Standpoint matters because the same cat-call can mean som...
“Standpoint matters because the same cat-call can mean something different depending on who is involved. In the podcast, Zac sees his behaviour as harmless fun and believes he is complimenting women. He starts from his own point of view, saying that he would enjoy receiving that kind of attention. Because of this, he assumes women feel the same way. When women smile or laugh, he takes it as proof that they enjoy it. Gordon-Smith explains the situation from a very different standpoint. A woman may smile or act friendly because she does not know how a man will react if she rejects him. What Zac sees as harmless may feel threatening to someone conscious of the possibility of violence. This is where standpoint theory becomes important. Zac’s intentions are part of the situation, but they do not tell us how the women involved experience his behaviour. Cat-calling can therefore be viewed as a compliment or a bit of fun by the person doing it, while the person receiving it may feel uncomfortable, objectified or unsafe. The podcast includes one woman who enjoyed a comment, so women do not all interpret cat-calling in the same way. Even so, people who regularly experience it understand the fear and safety concerns that callers may not recognise. This shows why we need to consider who is speaking and whose experience is taken seriously.”
Summary
Research consistently characterizes catcalling as harassment that makes most women feel unsafe, angry, or threatened, rather than as a compliment. While a minority of women may occasionally interpret a remark positively, the overwhelming evidence shows that the behavior is generally experienced as demeaning and unsafe. Thus, the claim that perspective matters and that callers often misread women’s reactions is supported, though the notion that catcalling can be a harmless compliment is not endorsed by the evidence.
Sources 60 searched
- Blurred lines: The relationship between catcalls and compliments - ScienceDirect
Results suggest that catcalls are aberrant compliments at best, and insidious reminders of women's inequality at worst. The study also calls attention to the need to define and study catcalls systematically in order for research to advance and ...
- Virtual embodiment increases male sensitivity to catcalling experiences - PMC
Women are disproportionately subjected to the widespread social problem of street harassment. This study focuses on catcalling, a specific form of harassment characterized by unsolicited verbal or gestural comments often centered on physical ...
- Catcalling Isn’t Just a Safety Issue – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration ... includes feeling secure and safe in public spaces. For most women, catcalling can quickly lead to feeling unsafe in an area where they expect to experience catcalling....
- Catcalling – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration ... includes feeling secure and safe in public spaces. For most women, catcalling can quickly lead to feeling unsafe in an area where they expect to experience catcalling....
- Catcalling is not a Compliment, it’s Harassment - UMKC Women's Center
It’s degrading, demeaning, and disgusting. It lets women know they are being objectified and looked at as nothing more than a piece of meat. It makes women feel as though they have no rights or values.
- Catcalling as a"Double Edged Sword": Midwestern Women ...
wolf-whistles, leers, winks, grabs, pinches, catcalls, and street remarks; the remarks are · frequently sexual in nature and comment evaluatively on a woman’s physical appearance · or on her presence in public” (Bowman, 1993, p. 523). Macmillan, Nierobisz, and Welsh (2000) provide one of the first examinations of · stranger harassment. The researchers analyzed data from the 1993 Violence Against · Women Survey (VAWS), which included a national sample of 12,300 Canadian Women.
- (PDF) Cat-Calls, Compliments and Coercion
After warding off the objection that cat-calls are compliments and therefore morally benign, I show that it cannot be the semantic content of cat-calls which makes cat-calling wrong, because some cat-calls have seemingly benign content yet seem to wrong their targets (usually women and LGBTQ ...
- Catcalling Statistics Statistics: Market Data Report 2024
6In a 2014 Stop Street Harassment survey, 81% of women experienced catcalling before age 17 · Most people who experience catcalling report it happens repeatedly, making public spaces feel unsafe.
- Catcalling Is Not a Compliment | National Organization for Women
The results make it quite clear that not only is catcalling a pervasive problem around the globe, but also that it is most certainly not a compliment. Most women in the United States reported feelings of anger, fear, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem after being harassed.
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