Marine Area: “We live in a society that invites males to give continuous proof of virility”

Sometimes I think that if we had the ability to disable certain human behaviors like we do with cell phone notifications, everything would be much easier. Unfortunately we cannot, and as much as we try to reiterate our dissent, there are things that persist worse than telephone calls from telephone operators.

Recently the debate on the catcalling is back in vogue again, also in relation to the release of the essay by Leslie Kern, The feminist city, published by Treccani, in which he deals the feeling of fear that women experience in urban spaces, and the need to rethink urban planning in a more equitable feminist perspective, not only for women but for all marginalized categories. For those unfamiliar with this term, a whole series of comments and reminders (often vulgar), whistles, trumpets from the car, or even just unsolicited advances, made to strangers walking on the street, mostly women and girls.

As sometimes happens when a theme becomes a trend topic on social media, for several days everyone had their say: from small benaltrism to the new feminist generation, that it would be the case that he dealt with more important things, up to comments that are really not very relevant to the topic, why “too many English, my lady”, and then that you do not put a nice meme about cats? But going beyond the Englishisms, the origin or the meaning of the term, I would say that we can associate this phenomenon with what it corresponds to: a nuisance.

I am aware that some women have stated that they do not consider it such at all and that indeed they have felt flattered by this type of approach, while to others all this complaining seems even an exaggeration because they simply ignore, but I believe that the point is another.

I am not interested in the individual aspect of the question, also why personally I have never undergone catcalling, and as a woman with a disability this could easily have taken hold of me, making me want the intrusive behavior in order to have a man considered my body. Fortunately this did not happen and the considerations have always gone to look for them elsewhere, especially in areas where there is consensus.

Nor is it my intention to analyze every single approach to determine what deserves the catcalling brand or not, instead I would like to move the bull’s-eye from those who suffer these “appreciation” to those who do them. And here, without rattling off data in hand, we can safely say that most of the people who do catcalling are cisgender heterosexual males.

So, if a considerable amount of men feel the compelling desire to call attention or comment aloud on the passage of a stranger, whether in a miniskirt or in a diver’s uniform, there is likely to be some reason beyond. the appearance of the aforementioned unknown.

We know well that for everything concerning the sphere of harassment, sex has nothing to do with it, it does the power, and the desire to give a clear indication of one’s masculinity. This is a company that invites males to continually prove their manhood, and since manhood does not show visible marks on the body, it does not issue you the Chiquita banana sticker, some men feel the need to demonstrate it publicly to themselves and others. And what better target than a woman walking around blissfully minding her own business?

Women experience these displays of power in a number of ways, and catcalling is just one of many. As I said, I have never immediately, it happened to me more that men explained things to me, especially those I know well and on which I trained. I would say that without disturbing other “English”, here too there is a certain affirmation of power.

In any case, beyond my experience there are many people who continue to express dissent against catcalling, because this it has a great emotional impact on those who suffer it. How is it possible not to listen to the voice of so many women who have long declared that they do not appreciate these forms of abuse at all, I can’t explain.

Indeed yes, is that we are the notifications.