In this article:
- What is catcalling? For some of us, the line between compliment and harassment can be quite thin, making it difficult to navigate situations that could be interpreted either way.
- Most catcalls are experienced by victims as they walk past a harasser in the form of lewd remarks and wolf whistles.
- Nearly 25% of people interviewed in a study conducted for California State University were physically sexually assaulted by their catcallers.
Catcalling or flirting? The line between what counts as a compliment and what is catcalling can be thin depending on your personal feelings on the matter. That said, misunderstandings that come from catcalling aren’t always “misunderstandings” but are based on expectations of how sexual/romantic interactions between people, particularly men and women should be like.
Let’s just say it plainly: Some people just have no idea whether what they say or do is going too far for another person and some people tend to be less open to these types of interactions than most. If you belong to either group, congrats: You’re the audience for this.
The type of people who are going to harass other people on purpose aren’t going to feel “swayed” by studies and testimonies on the distress that catcalling causes – they’ve made it clear they don’t care for anyone else’s comfort but their own comfort to be able to say anything they please to anyone who will, of course, be at 100% fault for being “oversensitive” yada yada.
That leaves the rest of us to understand what catcalling is and how to avoid it while still being able to have fun with each other.
What Is Catcalling?: Catcalling vs. Compliment
Catcalling is a term that describes a type of sexual harassment in public spaces, usually on the streets. That’s why you may have heard it called by another name: street harassment.
Most catcalls are experienced by victims as they walk past a harasser in the form of lewd remarks and wolf whistles. It’s usually the remarks that get confusing for people who just want to hit on other people without the intention of stressing them out. Some p[eople who catcall defend the choice as simply trying to deliver the compliment without considering what is actually being said.
“Hey, looking [insert adjective for related to being attractive].” counts as a compliment. Leering at someone as they pass and making a remark about what you would like to “do to them” is not. Picture it this way, if that was being said to you by a member of a sex or gender you’re attracted to and you can see how it would feel aggressive, even threatening, you just stumbled into a catcall.
Catcall =/= compliment.
Of course, the rules aren’t always as hard or fast and typically, it’s hard to know what counts as which for each individual person because we don’t exactly have psychic powers. This makes the first pass not as bad but if you find that a compliment is not warmly received or reciprocated, chances are the person you’re saying it to is just trying to be polite. Why wouldn’t they? People get murdered for this.
Back in November 2019, Ruth George, a University of Illinois at Chicaco student, was sexually assaulted and murdered by a catcaller she ignored.
Some of the negative feelings about not having an honest compliment or attempt at flirtation be reciprocated comes from feeling like it’s a sign that the person giving the compliment is repulsive or unworthy of attention. It’s a direct ego hit. No one likes feeling that way.
But on the flipside? You have groups of people who are trained by their environment to not respond to any flirtation in public spaces for fear of bodily harm and sexual assault. It’s less of an issue with individual people and more an issue of many people doing the same thing and escalating to behavior that seriously threatens another person’s well-being.
Why Do People Catcall Anyway?
Catcalling isn’t fun for the person on the receiving end or the one giving it out when they realize it doesn’t get the positive response they want. So why do people catcall other people anyway? A study by Walton and Pederson for the journal Psychology & Sexuality revealed that people who commit street harassment wanted to do what everyone else does when they flirt: express sexual interest and try to receive a friendly reaction.
This may explain why catcallers get so defensive about their actions: they legitimately believe it to be an innocent interaction so a negative response (like being ignored or being chastised for it) feels like a personal attack on their character rather than a plain dislike for the way they express their interest.
Of course, this isn’t to say that all harassers are just sweet misunderstood people who don’t mean any harm. People who catcall were shown to have more aggressive self-assessments and saw themselves as having high social dominance. There’s still an angle to this behavior that is purely for demonstrating power over another person who may be pressured, either physically or socially, not to reject them outright.
The Vital Stats on Catcalling
Most catcalling ends after the target doesn’t respond or continues with nothing more than further catcalls or angry remarks (“Fine, you’re ugly anyway!” anyone?). But nearly 25% of people interviewed in a study conducted for California State University were physically sexually assaulted by their catcallers. Meanwhile, another 20% of people were followed or outright confronted by their catcallers for ignoring them – a common tactic suggested to victims of catcalling.
This isn’t just a small fraction of a fraction of the population either. 81% of women and 43% of men were found to have experienced some form of sexual harassment in an online survey launched in January 2017 by Stop Street Harassment.
It’s not just a matter of sexual attractiveness either. Most women are catcalled before they even turn 17. To make matters worse, one in every ten girls are catcalled before they turn 11 years old.
This treatment early on in life, far before young people develop a solid identity and self-conception, lays the groundwork for them to see themselves as sexual objects – either actively or on a subconscious level where they are hyperaware of how they are perceived and valued for their sexual attractiveness.
How to Respond to Catcalling
There’s no single answer to respond to catcalling but as victims of catcalling already know, the most common and typically most effective way is to simply ignore the catcaller. It’s not the fun empowering answer everyone likes to hear but while a number of catcallers will immediately back off if they sense pushback in a social setting (out of fear of public humiliation), there’s always going to be that one loose cannon that may pull a weapon on you.
The best approach is to stay safe, ignore the catcaller, and try to record the incident if you feel things may escalate. This makes it easier to file a report later on in case the need arises.
For more aggressive catcallers who follow you or try to confront you, a good approach would be to pretend you’ve run into someone you know or to enter a highly populated area where there will be witnesses in case they escalate the situation further.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, people just kind of suck.
