Is catcalling okay, and how do we know where to draw the line? Picture this: It’s the hottest day in August and you’re walking down the street, wearing clothes that are comfortable in the heat (probably less clothing than in December). You’ve just come back from work or school or hanging out with your friends and so you’re feeling pretty cheerful. You just so happen to be walking by the highway and traffic is at a standstill. A forty-something year old guy leans out his car window and wolf-whistles at you. He says anything from “Hey, darling!”

As you walk home, what are you thinking? Do you feel complimented or offended? Was it okay for him to do this? Why or why not might it be?

To answer my query, I went to the student body and asked them what they thought of it. The following are just some of the many responses I got:

• “It’s scary. For me it’s become something I expect. Honestly, when it doesn’t happen, it’s a pleasant surprise. It usually happens to young women, as young as twelve or thirteen, and it can be really scary to be yelled at like you’re not even a person, like you’re a sex object. I think they feel like it’s something appropriate because they can just drive away, but they can’t see how scary it can be for young women to be objectified like that.”
• “I hate how unavoidable it is. It doesn’t even matter what you’re wearing, people feel like they can comment on your body. Sometimes I’ll be feeling really confident and someone will catcall me and it messes up my whole day. It leaves a bad feeling in my stomach, it makes me feel uncomfortable in my own skin.”
• “It’s horrible. I know people who have had things go so far as following the girl home and it’s super messed up. It seems fine as a concept, but once it actually happens it’s terrifying.”
• “In Costa Rica, it’s thought of as flattering. That’s definitely a value that exists here today, even in places of progressive feminism like the US. It’s really unnecessary and scary.”
• “I just don’t understand why people would find it necessary to do that. They aren’t dressing for those people.”
• “I’ve had jobs where people tried to comment on my appearance and I told them I wasn’t comfortable with it but they didn’t care. I even told my manager that I felt unsafe and they thought it was funny.”
• “It makes me angry to think about that. Those strangers are ruining a moment of someone’s day and it just makes me really angry.”
• “It’s just not other people’s place to do that. It’s objectifying, disgusting, and insulting and it’s not a compliment. If something like that happens, I feel scared and uncomfortable.”
• “It’s not okay because it obviously makes people uncomfortable, so why would you even do it. Can’t you understand when someone obviously doesn’t want to be approached?”

The general consensus on this topic seems to be that no, it is not okay to catcall. But if we agree on that, why do people still do it? I went to several peers to see if they had any answers.

• “I guess they think that they’re expressing themselves. They think that if they feel something, they should say it. It’s totally misplaced, but I guess that’s their motivation.”
• “I think that for some, it’s a way to assert control. For people that feel like they have no control over their own life, it’s a way to control something, so they try to affect the girls they see on the street.”
• “I think it’s partially a cultural things. In Latin America, it’s not seen as derogatory at all, so it could be a lost-in-translation thing.”

Overall, it appears that we can agree on one thing: catcalling makes people feel bad. The obvious conclusion would be that you should not do it. Then again, it appears that many catcallers may just be missguided. So, from the Sandy Spring student body to anyone who has ever asked the question, “Is catcalling okay?”, we have a message for you:

NO!