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

[TheBolans]

Do you find it a compliment or a form of harassment?

I saw a discussion with a woman saying people need to get a grip if it bothers them because whistling is harmless. I think if I got the odd whistle every now again at this age, I wouldn’t mind, but back when I was a teenager/early 20s I didn’t like it. It was usually never just whistling. It’s usually shouting crude comments too and so found it degrading and embarrassing. But some seem to think it should be taken as a compliment

Never has this ever happened to me, didn’t know it was a thing…..
I am fugly though….

How would you tell your young DDs to deal with it? Ignore and walk away confidently? Or tell them to fuck right off?

Sadly there are still some brain dead neanderthals who still do it, usually from building sites/scaffolding or tradesmen vans.

I have never found a man demanding my attention to let me know he thinks I am worthy of him fucking me to be a compliment.

Don't know, never happened to me!

Generally don’t care as long as they don’t try and talk to me, but if a man does it I assume he’s a moron with no game. It has happened in front of my kids before and I do not fucking like that.

If anyone whistles at me, my first thought is, "I am not a dog!"

Quite the opposite. I would imagine

I absolutely hate it. How is someones self esteem so low that they find this flattering?! I have a teen DD who works in hospitality and gets a similar thing of men, often old enough to be her Dad telling her she is 'so beautiful' 'if I was 20 years younger' etc and she finds it awkward and mortifying to be objectified. Why would anyone want to support or encourage behaviour that is misogynistic and objectifying.

I am all for agreeing to disagree but I feel so strongly here, having seen the impacg this type of creepy behaviour has on DD and her friends, and knowing how it grossed me out as a young woman too. Anyone taking this as a compliment needs to do some work on their self esteem imo, its gross and creepy and needs to be called out/challenged every time.

I'd be interested to see the correlation between women who think street harassment is a compliment and women who are married to useless men who do nothing around the house etc.

It's horrific. Thankfully in my late 60s that doesnt happen but it did in the past. They got a mouthful.
I think its older men doing it too...who have dds ffs.

Loved it when I was younger. Now I couldn't get so much as a "morning gorgeous"!. It's depressing TBH, being invisible is demoralising.

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

This. Never seen it as offensive

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......

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.

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.

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.

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

"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

Have you no self esteem?

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?

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.

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.

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.