Stuck-Up Bitches

Via Lauren at Lost in Texas, here's a really interesting article on the phenomenon we all know and love as street harassment.

A lot of men really have no idea how much of this shit women have to put up with on a constant basis. It's not about being pretty, and it's not about looking provocative. Nor is it about being any particular age: I can pretty well remember that by the time I was ten years old, I knew to avoid walking near construction sites.

I find that now I'm more or less all grown up, harassment from strangers - unwelcome and unpleasant as it still is - doesn't get under my skin the way it did when I was younger. But the underlying attitudes are still enormously disturbing. For one thing, it's pretty much a constant fact of life for any young girl from around the time she hits puberty. You know that's gotta do some weird shit to your self-image. Even more troubling, to me at least, is the fact that it almost never happens to a woman in the company of a man. Which is why so many men are mostly unaware how much of this is going on.

I puzzle over the reason behind this. A woman alone, or in a group of women, is considered fair game. I suppose it would be considered too disrespectful to a fellow man to shout at a woman who may be his wife, girlfriend, or daughter. And the unconscious attitude beneath that would be, wouldn't it, that a woman unescorted by a male protector has forfeited her right to be treated respectfully?!

Not that hiding out of the public eye will spare you. I've gotten catcalled just walking across the front yard to retrieve the mail. And, though it's not as frequent now that employers are cracking down on it, any woman will still occasionally be sexually harassed by complete strangers at work.

The author of the article interviewed one of the harassers, who said his catcalls and suggetive remarks to strangers were a way to meet women, and referred to those who didn't welcome his attentions as "stuck-up bitches." His behavior is to flirtation what rape is to sex.