Hi. Yes. While I walk down the street, I try to tone out your deep, disgusting, manly voice yelling at me across the street. I am not going to smile if you tell me to start smiling. I will not acknowledge your existence if you go all up in my face. And I will most definitely not say thank you when you "compliment" my body. Why should I acknowledge your existence?
Sometimes I wonder, did a man wake up one day and decide to catcall a woman because he felt the woman was not worth starting a normal conversation with. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “catcall” is a verb that means “to sound a catcall, esp. at a theatre or similar place of amusement.” But what is even more interesting is that this term was used around the 1800s in a magazine titled The Eclectic Magazine, and in the magazine it stated “Better to be hissed and catcalled by her Daddy than by a whole sea of heads in the pit of Drury Lane Theatre” (Oxford English Dictionary). At least now we understand where the men mentality that catcalling is a compliment to the women came from.
It upsets me that when I get dressed in the morning I have to make sure that my shirt is not too low-cut or that my jeans are not a tad bit too tight just so I do not attract unnecessary attention. But what pisses me off even more, is having to wear jeans when it's 100 degrees outside because if I step out of my house in short shorts that are acceptable for the weather I will be asking to get catcalled.
What gives you the right to totally kill my confident when you smile and say I have nice assets. What gives you the right to demand I smile back at you. What gives you the right to get angry with me if I refuse to have a conversation. And most importantly, what gives you the right to say I am an ungrateful bitch when I do not say thank you.
Getting catcalled more than five times a day, makes me think that catcalling actually gets these men laid. I have no other explanation to why a man twice my age has to make me feel uncomfortable on the street, other then that it satisfies him in making a woman feel weak.
Regardless of the reason, why are you demanding respect from me, if you clearly have no respect towards me. Do you understand that by whistling at me or by yelling “SEXY MAMI” across the street you create a hostile environment. You create an environment where women do not feel safe for wearing an outfit that they thought was cute in the mirror early in the morning and realized it was a mistake to even think of wearing a mini skirt in the train because of the endless attention. Even though you feel that you are boosting a woman’s confidence by complimenting her assets, you are in actuality making her want to hide in baggy clothes. You make smart, gorgeous, beautiful women feel insecure about EXISTING.
And so I have only one thing left to say—please consider how you make US feel next time you catcall or better yet learn to keep your mouth shut.
