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

There’s always a type that whistles or shouts ‘compliments’ out the window. It’s never decent, non sexist men. It’s the type that see women as fair game and have no issue embarrassing them and making them feel sexualised whilst going about their day. Being flattered by getting attention from these types of men is truly bizarre.

Is this a joke? The memorable man who groped my bum and tried to cup my crotch at the age of 15, at a busy pedestrian crossing in the city, was a well-off looking professional in his forties. Street harassment can come from all sorts of men.

I used to get it a lot when I was younger, but found it flattering as I had terrible boundaries thanks to trauma. Now, however, I would hate it.

I don't live in a city anymore, and while I don't get whistles there is a surprising amount of leering (mostly from much older men) that others have noticed - and I'm pretty much only ever in jeans and a non-revealing top without make-up! I don't care about looks so much as they're not intrusive in the same way, but it's still gross.

The whistling wasn’t even the worst of it. The catcalling was worse, thing like ‘Phoarr, look at the tits on that’, and ‘Show us your arse’, was embarrassing and humiliating, which is of course exactly what it’s supposed to be.

I didn't mind when I was younger was kind of flattered by it. Now if it was to happen which it doesn't but if it did I would think they were being sarcastic/taking the piss.

It used to happen to me when I was younger.

Never thought anything of it.

Never felt I was being 'harassed'.

Neither liked or disliked it.

It didn't embarrass me.

I didn't look at the person/s who had whistled, so no idea whether I would have fancied him/them.

Go no validation from it because I didn't care if people I didn't know found me attractive.

Definitely did not have any 'self esteem issues'.

Just continued walking on my way.

Never have I read or heard so much about it than all these years later on Mumsnet, and I thought it wasn't allowed anymore, anyway.

End of.

Total non event.

Don't tell other people how they should feel about it; some feel nothing!

Violating and intimidating. Especially since it first starts happening when you are a teen, often in school uniform, from older groups of men - it's completely vile. One of the joys of getting older is it happens less often and I no longer always have to dread walking past groups of men. But I hate it for my teen daughters.

Last time I was whistled at was several decades ago (Now in late 70s) when I was driving past a factory and one of the workers outside whistled at me. I waved back. He was an old friend of my husband's. Nice bloke.

It was intimidating and mortifying when I was younger.

I don’t give a fuck now.

It is sexual harassment.

Sad

Men will have sex with anything.

Being whistled at is not a compliment.

If you are the sort of person who gets personal validation from a mediocre man you have never met and will never see again, whistling at you like a dog, or yelling at you like a hooligan at a football match - then you have got serious self esteem issues.

Similarly, if you think men who do this are ok, then you need to considerably raise your standards. And definitely take a hard look at your parenting skills as well if you have children.

I hated it when I was young. Think I was around 11 and walking home from school when it started. I found it intimidating and embarrassing.
It stopped for a while when I had my children and was carrying or pushing babies .. but I still get whistles now and I’m in my 50s. I don’t find it a compliment. It’s usually a group of men egging each other on, rarely one man on his own (not that that would make it alright of course).
I hate to think of my children being harassed.

I wouldn’t know! It’s literally never happened to me (I seem to have missed out on the apparently universal experience) 😆

When I was younger it never bothered me at all to be honest. I never gave it a second thought. Was neither flattered by it or disgusted by it.

I don't get wolf whistled or cat called now (in my 50's) but I have been witness to it when walking down the street with my DD (20). She has long blonde hair and a gorgeous figure and the unwanted attention she gets from the opposite sex makes me feel really uncomfortable and protective and she hates it!!!

What kind of asshole winds the window down on his van to shout obscene things at a young woman just walking down the street with her mother!!!!

Absolute dickheads!! Makes us both feel angry and I feel bad for my DD having to put up with it when she shouldn't have to.

Exactly. I challenge it now for my daughter and her generation.

I am glad that most here hate it. It’s never a compliment. It’s powerplay and designed to indirectly humiliate women. I hated it when young. Now, I would challenge them. It needs to stop.

Thank goodness most on this thread aren’t laughing about what a compliment it is, and saying how uptight those of us who dislike it are. These threads often attract those types.

I thought whistling at women in the street had, thankfully, died a death.
Unfortunately there are still idiots who think it's fun to shout, quite often unintelligible stuff, out of their car windows at women as they are speeding past.

Whistling at and shouting at women in the street is just so obviously a power thing. In reality nothing complimentary about it.
If some women think it's a compliment then they must be exceedingly needy and lacking in self confidence if they are so desperate for the attention of men.

Edited to say sorry @ShannonMacFarland I quoted you by mistake and can't edit the quote out.

I have never been whistled at, which I feel must mean I'm extremely unattractive 😂

When I was younger and cat called if I did tell them to fuck off it just seemed to encourage them and make them worse. I really hate men who whistle and jeer. That person mentioned above who thinks it's a compliment is a misguided fool.

I hated it then and I hate it now (not that it’s happened to me for some time).

Anyone who considers it a compliment is full of ingrained misogyny. Its basically a tacit way of saying “I have the right to stand in judgment over you and I judge you fuckable and I don’t care if that makes you uncomfortable, I’m going to do it anyway.”

I have a (very misogynistic, female!) colleague who got whistled by some scum on
a building site when she was a few months postpartum. She said she never felt more attractive! 🤮 In her own words ‘women should stop getting offended and take it in the spirit it’s meant’.

Alarmingly, she works in a girls’ school and thinks girls secretly like it when they get sexually harassed. 😳

I had a conversation with my Mum earlier this year in which she was shocked when I said that if the stereotypical builder on a site whistled at me I’d report it, because ‘in my day it was a compliment’.

It’s not for me that I’d report it. I’m a grown Woman who is unintimidated and unafraid to tell such a lout to fuck off myself. It’s for the next Woman or Girl to come along the road, who might be more vulnerable or have a history that makes such an intrusion or demand for attention frightening.