This morning two men in a truck honked, stared and yelled things at me as I walked to work.
Saturday a male stranger in the elevator called me sweetheart and another man on the street asked if I would go home with him.
Last week one of my male colleagues yelled out “va-va-voom” when I walked into a board meeting.
Last month a parking attendant outside my office building told me that he wanted to marry me and that he would stalk me until I broke up with the fake boyfriend I told him I had in order to ward him off.
Last summer three men walked past me on the stairs of a bar. One turned around and grabbed my ass, squeezed hard and guffawed. All three proceeded to laugh uproariously and continued on their way. I was too stunned to say or do anything so I just stared as they left me there on the stairs. A few weeks later a strange man in a club came up behind me while I was dancing with a girlfriend and pulled my waist towards him, pushing his crotch into my behind. I turned and demanded an explanation. His answer: “You backed into me.” Bullshit. Straight out lie.
These aren’t the worst examples of street harassment, just a few that come to mind. I am cat-called almost every single day of my life, no matter what I’m wearing or who I am with. But mostly when I am alone, walking to or from work or home.
Worse: I’m not an anomaly. This happens to most girls. All. The. Time. Cat-calling is not a compliment – it’s degrading, humiliating and demoralizing. It limits our ability to walk down the street without fear – even in broad daylight while wearing professional attire.
The featured quote says it all: I may be walking through a public place, but my body is not public property. I am a individual person with rights to my own body, not a sexual toy/object inviting your comments, stare or touch. Please consider this and apply it to ALL people as you move through your day.
Here are some great resources for people who are looking to learn more about how to identify and combat this type of harassment:
HollaBack! You Have the Power to End Street Harassment
Stop Street Harassment
Meet Us On The Street*
*Anti-street harassment week was April 7-13, 2013. Visit this website for news about next year’s event and additional resources.
duckyfem 
Thanks for posting about this…I have really lost hope that cat-calling and the staring, my God, the staring will stop. I feel so self-conscious when I go to even the supermarket on my lunch break at work. I look dress conservative for work… it’s not about sexual attractiveness it’s about power: men believing (whether conscious or not) that my body is a public spectacle that doesn’t have to be respected.
I totally agree about the power issue. In many ways cat-calling brings us back to the Mad Men era of sexism and makes us feel like our worth lies in our beauty and our bodies, instead of our intellectual capacity and accomplishments. Thanks for reading and I’m glad you liked the post!
Not every woman gets treated like that, you know. Men are very perceptive when it comes to body language, and only do catcalls at certain women.
EM – it is certainly your right to voice that opinion, although I do not share your sentiments in the least. Every single woman I know (no matter her age, race, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation) has been catcalled or harassed on the street at some point. As Sarah mentioned above, this is often more of a power play, not a comment on sexual attractiveness or some sort of supposed provocation. No one – be they male, female, gay, straight, rich or poor etc – should have to deal with street harassment. And yet it is a constant in our society. If you personally do not get cat-calls, I think that is fantastic and I hope that you continue to be so lucky.
Good post Danica… I am one of those girls who can’t hold my tongue with any type of cat call… I will continue to scream outloud the word “pervert” and such to the men who do it in public to me. Many women are just “used” to it so they ignore it…but I hope to never be “used” to it…so for now I’ll continue screaming obscenities until they die of embarassment.