When do you first remember being catcalled?

[WomenHour]

If at all

I remember when I was 14 , a boy who just joined the school wolf whistled me.

13 at school

11, lewd comments at the swimming pool

Some bloke shouted out nice legs shame about the face at me when I was about 13 ! I was v upset. What a dick.

10
My next door neighbour's son who was about 20. I remember feeling so ashamed and just running away as fast as I could

Wearing a mini skirt age 18 and a guy shouts 'I'd love to use your legs as a scarf'
And only recently did I get what he meant!!

May not have been the 1st time but I remember it being the 1st that infuriated me.
14 and in a school uniform!
The cat caller? A workman on a building site I had to pass on the way to School.
I called him a perverted wanker.

I was 13, my breasts were huge on my tiny frame. They’re huge in any circumstance (dd at that age) but at 13 I was so slight. A grown man shouted “nice tits, must be hand reared”
To this day I remember the feeling of shame and embarrassment. Since then I’ve had many men assume I’m easy because I have large breasts. It’s such a leap in logic it baffles me.

Wolf whistled at by my parents' friend when I was 7 - had gone downstairs in my nightie, can't remember why. I remember feeling really awkward and embarrassed about it and my mum telling me to get back to bed - crossly, I thought.

12 - whistled and ogled by group of young lads. Actually, I didn't notice it as it happened but my Mum did and tore into them. To my shame, I remember being rather pleased.

13 in France on on Water Sports Holiday with school. I remember being uncomfortable being cat called and openly oggled at by fully grown men.

The PGL staff had warned us, and one of the cooler instructors taught me to say "Go fuck yourself" in French. "Va te faire foutre" if I remember rightly

I was 12. Followed down the street and chatted up by some student who lived in a bedsit around the corner. I thought he was really handsome and was flattered, so I tried to tell my mum I was going around to see him and she told me very bluntly why I couldn't. Used to get followed home by all sorts of creeps when I was 12/13 including one older man who made it all the way to our front door only for my dad to recognise him as a colleague.

London 1993. DH and I waiting at traffic light to cross the road.

Truck pulls up, driver wolf whistles. I show him the bird. Truckie laughs and shouts - "not you darlin, him" pointing at DH.

11 or 12.

Why do you ask?

I was ...13, by a group of boys in my year. I thought it was because they thought I was pretty but was informed by my friends it was because I was well endowed, whatever that means. Flipping nightmare that was. Boys guessing your bra size, girls refusing to be friends with you because they assumed you were easy. (Not just men that assume that unfortunately). Anyway I digress. 13. I had it a lot because of the above reason only. I hated it every single time.

Age 13, from grown men in vans (it's always vans).

Age 13, by grown men. And I always looked young for my age!

13. I was at a bus stop, waiting for a friend. Middle of a very hot summer, I was wearing a skirt and a crop top. A fancy sports car pulled up and I heard whistling. It took me a little while to realise where it had come from. Then this guy got out of the car and said he would love to take such a beautiful woman like me for coffee or cocktails. I politely declined, he tried to convince me. It was just before 10am and not a soul around us. I was seriously creeped out. So many years later, I still remember every single detail, including what I was wearing, the logo on his shirt, make of the car and its registration number too.

12. God it's depressing isn't it? Vile.

7or 8. My older sister sent me to the shop on the next street to buy tampax, not that I knew what they were.

A group of 3/4 men in the shop were making horrible comments and grabbing at me. I cant remember what they said, just that i was terrified and ran all the way home.

Before that going to the shop alone was a special treat. After I refused for a long time.

Not me, but my first dd came home from school looking concerned, I asked her what the matter was.......... she said that a man on the bus had smiled at her '' but not in a friendly way''. She was 12 years old and wearing school uniform!

11 in my school uniform.

I would have been 11/12 - first year high school, and in school uniform like pp. Makes me fucking sick. DDs have experienced same. Nothing's changed.

About 15. Again, man in a van. What's more concerning is I've always looked really young for my age. Gross.

11/12 walking home from school.

I'm now 45 now and it happened to me a fortnight ago too walking down to the local shop.

I told my son (21) when I got home and he was horrified. He knows that men do this shit but for his own mum to be affected..? Sad thing is that I'd consider myself to be very lucky if a bit of inappropriate calling in the street had been the worst of it.

These van men really get around don't they. I also remember being beeped at and shouted at by blokes in vans when walking home from school in my uniform. I also remember a strange looking man on the bus I sometimes used to catch to get home. He'd stare so intently at me the whole way. I wonder now whether he caught that bus for a genuine reason or whether it was specifically because it was full of young teenagers. Strange to catch a bus from a big housing estate into town at that time - you'd be more likely to catch it going the other direction if you were commuting home from work. It doesn't occur to you when you're young but these are the kind of people who need their hard drives checking.