Justice

This Comic Illustrates How Catcalling Can Ruin a Woman's Day

July 15th 2016

Sometimes, you gotta laugh to keep from crying.

Many women know the frustration of catcalling all too well. Catcalling is not a compliment. Being catcalled has nothing to do with how attractive or worthy you are, and everything to do with how little a stranger respects you.

Writer Grace Spelman, who usually takes sensitive subjects and finds a humorous angle, tweeted about being catcalled and found that her tweet was turned into a comic by illustrator Adam Ellis. It perfectly sums up a situation that many women deal with every day.

Ellis also posted his comic on his Instagram page, where it was met with over 5,700 likes and hundreds of comments, many of them praising the illustration for its realness.

instagram reactionAdam Ellis/Instagram - instagram.com

Instagram commentAdam Ellis/Instagram - instagram.com

Instagram comment.Adam Ellis/Instagram - instagram.com

Many places are cracking down on catcalling.

Nottinghamshire, a county in England, just made catcalling a hate crime, The Guardian reports. Melanie Jeffs, manager of the Nottingham Women’s Centre, explains why this is so important.

"We’re pleased to see Nottinghamshire police recognise [sic] the breadth of violence and intimidation that women experience on a daily basis in our communities. Understanding this as a hate crime will help people to see the seriousness of these incidents and hopefully encourage more women to come forward and report offences."

Nottingham P.D. file incidents against women as "misogyny hate crimes," Fusion reports. Here's what that means:

"Misogyny hate crime, in addition to the general hate crime definition, may be understood as incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman, and includes behaviour [sic] targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman."

In Lima, Peru, men who catcall women can be punished with a jail sentence of up to 12 years, and catcalling is illegal in countries like Belgium and Portugal, according to Complex. In the U.S., the laws vary by state: Minnesota has made it illegal and in New York, offenders can receive a $250 fine.

You can watch women talk about their real life experiences with catcalling in this short video from ATTN: below.

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