Emma
I was on holiday in Italy. I was cat-called a harassed by the same group of men in broad-daylight three days in a row. They were in large groups and I was on my own, it was terrifying. They shouted at me and get very close.
Cat calling
Sam
I’m 16 years old, and live with my dad. Last week, at 10:30pm, I decided to go out and get an ice-cream. My dad is cool with me going out, so I told him I was going. I walked to the shop, which is about 15min walk from my place, and got my ice-cream. I was about halfway home, when I heard a van pull up on the side of the footpath. I could just see a man sitting behind the wheel. He looked at me, and started to open the door. Immediately, I began to walk faster. He hopped out, and started walking unsteadily towards me, cat-calling me. I could tell he’d been drinking. He was catching up to me, and I was really scared. Next thing I know, he’s grabbed my arse. I screamed, and bolted home. When I arrived home, I didn’t tell my dad what happened. I was embarrassed and terrified he would find me. It’s so wrong and disgusting that females are unable to go out by themselves without feeling scared. I know what would have happened if i hadn’t had run, and I don’t want to think about it.
Lisa
I was attempting to compete in high school swimming competition, when 3 boys came up to me and were treating me really horrible, saying that girls can’t swim, and that I would fail and never be happy. I don’t know why, and I never will. I beat them in races and they didn’t say anything to me. After the race, in the changerooms, I heard some wolf whistling when I walked in. It was the boys. I told my mum and sister. They tried to find out who the boys were, but never could.
Luna
I temporarily moved to Brazil with my boyfriend, and since Brazil is known to be generally unsafe and sexist, I’ve been advised many times to avoid going on the streets by myself, especially at night. I had been avoiding it until one day my boyfriend was away and I needed some groceries. Since the supermarket is down the street and it was around noon, I went out without much hestitation. However within 2 minutes, a car full of guys/men slowed down besides me, they were hanging out and shouting things (which I, maybe thankfully, did not understand since it was in Portuguese). My initial reaction was fear, which turned into astonishment when I saw that they were filming me while doing this. This transformed into plain anger, but knowing it wouldn’t be safe here to act up, I froze and waited silently for it to be over.
Em
i’m 13 and i got cat called by 2 men in a white van who were about 20 years old i usually get cat called but i feel like i cant tell my friends because they would just say ‘lucky’ and ‘at least people call you pretty’
Nici
Walking down the highstreet, a guy yells at me something along the lines of “Damn gurl I’d take you if you werent too young for me” and as i walk past he looks at my butt and says “I might change my mind for that bum.”
Pip
I have recently turned 18 years old, but this is a problem I’ve experienced for the past 2 years. It is occasional, but still bothers me. I walk to and from sixth form everyday; my road always has at least one house under construction on it. Since I’m a sixth former, I don’t wear a uniform, just smart office-like clothes, basically I don’t look like a school girl, but I am. Walking down the street, I frequently get wolf whistled at by the builders (ages ranging from about 25-45 years) or them saying ‘hey gorgeous’ or something to that effect. I’m just innocently going to get an education, I don’t need to be worried about whether or not what I’m wearing is provocative as I leave my house each morning. This has been going on since I was 16; I’m still a child. It’s wrong.
CN
Almost daily in London, men yell “compliments” at me that feel aggressive and demeaning. I heard a comedian once explain my reaction to these instances perfectly. She said something along the lines of, “When men go out, they don’t have to think about the fact that they have a body. Women, on the other hand, are forced to remember that they have a body and feel conscious of this at all times, especially when comments like this are hurled at them. It causes a strange, uncomfortable extra layer of awareness.” I always say something back, and I am always made fun of, like I’m just a silly woman.
Erika Azevedo
São Paulo, Brasil. Pre carnival Friday: I left work and changed into shorts and put on a gorgeous pear+flower carnivally tiara. I parked my car on a street and walked a few blocks to the manicure parlor. That is right! I put on such a carnivally tiara only to go get a manicure! It is carnival, I wanted to play. As I was crosing a major avenue, a guy inside a moving car yelled “hey pussy cat”! And drove by. At age 38, going through a crisis feeling fat, old and ugly, for a fraction of second I almost liked the “compliment”. Almost. At age 38 I have learned not to take crumbs for a compliment. That was not a compliment. That was harassment. Verbal harassment. After that first fraction of second I actually felt humiliated, ashamed and invaded. Compliment is when a person looks at you and says that he/she liked your look. Not while passing by, not anonimously. For a compliment to exist, it is necessary to have existed some kind of permission for the approach. I did not leave work wearing shorts and that tiarar to be subject of a stranger’s comments from a car passing by. Yes I was playing. Intending to cause admired looks, smiling glances, a few laughs from my girl friend who met me at the parlor “girl you are crazy”! The unexpected. That was not a permission for strangers to think they have the liberty to approach me like that. I couldn’t help think about the sexism inherent to carnival, the objectification of women. That story of blaming the victim “you left wearing that, what did you expect?” which becomes exacerbated this time in Brasil. Other women have had it worse this carnival, that is for sure. However, the root of the behaviour – the catcalling and the beating or raping – is the same: it is the belief that women are there at the disposition of men, for them to say things to, use, to touch, grab and have.
Charlotte
Just got cat-called by some builders while walking past on my way to work in central London. I am four months pregnant and was visibly wearing a ‘Baby on Board’ badge. I’m already feeling vulnerable and hormonal, this made me want to go home and cry.