Catcalling or sexual harassment?

More women are becoming vocal about their disgust with men who call to them on the streets. Women who spoke with THE WEEKEND STAR said that they are often left feeling very uncomfortable with some of the utterances men make when they pass them on the streets.

“Every time mi a walk, some man always a comment pon mi body. One time one call out, ‘ big b**y gyal, yuh breast dem stand up doh’, and went on to insinuate how I would look during sex. One guy even touched my breast and continued walking like nothing happened. The struggles,” one woman told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Another woman chimed in: “One time, mi deh a wah business place, and a man a pass mi and say, ‘Jesus Christ baby, how your front fat suh? is a camel toe yuh have unda deh suh’, and mi did very disgusted.”

But according to Calvin Brown*, the response of these women is a result of them becoming too Americanised. “Jamaican woman dem a become too liberated. Mi nuh want dem start tun America. Women were made for men to admire. Can you imagine mi get up one mawning and no see no woman a Jamaica? I’d be a madman,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Karen Carpenter, psychologist, told THE WEEKEND STAR that this type of catcalling is, indeed, sexual harassment. “Sexual harassment is based on the stance that you don’t want the attention. It’s not the activity. if the person you like is calling to you or touching you, regardless of the context, then it’s not harassment because it’s consensual,” she said. “Women have become extremely less tolerant, and I think there is good reason, too, because if that person is interested in you, then by approaching you, they’d get the same positive response. But when you catcall somebody in an open space, you humiliate them if they don’t like it, and you probably disgust them,” she added.

* n ame changed on request.