Street Harassment: It’s More Than Just Cat Calling, and it Takes a Different Spin in Third world countries.
The picture above is a reference to a YouTube video that went viral in 2014 of a woman who spent 10 hours walking in the streets of New York. The video currently has a total of 49 million views at the time of writing this article. The video received a lot of attention from news outlets that shed light on the constant hassle that women have to go through each day when they are out through their day. This opened a discussion on whether cat calling was harmless as it seems or absolutely unnecessary and downright objectifying to women. Some men who keep seeing this as harmless and constantly pointing the finger at “ Toxic Feminists” who want to start something out of nothing, and even attributing it to some false accusations of the “ Me Too” movement.
My first experience with cat calling was as young as 13 years old. At the time, I didn’t understand why grown men who some of them could be my father, uncle or brother would be hollering that way at me. Now, being in my early twenties and this still goes on. When the topic of cat calling is brought up, it’s always dismissed and women are told to just get over it. In some cases, they are told to just fight back and say something to them. As much as women would love to do so, there could be consequences on a woman’s part for saying something back. A lot of violent retributions have been some of the consequences that a woman face for fighting back even resulting to death.
It boggles my mind how other people could think that bringing awareness to street harassment hurts men. While we are aware that not every man does this to women, let’s bring discussion around this issue especially for the naysayers. Firstly, is it necessary for a stranger to holler at a woman who is minding her own business enjoying her day?. If for a fact that the argument could be that claiming everything as harassment would make even men talking to women harassment in the future be labelled as harassment is an absolute stretch. Courtesy, cordiality and chivalry is well much respected and any person wouldn’t complain receiving well mannered approach. However, it should never be expected that women will accept the ill behavior of men who not only lack respect for themselves, but also lack respect for others as well.
Let’s go further with this, street harassment in my country takes a different spin. I come from a rather third world country and me dealing with anxiety doesn’t make it easy for me. If I want to shop for things such as clothes, the flea markets are a place to go. These public places and being surrounded by so many people brings about so many different scenarios. There have been incidences where I find my hand getting grabbed on constantly by these street vendors in the name of trying to sell something to me. Reacting in the wrong way could get you in trouble. It could escalate so badly to a point of no return and guess what? No one is going to help you. This has been a very big problem here and a lot of girls and women alike complain, to the point that they have been desensitized to this treatment and behavior. Women here have been inappropriately touched and get scared to react because they don’t know what to expect. Laws can’t be established to end this behavior because the women and girls who receive this treatment aren’t related to those in power because they can experience the luxury of not coming into contact with these circumstances.
Sadly, it happens worldwide. It just doesn’t end with harmless “Good Mornings” and “ Have a good day”. Some men even go further trying to excuse this behavior with “If women could dress better” as a way to absolve accountability from these people. I’m sure if this was their mother, sister or aunt, they wouldn’t accept this behavior. All this is deep rooted in rather objectification and misogyny. If we keep sweeping this issue under the rug, it could be detrimental in our society. We should be able to respect each other and treat each other as how we would treat our own family members. If we wouldn’t want them getting harassed then it shouldn’t be done and excused when it happens to a stranger.