To think that wolf whistling wasn't such a bad thing?

But it’s here you asked the question and now you’ve not got the response you want, you’re saying it’s because of the audience.

Did you read the stats that @meh2025 posted?

I've known one or two women who reported positive feelings about being catcalled, but most I know hated it, including me.

It makes me wonder if the ones that liked it were actually experiencing more friendly rather than sexual content. Like, the difference between "Looking good today!" and "Nice legs. Would look better open." (Yes, that was said to me in street harassment once.)

Going back to the harassment of children, you have to wonder what kind of grown men would harass tween girls in school uniform, who are quite clearly children. So disgusting. And it happened a lot. To me, anyway.

I remember the first time I was whistled at, it was a builder and I was 14 and in school uniform.

Lets keep whistling for dogs.

Takes all kinds to make a world….. but the vast majority have spoken here!

Oh dear @DurbevillesGirl2 wait for the pile on. How dare you enjoy builders cheering you they will say! How you must have such low self esteem! Like you, I say it was a harmless, fleeting thing that gave a bit of a lift to the day but so many pp's on here see them as closet sex offenders or paedophiles. It's also okay for them to say they hated it but not okay for us to say, like JL that we quite enjoyed it.

I loved wolf whistling (once as a student had a whole building site cheering me and chanting as I passed through the whole length of the street - I felt fantastic!) but hated leg touching/unwanted groping!

She was conditioned that way, sadly!

No one said men can’t pay compliments, what they said was they shouldn’t be street harassing.

Some women take it how it is meant as sexist and misogynistic. So that’s why it’s mostly outdated now.

Thank god!

Sounds like my mum. She claims
shes never been sexually harassed but men have groped her and whistled at her when she was younger and she thought this was a compliment, she wishes they would now.

A male acquaintance once turned to me in a packed bar and said, "You have a fantastic pair of breasts." For context, it was my basque/skimpy tops phase. His wife verbally agreed with him. I never felt threatened or embarrassed and dh was there, although out of earshot at the time. I didn't feel threatened by this man before or after that and I just think it was an clumsily put compliment. Men can make comments/pay compliments /whistle without being paedophiles or predators.

I think that's the point right there. The women who liked men wolf whistling and yelling to them considered it a compliment because they were convinced they were personally chosen for this reaction based on their beauty, charm and sex appeal. That's why so many are in denial about children and elderly women also being "chosen" for street harassment.

Yep, the builders on my uni campus really, really didn't like it when I yelled back at them and gave them the finger.

That's such an apt metaphor about a shit Choose Your Own Adventure. That's exactly what it was like.

Anno domini? It happens because we're in the post-Christ era?? Eh?

I also gave two fingers when I felt safe to do so, which was only on my uni campus, at a distance in the day with lots of others around. Often the street harassment happened on a quiet road or when I was very young, so I'd just ignore it as I was too scared to do anything else.

Had quite forgotten about the amount of street harassment age 12-18. Vile.

This thread has unlocked a memory of being harassed as a child...ugh, awful. My friend and I were about 12 and were walking along our street, and a man with very light-blonde hair kept passing us in his car, yelling things. We were terrified. And a whistle when I was 13 had me shaking...yes, young girls were definitely harassed on the street 35-40 years ago. I think there were more incidents as a child but I don't want to remember.

I sometimes used to do things like this. Often met with immediate change in demeaner to 'frigid bitch', angry face and similar.

It was like a really shit Choose your Own Adventure. Will he become abusive if you are nice? Will he become abusive if you're nasty. Turn to page 20 to find out how bad he will get and how quickly.

I think it has a lot to do with anno domini. I don't think anyone's In the as mentioned it here but I always gave the two fingers, middle finger these days, sign which felt like a reasonable response. If you consider how inferior they thought we were, they felt entitled to do all sorts thet no man in his right mind would do today.

Exactly!

Agree. Let’s be honest the sort of men who whistle at women on the street are probably the type who would chat up a stray dog if it wiggled its arse in front of them

Its not exactly flattering to be one of many randoms they heckle and cat call

I remember the first time it happened I was in my school uniform walking home. I was 12 and had just developed breasts. It was a builder working next to my parent's house. It made me feel horrible and it was the day I started to feel self-conscious about my body and how I held myself. I wore big baggy jumpers even in summer. The last time it happened I was 38 and pregnant some bloke opened his window and yelled MILF at me. Same feeling horror and objectification. I love being 46 and ignored by men finally being able to walk past a group of blokes and be invisible. I have two daughters and I don't want it to happen to them.... Please don't apologise excuse and enable vile behaviour.

This is hilarious. No school children around so they didn't harass them. Logic fail, much?

I saw a video on SM that started with a man looking at a woman, to one then commenting on her appearance in what he thinks is a complimentary way, to one saying something threatening to one stalking and so on.
I am probably not explaining it very well but it explains how things escalate if we accept seemingly "minor" things.
I will see if I can find it