Women have come a long way in battling inequality and gaining rights as individuals; however, many of us are still unable to walk down our own city streets without feeling objectified.
A simple wert-whirl whistle has the ability to remove decades of progress, and forces women to remember that men still have the upper hand in society. It makes us aware that we’re being watched. It makes us feel vulnerable, and it makes us feel victimized.
The men leering on the street corners, telling the girls walking by that their ass looks good in their jeans, subjugate women on a psychological level. Men will force their opinions and desires upon women as expressions of control, reminding us that we don’t have any unless we demand it.
This kind of sexualized bullying is a pathetic attempt to boost the offender’s ego. How are women supposed to respond? If we acknowledge them, they might interpret our eye contact as permission to pursue. Reject them, and the situation can escalate into something much more aggressive. It might not, but the possibility that it could is reason enough for most women to quicken their pace.
I don’t understand why men think catcalling is an appropriate way to approach women. I suppose a man might think that honking at a pretty girl is going to result in her spinning on her heels and chasing his car with her phone number in hand.
Let me assure you that most women don’t feel “beautiful” when hollered at from across a dark parking lot. We feel threatened. Society teaches us that it’s our responsibility to guard ourselves, as if men have some uncontrollable lust at the sight of a thigh beneath a short skirt. But the verbal assaults happen if we wear sweatpants or a flirty dress, and it has to stop.
The excuse that men can’t help it, that it’s a biological male trait to be dominant, is a pathetic reduction of the human nature. Do men not possess the ability to control their evolutionary pursuit to “spread their seed?”
Men are not animals, and I refuse to attribute sexual harassment as a result of biological factors. Men are people who have the capability to have respect for others, and not treat women like pieces of meat, no matter how much testosterone is coursing through their veins.