Catcalling is a nuisance and, at times, a safety concern women generally have to put up with on a daily basis.
Maris Racal, 21, proves that even those in show biz are not spared from such behavior, and wondered aloud how other girls deal with it.
Image: Instagram/@mariesteller
The actress and singer posted yesterday on Twitter, Nov. 21: “What do you girls do when you get catcalled?”
She answered her own question in another tweet, “Because what I did, I made a staring contest and he looked away first. Flipped him off when I got off the plane.”
because what I did, I made a staring contest and he looked away first. Flipped him off when I got off the plane.
— Maris Racal (@MissMarisRacal) November 21, 2018
Racal was recently in Japan to watch Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour at the Tokyo Dome yesterday, Nov. 21.
Women answering her question mainly said that they ignored catcalls or that they also flipped off their harassers.
Twitter user @ItsYaGirlMadi09 said, “I usually just go and flip them off but when I’m extra mad I throw random sh*t at them.”
Lovelyann (@lyannevol) gave a creative solution: “Nangungulangot. Ewan ko pag di pa turn off yun (I pick my nose. If that’s not a turn-off I don’t know what is).”
@Prinsesaaarah said pretending to take a video of them is effective. “Syempre super iwas siya/sila. Pero madalas sinasabihan ko ng ‘bastos!’”
(Of course he or they avoid me. But I usually say, “Rude!”)
Catcalling has become a public safety concern in the Philippines such that last October, the Senate passed Senate Bill No. 1326, or the Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act of 2017. Violations range from “light” actions such as catcalling, wolf-whistling and sexual jokes, while “severe violations” include stalking and touching the genitalia or other body parts of the victim.
A UN Women and Promundo study, released in 2017, polled men in Middle Eastern countries on why they catcall, NPR reported in June 2017. In Egypt, 90 percent of men said it was “for fun,” while women described getting harassed as “a nightmare.”
Researchers suggested that harassing women is a way for men to assert their power as they are unable to meet their aspirations in life due to economic factors and political instability. /ra
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