Effects and Influences

Deja Harrison

Advanced Essay 4

If you're a man you might look at the pictures above as just a bunch guys and see nothing wrong with it. As a woman I see these pictures and an immediate anxiety comes over me just thinking about having to walk past this group of guys. When a girl walks past a group of guys it´s usually followed by comments like….

“ Ayo “.

“ Yurp jawn with tights come here ”.

“ Ya shit fat ma damn ¨.

“ ard fuck you then bitch “.

At some point in life sadly every female experiences a situation like this. Catcalling is when a sexual comment or gesture is made to a women in public as she walks by .Catcalling is one of the most degrading ways men objectify women. With all the advances and changes in the world there's one thing that seems like will never change about our society. Men will continue to view women as objects no matter how much progression we make to become equals. It is so common in our modern society to hear things like “ damn ya ass fat as shit ” and “ I'm trynna hit that ”. Comments like these are unfortunately apart of a lot of women's daily routines.  Being yelled at and in some cases physically assaulted for our appearances is completely terrifying and doesn’t make us anymore attracted to our harassers. So the real question is why do they continue to do it?

            Malcolm X once said ¨The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.¨ Men are heavily influenced by the things they see and hear. All across the world there are movies, tv shows and ads of men being surrounded by women or disrespecting them in such a way that makes other men what to be like them. For example perfume ads for brands like Gucci and Armani tie into the idea that smelling like their product will help men get women therefore drawing men to their product. From a very young age men are exposed to these things that place the idea of masculinity into getting women. Women are often viewed and portrayed as prizes to be won by men and that if they say and do the right things they can win them.

             Men don't realize the effects they have on the women they are harassing because the media doesn´t show that part. They never get to see the mental and sometimes physical marks they leave on their street harassment victims. ¨ Fear and discomfort are what define sexual harassment. Not every catcall is followed by unwanted physical advances, and yet that reality has to be considered a distinct possibility for safety's sake. Aggressive or sexual comments alone can instill terror¨. What men don't understand is that they are not the first to do this to their victim. Women are constantly being hit on and harassed and after a while it's quite terrifying and very annoying. The problem is men believe we like being cat called. They think we like being called out and harassed for our bodies and faces. They believe we are flattered by the attention and that them calling us out on our  ¨fat asses¨ makes us swoon for them.

              ¨Catcalls can easily turn into insults but they are seen by a lot of people as some kind of compliment that women should be happy about. ...Some others are afraid they will not be taken seriously or are too ashamed to complain¨. Most women who get cat called ignore the comments and most of the time that leads to the guys saying something completely disrespectful like ¨ I didn´t want you anyway¨ or ¨that's why you're ugly anyway bitch¨. Sometimes things can get much worse and involve physical contact. Men aren't taught to take no as an answer, they believe that they are supposed to have what they want when they want it. On movies and tv shows the crowd is always drawn to the male character who is the ¨go getter¨ or womanizer, he gets all the women and all the glory. He´s the one all the guys admire and aspire to be like so they pick up traits in order to have his lifestyle because they believe that's how you achieve it. It seems as though over the past few decades mens mentality has stopped evolving. I never understood how men don't respect women when they came from a women themselves, They continue to believe that women were created for them and that we are supposed to meet their every command. Times have changed for the better. It´s not the 1950s anymore women have rights and are more than just mothers and housewives. Women have rights now, we can work and vote. By catcalling women men are simply setting us back from all the progression.

        Women are worth more than being called out of their name by some barbarian who´s just looking for a good time. We have come too far in this world to allow men to take something else from us. Catcalling is an act of violence and abuse that no women should have to endure.  Men catcall take our attention and power. I believe it's time for us to take it back.

Work Cited

CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

"Home." Stop Street Harassment. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

Rossalyn Warren, Marie Kirschen, Lane Sainty, Jina Moore, Rachel Wilkerson Miller, Hannah Giorgis, Nirali Shah, Bibiñe Barud. "Here's What Street Harassment Is Like In Eight Countries Around The World." BuzzFeed. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

"Why Some Men Catcall." Men's Health. N.p., 03 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.