Cat Calling

Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Pepper spray? Check. 

It's the unfortunate reality that many young women face. The need for self-defense classes or self- defense weapons/tools is merely a band aid for a much larger problem. The fear of walking down the street is a chronic issue that alters much of a woman's daily life. Women are found to change their body language when walking past a group, have a sudden heightened awareness of who is too close for comfort, quickening their pace when walking to gain distance from whoever, changing which side of the street to walk on if there is a suspicious person, etc. The extra precautions taken by women to ensure their safety when out on the street becomes second nature. It falls on the shoulders of women to prevent anything from happening to us; instead of investing money in classes or purchasing countless tools to aid in the prevention of harassment it would be much easier to teach children at a young age that this behavior is unacceptable. 

According to Stop Street Harassment Studies: 

June 3, 2014: In 2014, SSH commissioned a 2,000-person nationally representative survey in the USA with firm GfK. The survey found that 65% of all women had experienced street harassment. Among all women, 23%  had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual.

Among men, 25% had been street harassed (a higher percentage of LGBT-identified men than heterosexual men reported this) and their most common form of harassment was homophobic or transphobic slurs (9%).

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/our-work/nationalstudy/

This is not an issue that solely belongs to women it stretches across and affects other marginalized groups. 

Street harassment has become an integral part of women's daily lives and as a result women have learned how to stone wall the comments or physically shrink as to avoid the perpetrator. I, myself, have experienced catcalling at a very young age when walking to and from school. One incident stands out among the rest, I was walking down a busy street in my neighborhood and I hear someone whistling at me and shouting, "Mi preciosa, ven conmigo." Turns out it was a middle age man in a truck who then decides to pull off to the side of the road ahead of me. I am frozen with fear and refuse to walk ahead and I can see in his mirror he was staring me down. It was a moment of fear, anger, and disgust. I did not know what this man planned to do if I neared/walked past his truck, I hated feeling helpless, and above all I felt filthy having someone stare me down as if I am only an object of sexual pleasure. I had to turn back and find another route home. I was only 13 years old. 

I know for a fact that I am not the only one who experiences cat calling, among friends we have discussed situations we have been placed in, comments that we have been told, and how we have felt or responded to the person. This is a chronic issue that affects women worldwide.

Cornell University and Hollaback! has kindly surveyed 16, 607 people world wide on the topic of street harassment and have created a visual of the results:

https://www.ihollaback.org/cornell-international-survey-on-street-harassment/

These organizations are not the only platform in which insight on street harassment can be found. Women have taken up social media to give voice to the problem. Instagram accounts such as Dearcatcallers (where a young woman photographs her cat callers and quotes what they have shouted at her) and Catcallsofnyc (where chalk is the medium used to display what has been shouted at women down the street) 

Most men and women share the same sentiments about street harassment, it is more than a nuisance it strikes fear in those who are being harassed. It is highly uncomfortable walking down the street just to have a stranger yell vulgar things at you (or even worse have someone physically assault you). People from the community had this to say:

"Catcalling makes me feel angry and uncomfortable. It makes me wish I could fast forward in time to where I'd be a black belt in BJJ and feel safe in my own skin" Anahiz, Cal State Fullerton

"Its stupid, it makes me angry because I think about how they could be doing this to my sister or mom." Fernando, Cal State Northridge