"Keep walking, f—ing hoe."
To show how violent sexual harassment can be, these women are writing down catcalls they’ve experienced on the streets of New York City ... Catcalls of NYC
To show how violent sexual harassment can be, these women are writing down catcalls they’ve experienced on the streets of New York City ... Catcalls of NYC
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NewsTranscript
00:00I was 11 years old and he yelled show me what those hands can do.
00:08I was 11 years old.
00:09It says keep walking.
00:11Oh?
00:14The cat call I received was a bunch of 12 year old boys yelling I'm gonna f*** you.
00:30In the moment I didn't really get to react.
00:46So seeing it written down makes me feel a lot more empowered that this is my way of
00:52taking back the power they tried to take from me in that instance.
00:55I was actually with my dad and so it was even more uncomfortable and I think with
01:01his generation he didn't really know how to handle it or how to approach what just happened.
01:05So we kind of just sat in the car quietly.
01:08It's not okay to talk to 11 year olds like that or anyone like that.
01:12We're just trying to walk and get home go to the grocery store and this is not okay.
01:16I remember when it happened to me I was so taken aback because all I was doing was walking
01:21and just existing in public space and that it was said to me.
01:24So I love seeing it written on the ground because I feel like now people have the same
01:28experience of just walking and saying wow I can't believe that that just happened.
01:41I grew up here.
01:42It started when I was a teenager and yeah I was frustrated because no one knew what
01:48to tell me in terms of how to deal with it.
01:50My parents told me to ignore it.
01:52My dad told me to cover up more.
01:54You know advice like don't go out late.
01:56Be careful with where you're walking.
01:58But none of that helped because it was still happening.
02:01I felt really silenced and confused.
02:04I wanted to find a way to just address it to find my voice on the issue and also to
02:08give people a platform to discuss it and share their stories.
02:20The same reasoning that allows men to catcall and harass girls and women and LGBTQ folks
02:25on the street is the same logic that makes them think it's okay to touch them or it's
02:30okay to assault them in some way.
02:32So it's this idea that men are entitled to our time, to our space, to our bodies that
02:38allows for all of this.
02:39That allows for catcalling.
02:40That allows for rape.
02:41So it's all really connected and by raising awareness about catcalling we're also telling
02:45people you're not entitled to our bodies.
02:48This is not okay.
02:50It's not okay.
02:58For me taking this step, I've never done something like this before.
03:01It's just going to help someone who's walking past know okay what happened to me
03:06that time wasn't okay and I should talk about it because it's okay to talk about it.
03:10I feel like usually when these things happen to me I've been conditioned to brush it
03:15off or just try not to think about it ever again.
03:19because I feel like I and a lot of other people have just sort of accepted this as part of our daily lives
03:25and, you know, to really just not make a big deal out of it.
03:29But this is not something that should be normalized.
03:31🎵
03:39Girls who are 11, 12, 13 report getting catcalled really frequently.
03:44And to me, that was just shocking that these older men in particular, it's not boys their age,
03:49these older men are targeting really young teenage and preteen girls with these sexual inappropriate catcalls.
03:56That still continues to shock me.
03:58Well, we were sitting there and we were eating our lunch and we were watching them, right?
04:02And I was trying to read it from over there, like, you know, I couldn't really make it out.
04:06And then when I found it, I heard her say something about sexual harassment and all.
04:10So then we got up and we took a look.
04:12He's a feminist.
04:14Married to me a hundred years, so.
04:16I experienced it, definitely.
04:18And it hasn't changed in my lifetime.
04:21So I think it's very good that we're, you know, educating young women, have the words, they can speak up.
04:28Hopefully less will be victimized.
04:30I was just actually taking a picture to send it to my daughter, who's 19.
04:33I love that women are saying, this is ridiculous.
04:39And I also don't understand why men think they can do that.
04:42Why men think it's okay.
04:44Women never do it.
04:54I think it resonated so widely with people because girls, women, LGBTQ folks all over the world face street harassment every single day.
05:01It's still a very common experience to go outside and feel unsafe because of your gender,
05:06gender expression, sexuality, race, ethnicity, any number of factors can lead to folks facing harassment on the street.
05:14And then I also think it resonated with a lot of people because chalk is a pretty easy thing to do.
05:18You know what I mean?
05:19You don't need to be an artist.
05:20You don't need to be a certain age.
05:22So a lot of young people especially feel like they can take hands-on action using chalk to make a difference.
05:36The idea, you know, going to the exact spot where it happened, you have those memories associated with those spots.
05:47So actually going back and sharing your personal experience, it does feel like taking back that time and taking back that space and being really unapologetic.
05:54Like, I'm going to write exactly what was said.
05:56I'm going to take up space.
05:58It feels really empowering.
06:01And yeah, you're making people look at these vulgar words.
06:04So instead of the burden being on you and hearing those words and feeling uncomfortable and unsafe, you're able to just show people the words and it just feels really good.