say nice things to you, just like it's not nice when people say disrespectful things to you.
As human beings, especially sex and fashion-obsessed first world human beings, of COURSE everybody is going to be looking at and noticing everybody else, and how attractive or unattractive they find the people around them. It's not that you shouldn't look, and it's not even that you shouldn't comment if you think someone looks really good, it's that you cannot say whatever you want whenever you want as to completely disregard how 50% of the population feels. You do not have the right to ever make anybody else feel threatened or sexualized like a piece of meat.
@6:59 1. The "female" comment is a joke in reference to another commenter who lost her mind when someone used the word female to describe women. You're new here so, forgiven.
ReplyDelete2. If you're going to post comments on behalf of your organization's puss campaign, be transparent about your association.
Anon 10pm
ReplyDelete1. Sorry, I just took the comment at face value. I'm very evidently out of loop with the inside jokes here. (side note: why anyone would lose their mind over being called "female," assuming that they are, in fact, female, is a mystery to me).
2. I'm not affiliated with any organization, as should be apparent from the last two paragraphs of my comment. Most people I've met who are knee-deep into those anti-street harassment campaigns are of the opinion that it is rude and disrespectful to EVER initiate communication with a woman whom they've never met before on the street. And I'm sure the people who are actually affiliated with that organization would go ballistic over my skirt comment, but I stand by everything.
yo wizzle! did sum 1 say puss? NYPD slapped mine. #uglies4life #power2dapuss
ReplyDeleteDid the post link to this article? Trying to figure out where all the mouth breathers defending catcalling came from.
ReplyDeleteOne great thing about getting older is most guys leave me alone.
ReplyDeleteYou mean - mo more, "Here, kitty-kitty-kitty ..." - ?
ReplyDeleteJoking aside, this is definitely some "new New York" phenomenon. I lived in NYC a quarter-century ago, when I'd often heard, "Yo, baby, yo, baby ..., "Ay! MamiCITA!" and other things along those lines. Not that it wasn't annoying and embarrassing to men like me who didn't say that stuff, and didn't approve of it - and who were in the majority. It's always been a very slim minority of men who commit that sort of behavior, but it gets smeared across the whole of masculinity by feminists.
One thing I miss about NYC is that people there tended to leave others alone in public - hardly ever eye contact, no unsolicited comments, no interrupting another's thoughts without excusing oneself first, and somehow always and "excuse me" (or, in NYese, "shoes'em") or "watch your back" when personal-physical space was or was about to be transgressed.
Don't like the egregious affront of mere cat-calling? MOVE TO AUSTIN, TEXAS - where people force eye-contact upon you while passing on the street; people passing in cars yell at pedestrians insults or just, "Whoo-haw!" at you for no reason but to watch your response; people toss comments and insults alike at you without provocation; they just ask you directions or some other question, prefaced by only, "Hey," rather than by, "Excuse me;" they'll familiarly butt-in to and take-over any conversation they happen to overhear strangers having; women's faces snap automatically into this creepy uniform smile when they detect a man's so much as accidentally glancing at them (the opposite of the grimace-and-turn-slightly-away of the average woman on a NYC street); the waitpeople greet tables of customers with, "How you guys doing?" - usually yelled, at close proximity - and even sit down at the table and make small talk while taking the order; stores have clerks, if not sspecially-hired "greeters," trained to impose, "How are you doing today, sir?" with opproessive congeniality that everyone knows is used cynically as a "loss-prevention" tactic; and, finally, people act like they're trying to get to know you better, all friendly-like, but you later realize that they didn't even like you, they were just investigating you.
Following the example of the No-Catcall Zone sign in the now-Safe-For-Normal-White-People East Village, what should be the text of t-shirt should I make for myself to thwart all these invasive, insulting assholes in Austin, Texas?
The E. Village/L.E.S. has a history of involvement with this issue. In 2000, one of the early anti-street harassment groups of the "modern feminist era" was born here--it came out of a series of meetings, first at a squatter's apt. and then at Bluestockings bookstore. I know, because I was a founder. A group of women--many political activists--were holding meetings at Bluestockings and asking women what issues they wanted to change in their lives that involved their being women. We kept getting "street harassment" as the #1 answer. Women described not being able to get to the corner store without men commenting on their bodies--and experienced it as invasive, infuriating and demeaning. So "The Street Harassment Project" (SHP) was born and met at various locations such as ABC NO RIO and CHARAS/El Bohio--over a 6 year period. What really put us on the map was what happened after the PR Day Parade in Central Pk in 2000, when a large group of men assaulted, groped and stripped women. SHP is considered a "pioneer" group by young women doing this organizing today. This movement has spread internationally. After hearing women's testimonies for years, SHP came to the conclusion that street harassment is NOT a nice thing--but a "tradition" in which men "get over" on women, sexualizing them against their will (which is the point) in order to assert dominance and reduce the other person to an object. "Nice tits" and "Gimme some of that!" characterizes it much more than "Have a nice day". You can see the mission statement of SHP at streetharassmentproject.org and catch up with today's movement at stopstreetharassment.org
ReplyDeletePuritanism still survives.
ReplyDeleteSo please tell all these beautiful women to stop whistling when I walk by. It's quite uplifting. Oh, wait a minute....I think I was just dreaming...wow, what a beautiful dream it was.
ReplyDeleteI surprised women still can hear cat call since the vast majority always have ear plugs in or are talking on her iPhones.
ReplyDeleteAll youse people hopping on the defenseve, lemme tell you a story:
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, I was young(er) and guilty of breathing while female pretty much everywhere I went. (San Francisco, New York City, Detroit, fucking Simsbury, CT -- not exactly a hotbed of urban street life -- several places in the UK, Paris) I got my first street hassle at the age of 12, someone told me he wanted to stick his face in my tits. Note that he was also still a child and shorter than I was. My thoughts went from 'what do I say back to that?!' to 'urgh, my stomach's clenching, but I'm not going to run, this kid touches me, I'm gonna grind his face into the concrete'. Later, I wondered where the hell he learned to say that. I also noted that there were several other boys with him who didn't tell him to quit it and who all looked like they were enjoying what he was doing.
The next time someone got in my face and was an asshole, I brought my book bag up hard against his chin and made him see stars. HIS buddies then yelled at me for doing that "He's giving you a complement. Learn to like it, bitch!" This was still not yet high school. And it was not New York.
Oh yeah, all the boys at this point are WHITE. They are also ALL male.
My early 20's -- 10 years after my first street hassle -- I find a dog abandoned on an elevated train platform. No plans to get a dog (although much time with many animals in childhood), didn't want the responsibility, but he looked in miserable condition and that location for abandonment was probably intended to result in him falling on the tracks. Looked like an old grey mutt. Cleaned up and fed right, turned out it was a year and a bit old Akita. (Who someone had tried to make into a fighter...vet showed me the evidence of that. Too much of joker to have been successful in a dog pit.)
Why am I telling you about the dog? Because, suddenly, I didn't get a single peep of street hassle. Nothing. No Hey Baby. No Nice Tits. No skeevy aggressive chivalry. No whistles. No Nice White Meat. No Smile For Me Baby. No Come Over Here And Make Me Happy. No Hey Taconera, Come Sit On My Dick.
So, all those complements that I'm supposed to be grateful for? If they were so complementary, why did they stop when I had a 55 lb Akita with a perpetual grin on the end of a leash?
And a special message to all you guys who say "it's not all of us!!!" Ok. You're not coming up to me as I leave a site covered in dust or grout spray and feeling exhausted and saying "I LIKE a working woman! C'mon, SMILE for me!" But, you aren't calling the guys who do this on their shit. You are going along to get along.
Fuck you.
Sigh.... Whenever an article is published that highlights how women feel and experience the world I dispair at the comments that follow. If you ask them most women (not all women) will tell you that being cat called on the street, or whistled at, leered at or being "complimented" or being told to "smile" makes them feel scrutinized, surveilled, threatened and a little less safe in the world. It seems like a little thing but the cumulative effect of these experiences over a lifetime makes us feel less safe . It just does. That's how we feel.
ReplyDeleteThen some men (not all men) make comments like "it's a compliment" or that women have some obligation to deal with it because men are attracted to women than women are to men, or that it's wrong to feel that way or that we must be ugly or we should appreciate it because one day we'll be old and won't get the attention anymore, or we are mocked, our views trivialized, or we're called puritanical, or that we deserve it because of what we wear, or that we are humorless misandrist feminazis and they were just being nice sheesh! or that unpleasant stuff happens to men too (so any articulation of a women's feelings about how she is treated is therefore invalid).
When we ignore the attention (as we are entitled to) then we get abused! Men (not all men) feel entitled to women, their bodies, their attention and become abusive when they are denied that access. So we get cat called and then ignore it and then get abused for ignoring it. We feel less safe in the world.
For once it would be nice to read a comment that said "you know I never realized my behavior had that effect on women, I'll never cat call anyone again. And I'll ask my friends not to do it either".
Instead of getting all defensive and butt hurt and taking things personally, how about some compassion and taking an attitude of seeking to understand how your behavior actually makes women feel and owning that, rather than insisting that how they do feel is wrong. Then go and be a goddam champion of men and resolve never to cat call again.
Peace x
"Oh yeah, all the boys at this point are WHITE. They are also ALL male. "
ReplyDeleteLast time I looked, Boys were considered Male.
Ever notice how every time these street misogynsts get called out for their rude behavior they complain about being victimized? Welcome to the party, pal!
ReplyDeleteLadies, the next time a male cat caller harasses you on the street just smile sweetly and and ask them, "Is that a banana in your pocket, or is that where your boyfriend is hiding his lunch?"
The hysterical jumble of breathless girl-words aside, the anonymous 26 year old female manages to make some salient points. (I acknowledge my backhanded compliment makes you feel threatened.) Unwanted male sexual attention does makes females feel vulnerable, possibly threatened. The key here, of course, is *unwanted* because if anything the success of books/films like "50 Shades" lays bare the female id for all to see; many women crave feeling vulnerable and, yes, threatened. Again, that attention must come from the men who "just get it" as the ladies like to say, which is to say sufficiently high status men. The catcallers, generally, but not always, are at best blue collar types, and at worst no collar types, those underemployed mannerless miscreants you find haunting the city streets at hours godly and not so godly.
ReplyDeleteIt's also questionable that women do not want to be sexualized or objectified -- the medium is the message: you cannot be so unconscious (apparently, you can) as to think that revealing your fertility markers through provocative attire will not attract that kind of attention. If you do, you need to check your privilege (the privilege of not being aware). Legal rules and regulations and comforting socially enforced memes do not trump biology, which goes doubly for you spiritual types who think you're all goddesses and in touch with mother earth. If you have an issue with the objectification of women, please take it up with your local representative of Feminism, Inc., which has made the overt sexualization of women the cultural norm. You wanted it. You asked for it. You got it. I'm sorry. I didn't make it this way. You can't buy as much as a tube of toothpaste without a women selling herself to you. If you don't like it, take responsibility for it. You feel threatened by male attention walking down the street, I get it. Remember, there were once social safeguards against that kind of threat but they were all deemed backward and "patriarchial" and stripped away in the name of Progress. Those safeguards generally consisted of a countervailing male presense (fathers, brothers, etc.), but the world you wanted to live in is a world of emasculated men. So you got it. Do you care to guess what will fill the vacuum when all of the good men have gone?
So, please don't talk about your rights or tell people what they shouldn't do or say -- meaningless abstractions will not save you at the end of the day. It turns out that they're all strong independent women ... until they're not.
The god of biomechanics is ruthless. Ignore it at your own peril. We're all quite fortunate that the present environment permits so many of us to escape the consequences of our silly beliefs. But that dream cannot last forever.
This is a public service announcement.
P.S. Stop using "white people" pejoratively. Your self-hate is showing.
Dear Einstein Walter,
ReplyDeleteYes. I was highlighting that as so many men get all huffy when so many women show they've got their armor on for them. IE: It isn't generally women who think it's funny to try to get a rise out of us.
They are male. Not animals. Not female. Not some other being. Human males. Many, many women have a great deal of justification for being wary of all men because we can't tell by looking if any particular man is an asshole or not and we've been learning these lessons from childhood.
(Necessary Disclaimer: This is despite, yes, women also having the potential to be assholes, yadda yadda, yadda...they just don't generally act like it in the same way.)
Here's an original idea! How about when you hear a story that totally doesn't jibe with your worldview and comes from someone who isn't just like you, step back and consider the possibility that the storyteller is giving you a gift, the gift of their experience. It isn't yours, but it isn't fake. There's loads of people I know who have experiences I have never had and, guess what?!, I don't poo-poo their feelings about those experiences just because I haven't had them myself.
Oh dear. Giovanni @ 10:28.
ReplyDeleteI get your intentions and willingness to help, but, imo and ime replying to misogynist harassment with homophobic harassment is not helping. Both have roots in that dreaded beast, The Patriarchy.
Walter - seriously, that's all you got out of a well-written, intelligent post? And no, not all boys are male. Some are transgender, you know. Sad to see how many creeps read Grieve.
ReplyDelete@Olympiasepriot That's not homophobic harassment, rather it would be a funny way of harassing the homophobes back into the caves they came from. Many of these guys think they are showing their manhood by harassing the ladies in the street, all to cover up their insecurities about being male (which explains the whole "pants on the ground" phenomenon).
ReplyDeleteOf course if any woman dared to question the manhood of these mental midgets (and that's not an anti-midget statement you Game of Thrones fans) she would probably be harassed evern more. Maybe the only answer is castration and gender retraining, or is that too anti-male?
@ Giovanni, Well, the way I see it, me 'accusing' them of being gay is -- as they are being less than pleasant -- equating faggotry with being less-than-male. Which I don't. Actually, men loving men seems to this straight woman as being hyper-masculine, if anything. Obviously, you ARE right in that it would upset them. Mind you, that doesn't bother me. I deal with upset guys all the time; sometimes they are upset just because I exist, other times it is actually because I'm coming down on them like a 50 ton hammer. I work in a male environment and I frequently supervise. So, if I thought getting someone upset would do the trick, I wouldn't hesitate to use that. Unfortunately...I haven't found a solution.
ReplyDeleteI just try to communicate my experience, generally face-to-face, and sometimes I have really great conversations out of it.
Ok 10.26 got it. Im not sure which 26 year old you're calling hysterical for expressing her views on how she feels but anyhoo, I get your point- a woman is wrong to ask not to be cat called because of how it makes her feel, because of all that stuff you saiid. Got it.
ReplyDeletePlease stop justifying bad behavior. Most men are presumably capable of controlling their own behavior. If they have been made aware of how catcalling effects women then one supposes that a man with any sort of character would stop catcalling, not blame women for it or continue to do it because he feels justified doing so because of toothpaste commercials, the emancipation of women, some dumb book and y'know society n stuff.
5:21:
ReplyDelete"Women might also wish to consider that their apparel is indistinguishable from the clothing worn by those certain "ladies of the night" from just a few decades past. That's not an excuse for bad behavior just a statement of fact. Or are you really surprised by the behavior of junkyard dogs when raw meat is tossed in their midst?"
I often got catcalled running errands in a t-shirt dress and sneakers. It doesn't matter what you wear.
8:36:
Perhaps the ladies are plugged up them BECAUSE of the harassment. I lived across from the Bowery Hotel site as it was being built and once I shut my gate, I was regaled by six or seven construction workers with differing comments and offers. The more I ignored them/the faster I walked, they louder and more abusive they got. Finally, I always just would plug into a Walkman before leaving the house, until the construction reached about the tenth floor or so.
Purely by accident, I did stumble upon a way to stop the catcalling. I realized I never got harassed on my way to skating practice wearing my Fluery Penguins jersey. So if I wasn't in the mental place to deal with or ignore harassment, I'd just throw on a sports jersey--instant anonymity.
@ 5:21 & 10:46 (who I think are the same person) Ya know, my most common attire when I am getting the worst of the hassle is similar to what the people in these photos are wearing: http://www.free-pictures-photos.com/construction/construction-y0m2.jpg and http://safetyblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/construction-site.jpg Worth the cut-n-paste, really. If that's your idea of streetwalker garb, I now know what your fantasies are. And, guess what, I'm not getting the worst of the hassle from the guys on the site. I'm getting it from frat boy knuckleheads in their flip-flop civvies or young guys in finance who have to say something to The Chick In The Hard Hat who -- realistically -- is old enough to be their mother, although, I know I am not their mother as no kid of mine would do that to someone and get away with it for very long.
ReplyDelete@ 12:21 Congrats on having a deterrent article of clothing. I have never found one that works for me unconditionally. Not even carhartts, which make everyone look like lumpy, super buff men included.
@9:05AM - well said!
ReplyDeleteThis whole thread reminds me why I hate Lena Dunham.
ReplyDelete@8:25 Agreed! 7,362,091 words spilled over catcalls. Move to Iraq or Saudi Arabia where women have real problems. What? You don't see any women? Look under that pile of stones.
ReplyDelete"Move to Iraq or Saudi Arabia"
ReplyDeleteAh, a new version of the "move to" line.
So infuriating and ultimately boring to once again (and again and again) hear from men who have never walked a mile in our shoes, lecture women on how we should respond to street harassment, blame it on our clothes (guess what: women wearing chadors in Middle Eastern countries are also harassed), tell us our feelings are invalid, refer to posts by women as an "hysterical jumble of breathless girl-words" (this is pure misogyny). The only saving grace is that some of the guys posting here are hearing us--and all the posts from women sharing their stories (thank you). Rest of you ought to start reading the considerable body of testimony and research on this subject. Tweeting/following @everydaysexism (popular twitter site where women from all over the world post what is happening to them in the streets every day) is a good place to start. Also a great for us women to connect with others.
ReplyDeleteThis is like a bad Bikini Kill manifesto.
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden men don't comment of women in the street in rude ways, this shit comes from southern Europe and its cultural cousin the middle east. The Roman Catholic church set the ground for putting women in second citizen status which has taken centuries to correct with governmental laws. Pagans from northern Europe had societies where free women were warriors and leaders. It was the introduction of male dominant Catholic church which changed this. Women however will convince more men that cat calls come from a small section of the male population and suggest that ALL men are 2 drinks away from being one of these assholes. We all know the kind of guy that does this kind of thing, be direct and say who they are, stop trying to by "nice" and name names.
ReplyDeleteIn America, people complain about everything. We're retarded. And fat.
ReplyDeleteA catcall is not necessarily "harassment".
ReplyDeleteIt may be just a compliment; it may be friendly or it may be hostile.
Whether it is "harassment" is contextual.
I'm male and have been "catcalled" a few times. Wouldn't mind if it happened more often.
- East Villager