Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Catcalling Someone
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Here's a hypothetical scenario: a stranger approaches and you suddenly have the urge to shout sexually suggestive comments at them. But you've also heard society condemn catcalling as an inappropriate form of harassment that most women find repulsive and unflattering. What's a guy to do?
Playboy has you covered. This helpful flowchart, which first appeared in 2014 but resurfaced on Reddit on Thursday, walks you through a series of questions that should offer some catcalling clarity.
Playboy - playboy.com
Basically, there are two specific conditions under which catcalling may be appropriate: 1) if the person isn't actually a person but is, in fact, a cat, or 2) if “you know her” and have “consensually agreed to shout sexually suggestive comments to each other in public.”
But in all seriousness, the point of the flowchart is that, contrary to what some men (still!) apparently believe, catcalling is street harassment and should be avoided. Yet most women (84 percent) have their first run-in with a catcaller by the age of 17, according to a 2015 study from the anti-street harassment organization Hollaback! in partnership with Cornell University.
"People don’t want to recognize that this starts really young," Hollaback! deputy director Debjani Ro told The New York Daily News last year. "The emotional impact it has as girls develop is quite significant."
