A very clever “aspiring actress” Shoshana Roberts, aged 24, decided to film herself secretly walking around New York wearing some tight-fitting black clothes. She was ‘catcalled 108 times, including remarks such as ‘What’s up beautiful?’, ‘Hey baby’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Have a nice evening darling’.
Ms Roberts, unsurprisingly, is not happy with this street harassment though and wants to bring it all to our attention.
Ah yes, street harassment, catcalling men being generally annoying and obnoxious; it can be a problem. And who do you think is to blame for this general lowering in standards of male behaviour? Look no further than our feminist friends who told us that constraints on this kind of behaviour and codes such as ‘chivalry’ were outdated, unnecessary and mere ‘artificial social constructs.’
Yes indeed, sisters, chivalry was an artificial social construct designed to keep the more unattractive aspects of male behaviour under control. So don’t start moaning now if some men start complimenting the size of your derrière when 40-50 years ago this would be been unheard of or at least the subject of serious social censure.
Men were – once upon a time – encouraged to be ‘gentlemen’ and this, not catcalling, was a symbol of their ‘manliness.’ In fact many etiquette manuals tell us that a man could not acknowledge a woman in the street unless she did so first. For a man to initiate conversation could be intimidating to a woman – so it was entirely her call to acknowledge him or, walk on by.
Encouraging men to be ‘gentle’ as a sign of masculinity was really a stroke of genius by our foremothers, but in the 1960s the feminists came along and thought better of it. Now we all get to enjoy the results as evidenced in this video. We used to get a seat in the lifeboat, now we are lucky to get a seat on the tube.
I just finished a novel where a man, head over heels in love with a young lady, begged her, and I mean begged her, for permission to write to her. I am told the courtship rules have changed somewhat these days where some young men (and I am still hoping it is a minority for my daughter’s sake) like to text pictures of their genitals to the girls. Ah yes – sexual liberation at its finest! More like sexual licentiousness.
Not that everyone has given up the chivalry game. I once had a male friend who always insisted on walking on the traffic side of the path. He did this not because he viewed himself as superior to me but so that he and not I would feel the full force of any traffic induced muddy puddle splashes. Another example is that our best man did ask, in the library of her house, his now father-in-law permission to marry his fiancé.
But for many of us, thanks to our feminist friends, where once there was chivalry now there is catcalling. Where once a man would hold a door open for us, now it is slammed in our faces. Where once there was dating on women’s terms, now you get pornographic photos while having your breakfast. Enjoy!
