Catcalling- Compliment or harassment?

Question

@theMrs- i may come off as pretty defensive here, but i just had a pretty strange experience. so forgive my tone- i really am pretty interested in everyone's opinions.

Answer 1

It's disgusting, harassment and can be intimidating. I wish I could just go about my day to day business without having to deal with this kind of stuff. It's not complimentary, they call out to every woman. It's not because I dress provocatively, I normally dress in jeans and baggy t-shirt / coat. As someone who has been attacked before, the last thing I want is to be reminded of that when I'm just walking down the street minding my own business. In the past it has actually made me want to stay indoors and not go out at all. Why should certain people's behaviour make someone feel that way?

Answer 2

I agree with Meat, it varies. Also depends on how the person subjected to cat-calling takes it.

Answer 3

Neither.

EDIT- I would not define it as anything as  I am neither offended by it or flattered by it.  It is great that some guy thinks I am attractive, but the guys that typically do this are not the types anyone really wants attention from.

It is a neutral to me.

Aren't you harassing FlameSpeak?  I mean you asked for an opinion and you get bent out of shape when someone disagrees with yours....some open mind.  It seems a little hostile in here.

EDIT- That is fine, but go yell at the jerks, not some random person on the internet.

Answer 4

harassment is unwanted advances, so i suppose it is harassment once it is known to be unwanted. however, i my self thank it is distasteful so no i do not partake in it.

Answer 5

Gimme a break, chicks love it! don't you like compliments?

Answer 6

well mostly id say its a compliment(unless its because you look like a hooker or something) but its still counted as harassment. so both

Answer 7

catcalling - idiotic behavior.  Sometime it can be fun to be an idiot.

It is not harassment nor is it a compliment.

ADD

Does catcalling create a hostile work enviorment?

Nope, unless they are yelling such things like "You look amazing, I can't wait to light you on fire." I could hardly call it hostile.  Simply idiotic.  In essence, what is the difference between someone complimenting your other features (hair, dress, make-up, etc.) on a personal level and shouting "Hey, Baby! I like what I see!" from afar?

Keep in mind though, I work in an enviorment where hearing extremely explicit language and vulgar actions are very common-place, so it is possible I am just more de-sensitized to such things.  Or I may also feel that freedom of speech is just that "freedom of speech", and while I don't agree or even like the manner in which it is being used, there is no difference in asking someone to stop praying or humming a hymn than there is in telling someone else to stop yelling promiscuous dialog.

ADD

Oh, I agree it is rude, but I cannot call it harrassment unless the person followed you around and did it all the time and distracted you from whatever duty you had in mind.  I mean, by the same line of reasoning, I should seek retribution from being harrassed by firefighters who ask for donations in traffic or bums that ask for change in the street.  Is this harrasment? no.

Answer 8

I was actually gonna ask this question.

I see it as flattering the first time it happens to you, maybe the second, but degrading once the novelty's worn off, and I feel that the intent is often similar to that behind harassment.

Answer 9

entirely depends on the situation...

Answer 10

1% flattering, 99% sickening.

Answer 11

I suppose in some forms it's reassuring, but on this other debate in a feminism board, one woman experienced it while walking her dog in sweatpants, who commented "doesn't take much to impress you, does it?"  Haha.  (If this link doesn't work, it's on the Feminism message board on ivillage.com) http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/m...

Like the others said, it depends on the situation.  I don't think it counts as a compliment as one other individual said.  I think depending on who it's coming from, it can certainly be creepy and potentially harassing.

I think a lot of it also depends on age.  I'm 19, and if I had someone about 30 years older than me making catcalls, I'd feel completely disgusted and dirty.  I remember this time, about 6 years ago, I was going through a gothic phase in which my boyfriend at the time was walking me around a mall on a collar with a group of our friends.  These middle aged men walked past us, and one of them commented to my boyfriend "can I pet your puppy?"  I think it just made me feel really really dirty (not to say that wasn't the impression I was giving off, but to a 13 year old kid, that's completely uncalled for).

Answer 12

both, depends on the one receiving it.

Answer 13

Harassment-I would never yell out at men or women I didn't know-let alone scream at them how I think they looked-I can't imagine what cretins think I want to hear it either.

I've been screamed at from construction crews working near the top of buildings-I've been followed by cars down the street and screamed at by men driving by-and this was when I worked downtown and was dressed very conservatively for work.