“Just be quiet and let her go where she’s going.” That’s the advice that Rafi D’Angelo from Harlem gave men on his ‘So Let’s Talk About’ page after explaining how he heard a woman getting catcalled 3 times in just 5 minutes while walking in the same direction as her. Scroll down to read D’Angelo’s story in his own words.
D’Angelo explained to Bored Panda that he got some feedback from women who were angry about him not speaking up and stopping the catcalls while conducting his social experiment. “And I think it’s important to be aware of the situation and your surroundings and think about what the next step would be. If you’re with your friends and they’re catcalling women, call them out on it. You’re friends. You have a prior relationship. They’re more likely to listen to you,” he said.
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“You don’t tell a perfect stranger, a grown man who is already showing the world he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him by dint of the fact that he’s calling out to a strange woman, to correct their behavior unless you are protecting someone else from a violent situation,” he stressed. “I’m not going to tell a grown man how to act unless a woman is in danger because then I’ve escalated a situation to a point where he might want to fight, and for no reason. The interaction between him and her would’ve been over, but I’ve interjected an opinion, and made a situation worse.”
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Catcalling is something that many women (and men) have to deal with often
Image credits:FlairImages (not the actual photo)
Rafi D’Angelo shared a story about how he saw a woman get catcalled 3 times in just 5 minutes
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
Image credits: So Let’s Talk About
The scene that D’Angelo described can be an unpleasant common occurrence for women (and men!). According to Business Insider, 65 percent of women and 25 percent of men in the United States reported having been on the receiving end of at least one type of street harassment in their lives. What’s more, most have reported being catcalled or harassed on the street more than once. And for some, this is an everyday occurrence.
Street harassment can have negative effects on our emotions and our minds. Targets of catcalling can feel threatened, scared, annoyed, angry, and embarrassed. All of these feelings can affect how the person’s day will go: they might be less productive at work because their mind keeps jumping back to the interaction or they might snap at their friends because they’re on edge.
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While there’s probably no ‘perfect’ universal strategy on how to deal with catcallers, there are plenty of tips that women and men give on how to handle the situation (which just goes to show how widespread the problem really is).
Anita Roberts, the founder of Safeteen, told CBC that women can give street harassers “the look” that communicates to them that they don’t like what they’re doing. They can also put up a hand in front of them to show them that they should stop.
If you decide to speak to your catcaller as you’re walking by, use a neutral tone, be clear and firm. Don’t provoke them but also make it crystal clear that what they’re doing is not acceptable.
Bystanders also have an obligation to step in. If you see that somebody is being harassed, you can tell the catcaller to knock it off. Or you could even ask the victim if they require any assistance. It’s up to every member of their community to make it better and safer for everyone.
And this is how people reacted to D’Angelo’s post
Source: boredpanda.com