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

Plus, strange men making noises at any passing girl or woman from 13 to 50 is barely flirting anyway, it's just really weird behaviour.

💯 agree

@Nonaynevernomore

Because it was lighthearted and never sexual

Because it was usually a mornin darlin and sometimes a “ looking nice today “

Because they were in their twenties

Because it was a bit of fun when I was also in my twenties

Because I then had my mind on other stuff and didn’t give it a moment’s thought.

that actually the wolf whistle from the 20 something guy on the scaffold wasn’t an innocent bit of flirting, but actually quite sinister, because that 20 something guy was actually a real pervert.

And the wolf whistles from the 40 or 50 year old men aimed at much younger women. Is that just innocent flirting too?

But why did you enjoy the attention from men in that way? Surely some at least were unattractive to you?

Didn’t it at the very least make you roll your eyes or think “fuck off”?

I honestly find it interesting to know why you enjoyed it.

Nope. Nobody suggested ALL builders (not all men here we go again) and nobody has suggested that all builders or men are creepy and predatory.

Those who experienced disgust, terror, upset and revulsion and have dreadful memories of regular harassment simply won't allow anyone to minimise, laugh it off and pretend it was all a bit of a larf or try to slyly insinuate that the millions of girls and women (throughout history) who hated it were all weedy little victims who should have been tougher.

The OP literally asked the question if wolf whistling - or as its better known now street harassment - wasn't such a bad thing and tried to minimise invoking, for some bizarre reason, the luxury class beliefs of Joanna Lumley.

So the answer to the OP's question has been robustly answered. Lots and lots and lots of women and children loathe and detest street harassment. And no, that doesn't make them weak.

If you enjoyed the attentions of strange men making noises at you, nobody has suggested you should not.

Not agreeing with the minimisation of street harassment and refusing to pretend it was acceptable, fun or harmless for many women and children doesn't prevent you from enjoying your memories of strange men making noises at you.

This is the just of this whole thread. It’s also very insulting that those of us who enjoyed a bit of harmless flirting have no self worth/are desperate for attention/those guys were probably perverts.

so exhausting

Yet we have not denied the experience of others at the hands of perverts, some of us had a different experience.

Nope. Nobody suggested ALL builders (not all men here we go again) and nobody has suggested that all builders or men are creepy and predatory.

Those who experienced disgust, terror, upset and revulsion and have dreadful memories of regular harassment simply won't allow anyone to minimise, laugh it off and pretend it was all a bit of a larf or try to slyly insinuate that the millions of girls and women who hated it were all weedy little victims who should have been tougher.

Despite what the OP stated, mllions of us loathed street harassment, and have always loathed it, throughout the world and throughout history.

Women who enjoyed the attention of strange men making noises at them are welcome to that point of view and as far as I can recall, nobody has suggested otherwise.

Not agreeing with the minimisation of street harassment and refusing to pretend it was acceptable, fun or harmless is in no way, manner, shape or form asking women who enjoy strange men making noises at them to reshape anything at all.

@aliceinawonderland

There is a suggestion that ALL builders in the 80s and 90s whistled at children ( which means that ALL of them are paedophiles)

Who has said this?

Indeed.

Let's discuss this thing and share our experience, maybe we could learn something.

No, your experience is not right, my view of this is the correct moral one.

Ad infinitum.

Clearly, it wasn’t just builders that wolf whistle, another ridiculous comment!

Almost as ridiculous as @Bbq1 comment that men in her area were only did it to 18+ women.

Why are defending it as “harmless”, it’s sexist and misogynistic.

Why any woman would take it as a compliment, life no idea. Low bar?

Also, no one says it was all men, or even all builders.

No, that's not the narrative at all. Firstly no one has suggested all builders wolf whistled. There are men who are the type and men who aren't and those that are can be found in all jobs. The builders who were this type were all ages from the 16 year old YTS kid copying the grown ups to the 60 something. Of those there will have been the odd decent looking 20 something. Of these decent looking 20 somethings there will be the odd one who might check carefully whether the young woman looked 18 before whistling at her. However the insistence by some on here that 'their' builders all fell into this tiny subset of wolf whistlers is not only a bit silly, but impossible to know unless they spent all day every day walking past the site checking who was getting the attention.

Let me clear this up for you.

Not all builders and not all men catcall but many do. Please refer to the stats @meh2025 posted.

I assume you didn’t read them.

I think this is what some of us are getting at.

There is a suggestion that ALL builders in the 80s and 90s whistled at children ( which means that ALL of them are paedophiles) and that we must revisit our memories to reshape them that actually the wolf whistle from the 20 something guy on the scaffold wasn’t an innocent bit of flirting, but actually quite sinister, because that 20 something guy was actually a real pervert.

Clearly this can’t be statistically true otherwise anyone in their 50s married to a builder needs to get the hell out!!

But those who did experience this will not allow anyone to have a different experience.

This is the thread that keeps on giving.
First we have the narrative that women who are offended or upset by sexual harassment are just not tough enough or don't have enough self worth.

Now there's a suggestion that in the cat calling and harassment of young girls only happens in certain areas. Which is absolute bollocks.
I grew up in a very deprived area and it was rife, particularly for girls in school uniform.
I now live in a very nice area and it's no different. In fact, I commented to my DH the other day that I have experienced more overt sexual harassment where we live now than any other place I've lived.

@Bbq1

I'm sorry that you lived in an area where men apparently whistled at kids.

This sentence minus the 'apparently' would have been a display of empathy and maturity.

With the 'apparently' it's just another example of women and girls not being believed and an if it didn't happen to me, it didn't happen at all attitude.

Your mask slipped.

You're wasting your time. People who value wolf whistles so much they defend it are never going to accept the idea that those whistles were also directed at children. They need to see them as a personal compliment from a man whos compliments are worth having. So always young, good looking, discerning men who have singled them out as gorgeous women. The idea of a creepy perv who whistles at children is never going to land well.

@EliflurtleAndTheInfiniteMadness I had a few years where I really wished I was a boy around the same age and one of the reasons was because I thought it would keep me "safe".

@Bbq1

Saying not all areas have/had men harassing teens is crazy!

There is only one possible way that could be true and that is if there was a ring fence preventing men from entering the area.

750000 women in the UK were sexually assaulted or raped in the UK in 2023. This figure doesn’t include street harassment!

1 in 4 women are raped by men in their lifetime.

Look at the stats @meh2025 shared.

This isn’t opinion, it’s factual that men catcall young girls everywhere. It is ridiculous and insulting to pretend they don’t “in some areas”

I can't imagine being so desperate for male attention and approval that I would interpret being sexually harassed as a "compliment."

I agree with the RC “label”, even today many years on, I get the comments “of convent school girls, they’re the worst” snigger snigger. Saying that they believe that we were more sexually promiscuous somehow? So that justified more heckling.

@meh2025

your posts nail the issue 🙏

This comment says it all about how you think and it's appalling. You have zero insight into what others have been through. A culture that normalises wolf whistling at girls in school uniforms is never ok, and you can say what you want but it absolutely did normalise this. I had a friend who was desperate for a breast reduction at 12 because of this sort of thing, but sure she just couldn't handle herself, if only she'd been more robust and not seen herself as a victim. Fuck that for a joke.

Oh I definitely tried to empower her to defend herself when safe and run when not, told both my kids too to make a fuss, make a noise, smash things, embarrass themselves, perverts and predators don't like attention. It just made me sad and furious that there's so little I could do to protect her from this completely unnecessary male behaviour. They could just stop doing it today and make the world a much better place.

I'd tell her this is the time when it is absolutely fine to swear. "I'm fucking 12 you pervert"

I was sent to an RC girls' school. Men seemed to see that as a label that said I wanted to be sexually assaulted.

@Bbq1 do you live under a stone. was still wearing school uniform when I was 18.