What a World It Would Be If Women Could Only Move Free

Some men are never going to get it through their thick heads that catcalling them is not acceptable and is a violation of their personal space. It is like they are so dense, or they don't care, that it is truly intimidating to women to do this.

Almost all women between ages 16 and 35 get this garbage from men. A few get it for a bit longer. Of course not all men do this, and it is typically men who are in groups who verbally assault women. We are not going to lie about this. That is what it is. It has nothing to do with how "pretty" a woman is. This is not about "biology" and other such bullshit coming from the sociobiology quacks. This rude behavior is a way to tell women that they have no right to go anywhere alone, they must have the "protection" of men to do anything in public. It is truly vile, and only if you are on the receiving side of this, as a female, can you really understand how utterly threatening this behavior is. You feel like you have no right to freedom of movement.

Men who do this need to get with a program and stop it.

Here is another piece about the problem:

While stories of stranger-perpetrated violence against women are constant fodder, the role of street harassment as the initial component of violence is often ignored. Contrary to popular belief, episodes that tilt from hostile verbal interactions to violence occur regularly, and similar assaults reported in isolation from one another and rarely referencing street harassment, can be found in every U.S. city. Last year, for example, a 14-year old girl in Florida was pulled into a man’s car, assaulted and then thrown out and run over. Headlines describing the assault used words like, “Girl kidnapped,” but first, she refused the man’s harassing request for sex as he drove by. Multiple murders of transwomen of color have started this way. The common refrain is that those targeted with harassment should call police for help. Even that can be problematic for many women, myself included, when police officers have themselves been the harassers.

While many people, even women, describe street harassment as flattering, it is a negative and costly phenomenon and part of a broader tolerance for a spectrum of gender-based violence. In the U.S., one in five women are raped, almost one in three women live with intimate partner violence, and three are killed every day by male partners. In addition, the Department of Justice’s most recent crime report indicates that between 2004 and 2013 rates of violent crimes against men and women reached equal levels of prevalence as the result of violent crimes against men declining while those against women are increasing.

The Right to Freely Move About

This is something men have always taken for granted. They can go anywhere at any time of the day and rarely if ever be bothered. They can be with friends or can be alone. They can go to movies alone, they can travel alone, they can eat out alone, they do anything without a blink of an eye.

Women, from the time they are old enough to walk, are taught they have to be constantly afraid. They have NO right whatsoever being out in public without some man around to "protect" them from others. Otherwise, they risk being assaulted, raped, murdered, or simply catcalled by assholes who have no respect whatsoever for women and their right to bodily integrity. Of course catcalling, the most common kind of sexual harassment, IS harassment. It is NOT complimentary--EVER. This harassment is most common against women beginning in the early teen years and continues for most women into their late thirties and for many never goes entirely away.

It has nothing to do with what women wear or how they look. It is just the fact of their very existence without the "protection" of a man that "justifies" filth being hurled at them when they are simply minding their own business. It's violating their right to personal space.

Women in some Muslim and Hindu countries go through something called "purdah" in order to stay away from strangers and men in general. What women in this country go through is something similar with this catcalling bullshit. The message is clear: Women are not to freely move about.

There was a viral video that came out a few days ago demonstrating just what so many women go through when they try to freely move about and mind their own business. Her case is hardly unique:

"I have been doing martial arts since I was nine, and I have a black belt in tae kwon do ... and I am scared," Roberts told Cooper.

The video has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube. Despite numerous threats of violence against Roberts, many have been supportive.

What in the HELL is wrong with people that they would make threats against her for merely stating a reality millions of women face every single day?