Title of Article:

CAT – CALLING: Sexual Harassment or Compliment?

It is 7 pm. Angela is currently waiting in line inside the coffee

shop for her frappe. She is wearing her usual daily uniform which
included a knee length skirt and a white long – sleeve blouse. A
random guy next to her in line noticed how her brown eyes
beautifully matched her hair as well. The guy approached her
with a subtle smile by politely saying, “Miss, not to sound creepy
or anything but your hair fits your eyes really well. It’s pretty.”
Angela suddenly felt her cheeks heated up with what she just
heard and mumbled a “Thank you.”

It is 10 am. Carmina is walking down the street wearing a typical

white t – shirt with some jeans. When she gets pass at the sari –
sari store around the corner, a group of men saw her and follow
her with their gaze as she continues to walk. The next thing she
knew, she heard the following, “Ingat sexy!”, “Idol ngiti naman
dyan!”, “Sexy naman, pahawak nga.”and then she heard a series
of laughter from these men.
-------------------------

Noticed how the two scenarios above led to different endings?

Yes, both girls, Carmina and Angela received words from
strangers. But the other one is a compliment and the other is a
form of cat – calling.
Now, how can we actually distinguish the difference of
these two?
Most people often say, that a simple compliment can make up
someone’s day.
With that we probably already heard how to never hesitate to tell
someone how much you adore their outfit, or how you love how
their eyes match their hair color or how cool you find their shoes
are.
A compliment is a form of adoration and it can indeed boost up
someone’s confidence.
But let me ask you this,
is receiving vulgar or sexual words while walking down the street
can still be count as a compliment?
Does it still boost up someone’s confidence?
Almost every Filipino woman has experienced street harassment
in various forms, from receiving inappropriate looks and hearing
offensive words to worst, being groped and touched without any
consent on the streets.
Just according to a survey conducted this year by the Social
Weather Stations (SWS) from chosen barangays at Quezon City
showed that “3 of 5 women” or 60 percent of the respondents
were victims of sexual harassment in public spaces at one point in
their lives.
The growing number of these victims is truly alarming, and it also
reflects how street harassment cases fuels the rape culture in the
Philippines.
Speaking of this so called ‘rape culture’ here in our country, there
is this whole concept of what we call, victim blaming where it
favors street harassers by giving them sympathy and a reason
behind their unjustified actions based on what a woman wears
and how she acts.
It’s like, if a woman does or wears something that can be seen as
“provocative” then it is her fault if someone is going to cat – call
her.

I also remembered the well known saying that goes along the
lines of:

“WALANG MAMBABASTOS KUNG WALANG MAGPAPA –

BASTOS”

You see, street harassers can be everywhere and it doesn’t have

a time nor a place. No matter what a woman is wearing, it is
never an excuse to give unnecessary sexual comments about.
With this issue of Cat calling, it is important to have a better
understanding for what it really means. For some people tend
to mistaken the word with being “cat – called” on being
“complimented”.

And here is a starter to point out the fact that,

“Catcalling is not and never will be a compliment, instead it is a
display of power.”

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, compliment means

“an expression of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration”
A compliment is supposed to make you feel better and positive
about yourself, it does not make you feel terrified and threatened
about your personal space. You can complement someone by
saying the right words, in a respectful manner. On the other hand,
the definition of catcalling is to try to get a woman's attention in a
sexual way, whether it is through whistling or commenting with
rude remarks.
When you cat – call someone, it shows off an act of power against
them. It is an act of objectifying someone’s body and feeling
entitled about it.
Personally, as someone who already experienced what it feels to
be cat – called while walking down the streets, it can feel
belittling. Mostly, it depends on the circumstances of the situation
that I am in, but it is true that it feels very threatening and scary,
to say the least. It feels as if being a woman and wearing
something that you want to express yourself in can cause a sin
and can be the reason why you’re going to be harassed.
It may take more than just a law or an ordinance to lessen the
cases of street harassments, for what the people really needs is
to be informed and be more aware about the stakes behind it.
Everyone should give importance about this issue for it affects not
just the women of gender in particular but it is also a form of
degrading human value as a whole.