Recently, a woman recorded herself walking down the streets of New York City over a 10-hour period. The footage revealed block after block of catcalls and harassment. However, the biggest problem that emerged from this video was that for most women, this experience is all too familiar. Almost any woman, at one point in her life, has received a catcall from a stranger in a public area, and many women have had enough. This video sparked a greater public outcry to stop this catcall culture that persists openly in America.
Some people would say, that despite the outcry at the existing catcalling culture, it is neither offensive nor damaging towards women. It is not just men voicing these opinions, some women like, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Fox News anchorwoman, said, “They mean it in a nice way.” Using phrases or societal excuses like, “Let men be men” and “What’s wrong with a little encouragement?” are very influential in downplaying the effects of catcall culture. The truth of the matter is, catcalls are damaging and they affect women psychologically in very harmful ways.
A catcall is not a way to get a date and it’s certainly not a way to get a girl to like you. Especially when you’re just a guy standing on the street, the catcall technique for picking up women must have a very low success rate.
So why do it? A catcall is an assertion of dominance and a devaluing of women’s worth. When a man says, “Hey sexy” or “Let me see a smile babe,” as seen in the video, he is trying to find a way of asserting a form of dominance over a woman. A stranger saying this to young women in the streets can be a huge problem, as it is a form of harassment and threatening behavior towards others. A woman, depending on the area where she may be walking, may feel threatened or scared. The other issue that arises with catcalling is that women are being judged by their physical appearance. This devalues their self-worth and makes women think their only value comes in their beauty, a theory pushed by the media.
Despite these negative effects of catcalling, those who still defend catcalling would argue that all a woman has to do is ignore the man. However, when a woman is walking to work, every block brings a catcaller. Every block brings a stranger calling you sexy or asking for your number. Every block brings a guy who makes you feel scared. Every block brings a phrase that tells you are only as valuable as you are sexy. It is hard to ignore if it’s an occurrence in daily life. If there is any way to stop the catcall culture, it would fall to the responsibility of the individuals to respect the boundaries of the common stranger, and to society to expect more from our men.
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