How do you feel about being whistled at on the street?

when did this happen to you last?

I don’t like it. Not actually for some deep and meaningful reason, simply I’m not remotely interested in tne sort of man who does it. So their opinion is not something I wish to know. For me it’s akin to some loser approaching me in a bar. I’d rather they didn’t.

i only find anything which alludes to my attractiveness levels complimentary/welcome, when it’s from a man who I would feel flattered he found me attractive, someone I’d be interested in, anyone else, can quite frankly, fuck off.

And that sort of man doesn’t work on building sites, never mind work on them harassing women.

lilly Allen nailed it in her song. “Knock em out”

“Can't knock 'em out, you can't walk away
Try desperately to think of the politest way to say ('Er, sorry, yeah, but nah')
"Just get out my face, just leave me alone’

My DD is 21 and it’s not nearly as bad here as what’s she’s just had in Columbia. She’s used to travelling around London (took the tube in daily since 16) and ignores any comments as usually harmless (but still unwelcome) but one solo trip to a store during the day there and she realised she was the only woman and felt very uncomfortable, and never went out alone again. Any time they went out as a group (wearing normal t-shirts, jeans or shorts/skirts, nothing revealing) and the men would constantly harass them.
I do think it’s better here, but I’m old and no one is telling me to ‘just smile’ anymore. What is the end goal? Do the men think the women take it as a compliment? No, women have made it clear that they do not. That comments, cat calls, touching etc only serves to make women wary at best, scared at worst. So one can only assume that the men who persist are wanting to exert their greater strength and enjoy humiliating and scaring women.
As for those who say ‘back in the day we just got in with it’, shame on them. Teachers used to hit students with rulers (or worse). Men could hit and force their wives to have sex without punishment. Yea people just ‘got on with it’. That never made it right.
You’d think the ‘Me too’ movement had some lasting effect but it doesn’t appear to.

But you could say that about any interaction with a stranger - I don’t like anyone thinking it’s acceptable to try to force me to pay attention to them by attempting to interact with me outside of an emergency

Loads of it, and a bit of attention was always nice.

I would say I got whistled at way more as a teenager (from the age of 12 to about 18) than as an adult. Especially in my school uniform. As a result, the fact it stopped doesn't really make me feel sad/as if aging turned me invisible. I was a young looking very gawky teenager with a flat chest, braces and spots. Objectively I was much more attractive at 25 when I was also actually attractive to and asked on dates by normal men my age. Catcalling/being whistled at/ having someone call me fatty (on one memorable occasion) isn't really about being visible/young and attractive to me. It always felt more like bullying. So I don't feel wistful in the way I do about aging generally.

Marvellous! A woman after my own heart. Men 0, women 2.

Once when I was jogging with a friend (on the pavement besides a busy road) a man in a nice car in a suit reached his hand out to try to hit her on the bum as he went past. Gross. By definition any man who cat calls/harrases/gropes women is not sophisticated but some of them are neanderthals in suits (although actually maybe that's unfair on neanderthals).

This reminds me of a sleazy bloke who asked me while I was working behind a bar what colour knickers I had on. I called over my well built 6’4 boyfriend who was also working behind the bar..

‘Darling, this guy wants to know what colour knickers I wear, are they still in your pocket?’ Never seen a scumbag scuttle so fast out of the pub

When I was a young women with nice legs and long hair, getting whistled at on the street was common, especially when walking past a building site. If it was just a whistle and nice comment it was fine and sometimes you could have a bit of a laugh with it. I didn't mind.

But if they got crude and disgusting it was not very pleasant. Some of them are absolute dicks. The best approach was it ignore them and carry on. I did mind.

Now I'm getting on a bit I don't get whistled at any more. 🙁I kind of miss it sometimes 😂. When you get older you are invisible to absolutely everyone anyway.

Also I’m in my late 20s now and it still happens occasionally but the vast vast majority of it happened when I was a teenager in school uniform. So when a bloke whistles at me it just makes me think “yhe you probs been whistling at kids earlier and now I’m last pickings since it’s not school run time”. Really, that’s probably not the case all the time, but it’s just an instinctive thought.

I used to think my dad was a hard arse for lecturing me about rolling up my skirt when I was at school but now looking back he was right. I find myself giving the same lectures to my teenage nieces. I go about it in a different way though, my dad scared the shit out of me by telling me about that janitor who kidnapped those two school girls. He is a builder so he used to tell me it’s not a compliment. They might whistle and say morning beautiful but as soon as you’re gone they’re saying “vulgar shit that you wouldn’t even think of”. Food for thought if you think it’s a compliment.

Some men also do it to intimidate you and I 100% believe that. When I was 20 and I was pushing DD in her pram I got it a few times in dogey arse and then got further harassed when I ignored them. I had literally just had a baby so I wasn’t exactly looking fit, they just saw what they thought was a venerable woman with a baby. I am in fact a right bitch and a bit of a chav so I made a huge scene - I was so sleep deprived they’re lucky I didn’t launch something at them.

That still is the case maybe not too obvious but yes still goes on, i suppose the hot weather does change the dynamics

Some years ago I was whistled at from a building site and as I was the only person in the vicinity I looked round and the guy shouted "Not you fatty" and they all laughed. I was mortified.
I reported them to the company they were working for and they all got disciplined. The company took it very seriously.
Im not letting men humiliate me like that. They chose the wrong woman.

I’ve aged out of it, too. Thank goodness.

Agree with the others who find it annoying, demeaning, intimidating, etc.

Frankly astonished that there are some women who see it as a compliment.

It is harassment. Pervy and misogynistic. Sadly, it seems engrained in some groups of males, who think they are being clever behaving like this.

Anyone who is OK with it, sees it as a joke, thinks that women should find it a compliment is truly bizarre and has very low standards indeed.

I see it as a form of sexual harassment and intimidation. It objectifies women. We need to firmly stamp out this sort of behaviour, not accept it.

Women and girls should be able to go about their days without having to put up with this sort of shit. It almost never seems to happen to men.

I'm just about to turn 60 now and for me one of the plus points of being older is that it happens a lot less now. It was a regular occurrence when I was a teenager and then in my twenties.

Compare the feeling if another woman (or man, strictly depending on the context) comes up to you and gives you a genuine, sincere compliment.

I have told several unknown women how beautiful their summer dresses are recently, or that their fan looks amazing and where did they buy it from. In existing relationships I have complimented their idea or a piece of work, or publicly praised their achievement, or cheered when they smashed a PB at the gym (actually I cheer anyone who beats a PB).

When you can give that sort of genuine, 1-1 warmth, how could anyone hear "nice tits!" from a random passing car and think it was pleasant?

Have you no self esteem?

"Comparison that say how bad it was in the 70s so it's no issue now, aren't helpful. Shit in the 70s doesn't mean less shit, but still shit, now is acceptable."

I didn't say that

There’s a certain type of man that tends to whistle and they are the grossest thing about it.

I've aged out of it, never liked it or the offensive remarks if you ignored them. It was not a compliment, it was about power.

You'd have to have very low self esteem to think it was a compliment. It's pathetic behaviour. In the 1980s, a man shouted at me from the first floor board scaffold walkway of a building site to 'Show us your knickers, darling.' I was on my way to buy my lunch. I stopped and shouted back 'I'm afraid I can't. I'm not wearing any,' and walked on. On the walk back, all the men on the scaffold board scuttled to the back of the site when they saw me. Men O, women 1.

Our son and his friends would be absolutely horrified if they witnessed it and none of their group would even think it is OK or do it. Our daughters wouldn't take it as a compliment whatsoever. Times have changed, but there's rarely an overnight consensus on this things. It's just a gradual change where it is denormalised to an extent the lagging outliers keep quiet after a while because they know they are embarrassing.
Comparison that say how bad it was in the 70s so it's no issue now, aren't helpful. Shit in the 70s doesn't mean less shit, but still shit, now is acceptable.

It most definitely is a form of verbal rape and harassment. I grew up in the 70's. A woman or girl had this aimed every time they went out. Then things slowly changed and there is now a sort of code of conduct that builders etc don't do that anymore. It's kind of like the smoking ban - the world is a much nice place without sexist harassment.
That said, I am 59 and couldn't give a monkey's any more. In fact I don't really notice if it happens. I find it irrelevant what some stranger in the street thinks about me. Walk on by......

This. Never seen it as offensive

No one bothers anymore as I’m in my 50’s😂 but hated it when I was younger just ignored it.