When comparing men and women, the gender norm personalities
of each differ quite a bit. It is expected that men have a more assertive,
outgoing, and blunt personality where as women are thought to be quite,
delicate, and more introverted. Due to the personality norm for men, it is not
shocking when a man is caught cat calling a woman. As women, we have all
probably experienced being catcalled at least one in our life. We tend to
ignore the comments because we have become accustomed to this type of behavior
from men (not all men). But why do men
do this? It is mostly assumed it is done for a sense of power or in the hope
that the catcalling will actually work. Men are naturally more aggressive and
like the idea of control in situations, which catcalling provides them. Since
most men don’t seem to have an issue with catcalling, what prevents more women
from catcalling men?
My group
and I were extremely interested in discovering why it was more unusual for
women to catcall men, how people would react to women catcalling men, and how
it felt for a man to be catcalled by a women. In order to answer these
questions my group and I held an experiment where we would have women
catcalling men. We went about this by having five women sit at a dinner table
together in the dorm dinning hall at five o’clock, which is the busiest time in
the dinning hall. We also had two of our group members who are men sit at a
table nearby. We had previously informed and arranged for about 8 men to pass
our dinner table of women in order to us to catcall them. We decided to use
informed men as the ones being catcalled to avoid any possible harassment
charges. We had the men pass our dinner table one at a time, walking with a
large group of people. We used a serious of catcalls from the video I have
posted below to.
After the
experiment was finished we were interested in the reactions of those around us
and how the men who were being catcalled (victims) felt. Not to a surprise,
most the responses that this experiment evoked were negative. It was reported
that we had received several disapproving and confused looks from the groups of
people who were walking with the victims while they were being catcalled. There
was a table of men close by our table of women who seemed to be extremely judgmental
and upset due to us women catcalling. There was a table of football players
nearby who also responded extremely negatively. Their responses were “What the
fuck is going?” and “What the hell?” This shows that they were obviously
shocked by us women catcalling and curious as to why we were. Although we
received many upset, disgusted, and confused looks, no one directly said
anything to our group of girls catcalling or tried to correct our behavior.
After the
experiment we asked the victims how they felt being catcalled and being apart
of this project. Most of them described how they felt weird, uncomfortable and
surprised even though they were aware of the project. The victims also
commented on how they felt as if more attention was brought upon them after
being catcalled. They felt as if it was a mixture of positive and negative
attention. One victim remarked that he felt weird while being catcalled because
it was abnormal for him to receive compliments in such a manner because usually
they were insults.
Breaking
this gender norm made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I, along with the other
girls, felt very nervous about being so assertive by catcalling men. I felt
though as most of my catcalls sounded unintentionally aggressive. I can
attribute this back to nerves, trying to be vocally louder, and possibly trying
to imitate the way I feel men catcall. In our society it is not the norm for women to
be so outspoken and direct about something, such as catcalling and showing
interest in someone that way. Women are expected to be more timid and
introverted, which is exactly how I felt during this experiment. I didn’t like
having attention put on me and I was worried about the people around would
perceive me due to my actions.
This
experiment really reinforces the presence of gender inequality a gender
norms. It is seen as normal and even
justified for men to catcall, but when the group of female and I catcalled men,
we received a much different response. Why is this seen as okay for men to do
but not women? Why is it justifiable for men? It could possibly be the way the
way socialized to always assume power, dominance, and confidence, where as
women are not socialized in the same way.
This may be a small representation of gender inequality but it proves
that it is still and issue in our society.
Funny Extra Video
