Dear Cat Callers,

Stop! It’s as simple as that. As women we don’t like to be cat called. It’s rude, disrespectful and it’s kind of scary.

I have a few questions for you…

Do you really think that’s going to help you get girls?

Do you think calling out, “Hey red shirt! Hey, let me talk to you real quick!” or yelling degrading things that you think are compliments (no, those aren’t compliments) will have a girl thinking “wow, that was so sweet, he’s yelling at me I should go talk to him”?

Do you think it’s okay to start following girls if they don’t answer you?

Now that my rant is over-- The answer is no!

Let me drop some knowledge on you.

When you catcall a girl, we do not take that as a compliment. You’re treating us like animals, not humans. To get a dog's attention, you usually whistle, yell their name, or say, “come here boy” or “come here girl”.

When you catcall a girl, you whistle, yell at us to get our attention or say, “hey girl come here”. Do you see the similarities? We are not animals. We are human beings.

If a girl continues to walk and ignore you while you’re calling them, that does not give you the right to follow them and harass them. There are no excuses! If we don’t respond, we're not interested. Leave us alone.

Do you understand that it scares us? It’s intimidating. Do you want to impress a girl and get her attention, or scare her and make her feel uncomfortable about walking down the street?

You do realize that when you catcall a girl it makes her want to run away faster, right?

I know you’re going to argue and say, “Well when we’re polite they don’t want to talk to us. But when I catcall her she’ll talk to me”. Those girls that talk to you when you do that have no respect for themselves.

A woman who has respect for herself will not let a man or boy sit there and yell at her like she’s an animal.

Next time you want to yell at a girl to get her attention, think about it first. Pick the right time to approach her and think of an appropriate compliment. Not “Dang girl how you fit all that in them jeans?” Be a gentleman. Don’t “holla” at her from a car window. If it’s meant to be, you’ll see her again. Don’t make her run for the police station and get you arrested for harassment. If she has respect for herself, which is what you want, she will respond to a genuine approach instead of a catcall.

Sincerely,

Women with self-respect