Today I read a post on Facebook that asked,"What do you think street harassment is about? Sex? Benign flattery? Attraction? Women who can't just suck it up and deal?"
One response thread essentially said cat calls and wolf whistles are from idiots and women should just ignore them. My response: Really? Why? These brief 'comments' ~ which is essentially what they are ~ allude to the sexiness of the person being objectified by their occurrence. Would we expect someone with an intellectual disability to ignore being called a 'retard'? or someone who's being called a 'fag' to just keep walking? All of these are forms of harassment.
It's not just the acts themselves. It's the underlying expectation that these acts are not only acceptable but also appreciated; as though women and girls should be happy to have the attention of some male in the middle of showing off or a testosterone rush. It's objectification in its crudest form ~ because society considers it as acceptable as they once did the use of the N-word and the bullying of sensitive, emotional boys. As with both of those, it needs to be stopped. Period.
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