There is an old idiom that goes “everything is about sex except sex. That’s about power.”
Catcalling is about expressing power over someone else body and life. It’s a veiled threat, coached in sexual terms. No one doing it actually expects to have sex afterwards. Its about saying “i can force sex on you. I can take control of you. Your life belongs to me.”
A lot of the men engaging in it above are doing it because of peer pressure, normalized misogyny and the “thrill” of getting an acknowledgement of that power by scaring women. I dont think most of them want to attack women outright to begin with, but it normalizes mixing sex with violence and dehumanizing woman.
There is an old idiom that goes “everything is about sex except sex. That’s about power.”
Catcalling is about expressing power over someone else body and life. It’s a veiled threat, coached in sexual terms. No one doing it actually expects to have sex afterwards. Its about saying “i can force sex on you. I can take control of you. Your life belongs to me.”
A lot of the men engaging in it above are doing it because of peer pressure, normalized misogyny and the “thrill” of getting an acknowledgement of that power by scaring women. I dont think most of them want to attack women outright to begin with, but it normalizes mixing sex with violence and dehumanizing woman.