First off, my most sincere apologies to anyone that I yelled at, it was all in the name of science. So here’s why I did it. Girls get cat called often: walking around on the streets, going shopping, pretty much anytime and anywhere. It’s so awkward quite honestly. I don’t feel flattered by having obscenities yelled at me when I’m just trying to get gas. Also will forever be baffled about what guys are expecting to come of yelling about someone's "booty" when they are walking around the city - some way to start a loving and committed relationship I hear. Honestly, it makes everyone feel a little funky. So I decided to see how boys responded to some of the things that have been said to me or other people I know. I didn’t hate the experiment, honestly had great time raising chaos from my car.
So what happened? Most boys just kind of chuckled and then clearly felt strange about it. I mean what else could you do? It was the kind of laugh that you do when you accidentally watch a movie with nudity in it with your dad. The “hehe- I hope this ends soon” laugh. Fair enough, I think that’s how I typically respond too.
Some boys tried to yell something back. Don’t know what most of them said cause we were moving too fast. Some asked what I said, like I’m going to stop my car, repeat my very uncomfortable statement and move on. Sorry, I need to work on annunciation.
The other majority of boys just acted like they didn’t hear me; maybe they didn’t, or just looked like they thought I was saying it to someone else. I was pretty loud so I feel like that is unlikely they didn’t hear me, but who knows. The general reaction was confusion; thinking it surely was directed at someone else.
I think the overall point here was that it makes everyone pretty uncomfortable. So, why would we do that to anyone? Life is so awkward without any help from anyone else. It makes girls feel awkward… and now I have figured out that it is essentially the same for guys. It’s also just straight objectifying. I think some guys were shocked that it was being said to them because they aren’t typically used to being accosted with statements about their “bangin’ bods”. Someone might have a bangin' bod for that matter, but there are probably more appropriate times and places to tell them that. Food for thought.
Side note: it was all in good fun for anyone that was yelled at, it was only fun for me cause I wasn’t trying to creep anyone out.
