It's confession time: I used to be jealous of my friends who would get catcalled. My embarrassingly low self-esteem led me to find value in the immature whistles and sexual harassment that I never seemed to receive when compared to my more attractive friends.
Thankfully, after building up some confidence and facing a handful of catcalls myself, I realized that it’s not something to be appreciative of, encouraging of, and certainly not envious of. It’s incredibly unfortunate how a few unwanted comments can simultaneously demean, frighten, and subject a person to publicly facing his/her deepest insecurities. I feel like I’ve recently had to read more posts or hear first-hand accounts of friends being catcalled and, after telling my brother about my own recent experience, I have to echo his response.
“Seriously? What year is it?”
He’s absolutely right. How is it 2016 and we still continue to tolerate and promote this sort of rape culture that is permeating our communities daily? If the victim were your own sister or brother, your son or daughter, how would you react? (I hope that we aren’t so naïve as to assume that men are the only ones to blame for these scenarios.) Bystanders deserve a piece of the blame as well. I cannot tell you how much it would have meant to me if the man walking just ten feet in front of me the other day turned around and called out the group of guys on their juvenile actions. While I understand not wanting to get involved should circumstances turn south, are you not responsible for standing up and saying something after witnessing such an event to prevent things from becoming worse? Although the likelihood is blessedly small, it’s not far-fetched to worry that the catcaller(s) may follow you after you rebuff or ignore them in such a moment.
Out of curiosity, I utilized the new poll feature on Twitter to see what my friends thought of catcalling. While the majority opinion is clear, it makes me wonder who actually believes that this harassment is acceptable. Although one could argue that the vote(s) in favor are obviously a sarcastic response, this is not something that is to be taken lightly and it’s that flippant attitude that’s preventing reform.
