Cat Calling Experiences

when i ran for school student leader elections. 😉

feel angry at them.

i can safely say that no one has ever done anything like that to me, nor do i think they feel any compulsion to.

i've had quite a few encounters with catcalling here in norton. when i go out for a run, it is not uncommon for a young male to yell out his window something like "sexy" or another questionable phrase. i never have much of a chance to respond because they're driving off into the distance, so i typically just shoot them a dirty look. when this happens, it makes me feel like a piece of meat, like i'm not a human with real feelings, just some bimbo whose appearance serves as entertainment for males. catcalling is quite disrespectful in my opinion.

i remember in middle school i was walking down the street with a guy friend and a passing car honked or shouted at me, and i didn't know whether to swear at him or just ignore it. i was livid!

i was walking to walgreens alone, which already made me feel vulnerable. my roommate and i had gotten catcalled from cars when we walked there together. sometimes it was flattering, but mostly it was annoying and crude. i had to stop and wait to cross the street, and while standing there, a car full of young guys blasting music came up and slowed way down. the windows were open, and several of them leaned out the windows and called "heyyy!" "woo woo!" and all manners of things. it wasn't as if i was dressed up or standing provocatively. it was the middle of winter; i was bundled up in many layers, so any evidence of my shape was hidden. but they didn't care about that; i was a girl, standing alone, trapped by the traffic, and had to listen to them. it felt gross and demeaning. i tried to flip them off after a few minutes of this, but...i was wearing mittens. that was embarrassing.

one day, i was walking down a street in my neighborhood and a man on the top floor of an apartment called down to me and started making some sexual gestures. i was so uncomfortable that i ran down the street and felt frightened every time i walked there. he has since moved away, but i still feel uncomfortable and remember the experience every time i walk there.

i had an experience when i was running near campus by myself. it was a residential street with little to no regular traffic. i had a car drive by me and blow their horn at me and it was not in a friendly manner. the car was driven by a man in his mid-twenties. if i had been with other people i would have made a rude gesture at him to express that what he just did was not appreciated. however, being that i was by myself, i did not feel comfortable or safe performing that action. although it was not a serious encounter, it made me feel uncomfortable and exposed, like i was wearing less clothing than i really was.

i studied abroad in a spanish-speaking country and the most memorable experience i had while there was when i was walking down the street, by myself, with my ipod headphones in. i momentarily looked down at my ipod and in that time, a man who had been passing by me put his face about 6 inches from mine and yelled "mami." then he kept walking. at first i felt shocked, then after the fact i felt like he had totally intruded on my space and i felt anxious and offended.

i was in prague; the men are much more outspoken in europe.

"everyone has experienced this at some point in their life."

a creepy man whistled the tune to "blow my whistle" at my friends and me.. needless to say we were creeped out and i've never been able to think of the song the same way again!

some girls and i were walking down the street from our hotel looking for a place to eat when a truck full of men parked across the street from us started blaring their horn and whistling at us. they were calling out to us, and it was night; we were in an unfamiliar area, there were four of us, and we didn't know how many of them there were. it was uncomfortable and nerve-wracking.

i think it was probably either when a guy yelled at me to "get it wet" while i was jogging, or when i was walking home through downtown late one night and a guy verbally noted that i was alone and then even pretended to move towards me just to scare me.

born and raised in nyc but still not used to rudeness. uncomfortable and tense.

while walking to cvs, someone yelled that i had beautiful hair from their stopped van. i was uncomfortable only because the man looked very creepy and was a stranger to me. i'm usually flattered when someone compliments me, but the situation freaked me out and i ended up running across the street.

i once was walking back to my dorm from a dance in haas and was catcalled by a group of several guys. they were saying things like "where are you going, beautiful?", and "hey gorgeous, wanna walk with me somewhere?", and things like that. however, there was one guy in the group who didn't say anything to me but instead turned to his friends and said "hey, don't talk to her like that, give her the respect she deserves!". he said it in a very serious (not joking) way, and the other guys quieted down after he said that. i thought it was so great that he had the courage to stand up to his friends in such a way, and i definitely appreciated it. i oftentimes wish more people would say something when people treat others this way.

this literally happens all the time, regardless of who i'm with. friends, check. parents, definitely. grandparents, without a doubt. it's embarrassing, degrading, and all around unpleasant. i don't know who decided that publicly calling out to girls was acceptable, or that maybe they wanted to hear it, because it's really no fun and makes everyone involved feel uncomfortable and incredibly self-conscious.

this is not a specific incident of catcalling, but i thought i should share what i overheard the other day. i heard a girl say that she felt bad about herself because she had never been catcalled. how upsetting is that? she thought she was too ugly to be harassed.

i was walking to cvs and got catcalled by someone from their car. in broad daylight. no one asks to be harassed, no one should have to monitor what they wear to feel protected, no wheaton student should have to feel unsafe just steps off of their campus, and i shouldn’t have to feel compelled to carry my keys in my hand as a potential weapon at one o’ clock in the afternoon.

confident yet objectified

personally, i don't really get catcalled a lot, so when it does happen, it boosts my confidence (depending on who it is) haha. one time i was in guatemala for our 8th grade trip, and a 30-year-old man started whistling at me, and that was just creepy because of our huge age difference.