lj feminist community, catcalls

May 14, 2008 20:12

I've been reading and reading and thinking and and thinking about so much, and I think I've hit the critical mass at which I become unable to contain my own expression ( Read more... )

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Comments 4

tomkoz May 15 2008, 05:51:13 UTC
do people do that? in real life? i've only seen it in cartoons, i think

tanned, topless, sweating, shovel-leaning construction workers?

being male is weird. you don't even notice this stuff. i am the problem!

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of_the_trees May 15 2008, 15:43:39 UTC
I've had it happen to me a couple times - it was indeed tanned, topless, sweating, shovel-leaning construction workers. and I was underage. ew. That seemed to be the experience of the majority of the women who replied - catcalls were most frequently received at 13-16 years old.

What I wonder is, what's really going through the heads of these men? To me, feminist analysis only makes sense on a sociological level and doesn't say anything about the conscious experiences of the men involved. Why do some men act like that?

And, for real, you never noticed? No offence to you personally, but I do agree that a huge part of the problem is that "average" decent guys are almost completely unaware of things like this, because imperception is misread as acceptance. I guess women aren't speaking up about it loudly enough and/or men aren't paying attention??

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shadesogrey May 15 2008, 17:31:24 UTC
I notice it lots - though usually not the way it is in cartoons.
When I've asked men (whom I work with) why they do that the most common response is to say 'Because I'm a pig' and laugh.

My guess is that it is a 'masculine bonding' type of behaviour. As in 'Look at me. I'm a red-blooded heterosexual male and I'll say whatever I want.'

I could say a bit more about this but not without referencing specific situations.

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mishakal May 17 2008, 07:27:38 UTC
definitely, i couldn't agree more. It's really quite disgusting isn't it

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