- I actually had a guy who was driving by. (chuckles)
I was young. I was like 17, and he yelled out at me.
He was like,
"Hey baby, wanna put some lipstick on my dipstick?"
(high intensity techno music)
- What's a catcall?
- Oh, yeah.
- Yes.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Oh yeah, all the time.
- I would say maybe three times a week.
- Oh my God. What do they not say?
- Carpet match the curtains.
- Do fries come with that shake.
- Oh, straight up. Fuck you.
- I want you to sit on my face.
- It was always like something I wore.
- They talk about your body.
- Been commented on my legs.
- Like, oh, damn nice ass.
- PAWG. Phat ass white girl.
I don't even have a big butt.
- Some guys rolling down their window from their car,
just whistling. - Whistling.
- Don't whist at me, I'm not a dog.
- Kind of sounds like,
they're calling me like I'm a dog or something.
- I'm not the cat, I'm not the dog.
- I'm not an animal.
If you wanna have a conversation, just come talk to me.
- catcalled. Honked out. Hollered up.
(barks)
(purrs)
- Eh, yo!
Yo, mommy!
- Hey, girl!
- Damn, girl!
- Come on.
- Hey, sexy!
- Hey, baby.
- Hey, sweet stuff.
- You're too pretty to not. - Smile.
- Why are you worried about what my face is doing?
- My catcalls are usually racist.
- Just like Konichiwa.
- Yi-hao or something.
- What are you?
- My ethnicity.
- I'll generally just smile and keep walking.
- Probably to make them feel better.
- I didn't listen.
- I ignore it, but it enrages me. I'm not a piece of meat.
- Usually like, "Oh, God!"
- I'm desensitized to it.
- And then when I ignore you,
you get a "Fine, fuck you too then."
- Then you're a bitch.
- Oh, you ain't gonna talk to me? Okay, you ugly.
- Anyway, you were the one that came towards me.
- It's like the things that they were commenting on,
like, "Oh, I like the shape of your body."
All of a sudden, it's like you're a fat bitch.
- Not that much lately,
but when I was... - Young.
- The younger days, yeah.
- Not for a long, long... - Long time.
- Back in the day, yeah.
- Oh, for sure.
Since I was like 10. - 13.
- 12 years old.
- Probably in like second or third grade.
- No, not around that age. It was an adult.
(laughs)
- No. - No.
- Um,
no.
- No, if I had to think about it like that.
- I have not and I think about it a lot.
- No, actually that makes me very sad in a weird way.
- Once.
- And I will admit it bothers me less
when fem presenting people to it.
- I don't think I've ever been catcalled from a woman.
- Yeah, actually the person I'm with now catcalled me,
and that's how we got together. (laughs)
That's how we met.
- Plenty of times. I mean like, look at me.
- It doesn't bother me, I think, as much as other women.
- I'll be honest, when I was young and insecure,
it felt good.
- It was kind of like, "Oh, he thinks I'm cute."
- That's when I felt my best self.
- I got it down this time.
- At least with that whistle, you knew.
- It's cool to know that people think that,
you know, you're good looking.
- Like I wasn't offended and I wasn't annoyed.
- Sometimes I'm like, oh yeah, that means I look good today.
- Hm, still got it, you know. (laughs)
- I don't mind male attention, I like them.
- Low key, depends on they're cute or not.
- If the person is super attractive,
then you're probably gonna be like,
"Oh, okay. Hey, how's it going?"
And like turn around and talk to them.
- I'm a firm believer of everybody deserves compliments,
they make us all feel good.
So if I see something I like,
I have no problems complimenting, acknowledging it.
Maybe I catcall.
- I always feel uncomfortable,
honestly, when people approach me outta nowhere.
- Unsafe.
- It's kind of terrifying to be catcalled.
- Can provoke a sense of like unsafety.
- I've actually had a time where somebody actually chase me
for not wanting to give them my number.
- Kind of just, oh, I gotta go, I gotta go.
Like, don't want them following you.
- Like, even if that's not realistic,
that's how it felt in the moment.
- As much as you want to stand up for yourself,
it's just safer, sadly, to say nothing.
So you just kind of have to take it.
- Usually with the middle finger or sometimes I just stare.
- I'll just be like, you're crusty.
- I think your mother would be ashamed of you.
- But then in other circumstances,
I'll just catcall back or make fun of them.
- And being like, "What you want this?"
"What do you got? Let's see your dick."