What is catcalling
The unpleasant episode that happened last December, which saw a sports news journalist as a protagonist of a local television network groped during a service from some fans when leaving the stadium, rekindled the spotlight on the phenomenon of catcalling.
The term is used to indicate all the set of those verbal and non -verbal behaviors aimed at comment on a woman’s physique in onesexualizing meaning.
In this sense, comments, sexist jokes, allusive questions, advances, whistles, palpations, sounds of horn, alongside or by car are included.
The origins of the term
The origin of the word catcalling can be traced back to two possible explanations: one reconnects to the meaning of the two English words from which the term is composed, which would recall the set of sounds issued to attract attention (call) cats (cat); The other leads to a tool used centuries ago in England by the theater audience to express disapproval of the show or theatrians, called precisely catcallwhich emitted an acute and unpleasant whistle, similar to the verse of a cat.
Since this behavior is usually issued in public contexts by stranges (roads, parks, means of transport) it is also possible to find some synonyms. For example, Street Harassmentliterally “street harassment“(FaircHILD and Rudman, 2008), or Stranger Harassment“harassment by strangers“.
In Italy the term “could be used”parrot“Which, according to the Treccani encyclopedia, indicates an insistent behavior act to annoy and annoy.
The common denominator of all the different expressions is therefore made up of the event, inappropriate and not requested, of vulgar attitudes issued against women, who are publicly approached as “sexual prey”.
Diffusion of the phenomenon
An intercultural study conducted by a movement called NGO Hollaback! And from Cornell University he interviewed more than 16,000 women, investigating the age of the first harassment suffered, the type of harassment and the consequent emotional and behavioral effects reported.
It emerges that 84% of the women interviewed said they had received street harassment before 17 years of age; In the Italian context, more than half of women said he was caressed or groped and 69% of having been struggled on the street by one or more men and having consequently felt in danger.
Compliment and harassment: two very different concepts
Too often, especially in past years, these behaviors have been considered absolutely not serious and, indeed, almost justified as clumsy attempts to court and approach, an expression of “normal flirts”.
Sometimes, unfortunately, women themselves did not condemn the fact, in some cases to feel flattered by receiving such attention.
In reality this phenomenon is to be considered as the reflection of a Male and sexist vision in which the woman is identified as a mere sexual object, in line with what is described by Fredrkson and Roberts already in 1997.
Sexual objectification
The two authors speak of “sexual objectivation theory“To indicate a social context in which women are considered to be a priori as sexual objects, even before people. As a consequence, men feel in the right to judge and openly express their opinion in this sense, unilaterally and without this being in any way required.
Within this theoretical reference frame, catcalling can be fully considered one of the various forms of sexual objectification.
The expression of a not required judgmenttheabsence of consent and of clear signs of availability by those who receive the judgment and the vulgar, sexual and offensive nature of the commentare the elements that lead the catcalling within the category of harassmentrather than in that of compliment.
The latter, in fact, presupposes the presence of an appropriate socialization context, the adhesion by both social actors to a form of exchange and shared interaction. Above all, the will to enhance personal quality, rather than that of sexually objectiving a body.
Effects of catcalling
One of the consequences of continuous exposure to this type of judgment expressed in the form of catcalling is the occurrence of a process of self-objectiveness implemented by women towards themselves. This consists in the internalization of an objectively vision of one’s body (Szymanski and Feltman 2014; Fisher, Lindner and Ferguson, 2019).
Women can become intensely worried about how they appear in public contexts, focusing on their external appearance, constantly monitoring it and experiencing intense experiences of shame associated with one’s body image.
The psychological distress associated with catalling can manifest itself with physical, emotional and behavioral effects.
THE physical symptoms Generally reported they include muscle tension, breathing problems, dizziness and nausea (tran, 2015); The emotional discomfort It can express itself through feelings of embarrassment, annoyance, repressed anger, decrease in the perception of safety, increase in the fear of rape, anxious and/or depressive manifestations and a worsening of sleep quality (Davidson et al., 2016; Del Greco and Christensen, 2019).
TO behavioral level The perception of threat and danger can lead women to adopt avoidance or modification behaviors of their habits (Kearl, 2009), such as giving up exit, changing paths, choosing different times, reviewing or limiting their clothing to try to be less attractive and “do not give the eye”.
Motivations at the base of catcalling
Although the phenomenon of catcalling to a socio -cultural framework of a male chauvinist nature, it is important to ask what the motivations of the men who adopt this attitude are.
The will to affirm one’s own dominant masculinityfavoring and/or keeping one Power imbalance between genrescould also be accompanied by other reasons the boredom or being animated by a real desire for approach And courtship.
It is interesting, therefore, to deepen what can be thecommunicative intent of those who perform catcalling.
The study conducted by Del Greco (2020) examined some variables in relation to the catcalling phenomenon, including motivations of men, level of tolerance against harassment and role of power.
The study shows that 87% of those who admitted that they had accomplished street harassment was animated by the desire to obtain positive responses from women, such as smiling or starting a conversation. Those who make catcalling, therefore it would seem not to perceive this manifestation as something negative, nor does negative reactions are expected.
The results also suggest that greater tolerance to sexual harassment is associated with strong convictions on traditional genre roles, the degree of social dominance and masculinity and hostile attitudes towards women.
What possible answers?
To counterbalance the aspects described, there are variables such as the perception of power and the level of self -esteem reported by women, who play the role of mediation factors in the answer issued.
If, in the face of the attempt to control, the woman has the perception of having equal power than men, it is more frequent that the same puts an attempt to counter-controlwhile the frequency decreases if the woman believes she has a lower power than the man (Delgreco, 2020).
Faced with the harassment suffered, women who show low self -esteem tend to perceive more shame and ad self-cavity (we speak in this case of Victim Blaming), compared to those that report higher self -esteem levels (Saunders et al., 2017).
The passive reactions manifested by women in front of catcalling consist mainly in lowering their gaze and completely ignore the author of harassment.
Stand up!
An international research, which involved over 15,000 participants of all ages from eight different countries (IPSOS, 2019), highlighted that 78% of the women interviewed underwent sexual harassment in public spaces, but only 25% of the victims received help. Furthermore, 86% of respondents would not know what to do when episodes of this type occur.
The aforementioned Hollaback!, In collaboration with the Oréal Paris, promoted an awareness campaign on the topic, promoting online training courses to educate users, males and females, to face street harassment.
This training, inserted in the program Stand up! It is based on the method of “5 D “: Dystract, Delay, Document, Delegated, Direct.
During the webinar, the tools to defuse road harassment or intervene effectively and safely are provided.
The indications are based on the implementation of actions such as distract and/or delay the attempt at harassment, for example by asking the time or pretending to have lost; document the fact, filming the harassment or as a witness in the event of a complaint; delegaterequiring when possible the intervention of those who at that moment holds the authority (for example, the driver of a bus, if the harassment takes place on public transport); lead And coordinate the situation, speaking to verify that the victim is well and give it comfort or facing the molester directly in words.
Only the awareness and promotion of a culture finally free from sexist retailed would seem to be the most effective way to go to progress towards a condition of real equality and freedom.
Bibliography
- Davidson, MM, Butchko, MS, Robbins, K., Sherd, LW, & Gervais, SJ (2016). The Mediating Role of Perceived Safety on Street Harassment and Anxiety. Psychology of Violence, 6553–561.
- Delgreco, M., & Christensen, J. (2019). Effects of Street Harassment on Anxiety, Depression, and Sleep Quality of College Women. Sex Roles1-9.
- Delgreco, M., Ebesu Hubbard, As, & Dennes, A. (2020). Communicting by Catcalling: Power Dynamics and Communicative Motivations in Street Harassment. Violence Against Women, 27(9), 1402–1426.
- Fairchild, K., & Rudman, La (2008). Everyday Stranger Harassment and Women’s Objectification. Social Justice Research, 21(3), 338-357.
- Fisher, S., Lindner, D., & Ferguson, CJ (2019). The Effects of Exposure to catcalling on Women’s State Self-Objectification and Body Image. Current Psychology, 38(6), 1495-1502.
- Freddickson, BL, & Roberts, Ta (1997). Objectification Theory: Toward Undersanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173-206.
- IPSOS – International Survey On Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces. L’Oréal Paris. April 2019
- Kearl, H. (2009). Always On Guard: Women and Street Harassment. American Association of University Women, 103(1), 18–20.
- Saunders, Ba, Scaturro, C., Guarino, C., & Kelly, E. (2017). Contending with catcalling: The Role of System-Justifying Beliefs and Ambivalent Sexism in Predicting Women’s Coping Experiences with (and Men’s Attribesions for) Stranger Harassment. Current psychology, 36324– 338.
- Szymanski, DM, & Feltman, CE (2014). Experiencing and Coping With Sexuary Objectifying Treatment: Internalization and Resilience. Sex Roles, 71159–170
- TRA, M. (2015). Combatting Gender Privilege and Recognizing a Woman’s Right to Privacy in Public Spaces: Arguments to Criminalize Catalling and Creepshots. Hastings Women’s Law Journal, 26185–206.
