280) Holler Back Girl

(Photo from Tage Bjorklund.)

I've been thinking about catcalling lately. For women in New York, it's something that comes with the territory (unfortunately). And yes, not all men do it. I highly doubt that any male who reads The Plan does it.

Let's be straight - it's never the men you'd actually want to get to know/find attractive that are hollering. Quite the opposite, it's usually the gross ones that are the most vocal. The ones you would never in a thousand years actually respond to.

The anthropologist in me looks for an evolutionary explanation. In nature, males employ mating calls to signal to females that they're fit and worthy of being chosen as a mate. It's often a dominance display, and the louder, the better (see above). So it stands to reason that men are just following through with their natural urges. Hypothetically, in the best (ahem, delusional) case scenario, a catcall will lead to sex.

But in modern times, the chances of sex post-catcall are slim to none. So, given that the rate of success is 0.01%, there must be another reason why some men continue the call. I've read forums in which guys insist that catcalls are more about displaying in front of other males, or a bonding ritual. Catcalling in front of other bros reaffirms your manliness (read: heterosexuality), and signals confidence.

Fair enough. And it's not like us ladies are making it any easier. From what I've seen online, women are split in their opinions on the matter. On one end of the spectrum are the women who see it as sexual harassment, and continual objectification of women as sex objects (you'll never hear a man yell, "Woo woo! You look like you're well-read!"). On the opposite end are those who take catcalls as a compliment - one women was in a 2008 CNN study said that when men don't catcall, she feels ugly and dumpy. And the whole range of emotions - annoyance, fright, amusement - in between.

My personal reaction is this. Though I can't quite grasp why some men still do it, I can accept that they do and that for the most part, it's harmless. From what I've read, most men, when confronted, get embarrassed and never believed that a woman would actually respond in the first place. If anything, it's most distressing for me when the catcall is combined with ignorance and mild racism ("Ni hao, baby" or "Konichiwa, hot mama" - I'm neither, thanks).