Did women used to enjoy being catcalled?

This is it. It's about being female, not attractive
I get it worse now I'm in my 40s, maybe the confidence of getting older? I get things whispered as I walk past, beeps, shouting out of windows, intense staring. I find it intimidating, I want to be noticed as a person like fellow women notice me, not a piece of meat

Again referring to the poster saying under 50. I have experienced catcalling (not building site) but it doesn’t happen now im older and less attractive I’m sure it still happens to younger attractive women

I'm 68,i had boobs at 10. My body looked like an adult body, my face didn't. I hated the catcalling, I hated having to walk past groups of men, the leering, the comments, the whistling. I lived in a garrison town and many a time, I've had groups of soldiers pass wholly unacceptable comments. I mean how original is ' you don't get many of them to the pound'? And to a child? Men talked to my chest, not to me.
It was disgusting. They were all someone's son, husband, brother, boyfriend. But they treated women like walking boobs.
No, as you can tell, I wasn't flattered.

As other women have said upthread - going past any building site was like walking the gauntlet of crass sexual remarks.

Good points - the offensive come backs if you didn't smile or giggle were absolutely vile.

If you are “only” 35 then you have grown up in a totally different era than someone in their late 50’s or over. Main contractors now are part of good contractor schemes etc. I imagine now if workers behaved in the way they did in the 1970’s they would be disciplined and probably sacked. Thank God younger women are not experiencing the whistling/catcalling as generally as women my age did.

I got it a lot and loathed it. I used to tell them to fuck off but it is such an intrusion into your personal space that it would annoy me for ages. The amount of manhandling, (including sexual assault,) sexist comments, catcalling and so on in the 70s was shocking. It was everywhere and then you got called a frigid bitch or a lesbian if you didn’t respond positively. I loved it when I got a walkman at the end of the 70s and I could put headphones on and block out the worst of it.

Post I’m quoting says every woman under 50

I'm 57 and hated it. My sister liked it but she had very low self esteem.

Is it because you're less attractive or because the men are choosing to letch over teenagers and younger women irrespective of attraction?

Not true it never happens to me now and I’m 35 so yes I would say attraction is part of it of course!

I find it odd that some women found it flattering. I don’t mean to put anyone down here, but it didn’t mean you were especially attractive as they did it every woman under the age of about 50 and every young girl.

I never thought “oh yes now pretty I am, I now feel really good about myself” as I walked past. I knew they were doing it to every woman/girl.

This. Honestly if people genuinely enjoyed this I suspect they’d have been brought up in a sexist and pretty backward environment.

i am 58 and it started at age 11 and i absolutely hated it. hated walking past groups of men, hated men in cars beeping their horns to make you jump. Hated the fact you couldn't go anywhere and just BE - it always seemed to be linked to some man's appraisal of you.
I remember getting a trade union job in the early 90s and the creepy manager saying I was so pretty they should stick me in the window to get clients in. I was like Thanks? i thought i'd been hired for my knowledge and skills....
I've had some nice compliments off strange men and I remember them fondly- but they were COMPLIMENTS. Not some bloke yelling "Fuck off, you ugly slag I wouldnt fancy you anyway.."

I would have thought it's down to socialisation. Women outside in male space were seen as fair game. Baubles there for titillation, not fully human and asking for it. Women were told that they should be flattered that men took notice of them as that was their function in society, that their worth was tied up in their ability to attract men.

I think that [some] men and women lived with different approaches to risk and powerlessness in the past.
Sometimes when I think about, say Tudor times I wonder how people got up and lived their lives, with death hanging over them all the time (either because you were poor and vulnerable to disease, malnutrition, accidents, etc) or because you were rich (still vulnerable to disease, also vulnerable to political currents etc) . I think you can look back on even the second half of the 20th century and see it slightly in those terms - that for many people there was just nothing they could do, and a happy go lucky attitude was more prevalent and in some ways pretty rational.

Being cat called is a reminder that the stronger, bigger sex can do what they like with you. But - what are you doing to do? You can accept it and have a bit of fun. Men have to go down mines and might get killed in industrial accidents. Women have to be at the mercy of men. It was a different way of looking at life. You see this now in a lot of older women - they just don't question that men call the shots, the thing is how you work the system to your advantage.

I think some sex positive young women now are taking a similarly never-say-die attitude but they dress it up in trendier language and it's within a different political / moral framework.

I'm a worrier, a feminist and an overthinker so the "what are you doing to do" attitude never came naturally to me. But you know it's like everyone drinking 3 pints at lunchtime and operating heavy machinery afterwards, or men being sent to the front in a world war - dangerous world right

I remember feeling incredibly uncomfortable being beeped and wolf whistled walking home in my sports kit when I was underage...just wrong and completely gross - but I do recall my mum saying 'just take it as a compliment' which seemed so odd, even back then.

I hated it, it wasn't just builders, men who worked in garages I found were worse. I used to be sent to the bank by work, I hated it, walking up the high street, getting unwanted attention and I was nothing special.

Should clarify that dd gets dates without having to catcall…

she doesn’t scream nice pecs out of the car or stand outside onestop whistling!

Years ago, it's how people got 'chatted up'; now everyone is too scared to say ANYTHING

you know thats bollocks don’t you, the young adults i know have no difficulty ‘chatting people up’

dd is very confident, makes the first move loads of times! Lots of boys seem to be a bit porn addled now but that a whole different dating issue!

Creating that equivalency is just a method to reduce it and tell girls and women that they're at fault. Same old playbook.

Agree. That was a ridiculous post. "Catcalls/romantic advances."😄

Oh, and complaining about them in no way, shape or form takes "attention away from genuine victims of sexual violence".
If you object to a complete stranger shouting out sexual remarks and threats, you're not the one responsible for another woman not being heard about sexual assault and rape. Think about it.

Catcalls are not romantic advances.
Shouting out crude and offensive remarks to embarrass, harrass and demean is neither charming nor engaging.
"People are too scared to say ANYTHING?"
Well, it doesn't seem to deter some men.

Am 45, so haven't voted to impact on the result but, for what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree to a certain point.

I wouldn't say I ever 'enjoy/ed' being catcalled... but nor did I hate it. The fact someone of the opposite sex thought I was attractive enough to say so out loud was, often-times, very flattering.
Years ago, it's how people got 'chatted up'; now everyone is too scared to say ANYTHING!

I'd also agree that catcalls/romantic advances are not remotely akin to sexual violence. In fact, this comparison has always irritated me for the simple fact that these kinds of complaints take attention away from genuine victims of sexual violence.

People are bound to disagree. That's fine. But this is my own opinion based on my own experience.