Let’s call ‘catcalling’ what it is

It’s been irking me for a while — the term “catcalling.”

According to Slant, “The term first emerged in theater in the late 1600s. When audiences disliked a theater performance they would ‘cat call’ the performers by booing, hissing, snorting, or shouting at them.”

Imagine the picture the term “catcalling” paints today — I see a woman walking down the street, minding her own business, and a man in a passing truck, leering out the window, whistling, hollering, making those little snappy sounds with his tongue that one would use to get the attention of a dog.

You imagine something similar, right?

This is why I‘d rather just call catcalling what it is: gender-based street harassment.

When I say I was catcalled four times last week, many people (probably men, simply because they don’t experience it) imagine a scene described above. But I think the term “catcalling” erases the wide variety of ways in which women are harassed in public spaces.

Last week, a man passed me so closely on the sidewalk at midday, while staring intently at my face and puckering his lips, that my middle finger would have brushed his nose if I extended my arm fully. Another man followed me for a block at 8 AM, under the guise of trying to get the attention of the dog I was walking. What about telling women to smile? Is that a catcall? What about when I’m a teenager and a strange man passes behind me in an aisle at a store and casually touches my ass, in an act so subtle, yet so violent, that I am literally shocked into disgusted silence and let it happen without saying anything?

The truth is, I could write examples of gender-based street harassment all day. Use the term if you want (I’m surely not going to stop wearing my “Dead Men Don’t Cat Call” shirt pictured above), but what I’m getting at is that “catcalling” doesn’t always paint the picture of how subtle and varied street harassment can be, or how fucking terrifying it can be. I don’t want anyone to stop thinking about how we can make it end.

If you feel like sharing, tell the Medium world about a time you experienced gender-based street harassment in the comments below.