It doesn't matter if a woman is wearing a short dress, a parka or a sleeping bag. If she walks down the street, she might be catcalled.
In a Jan. 28 Facebook post, New York City native Christen Brandt described what it really feels like to be catcalled. Bradnt, co-founder of the non-profit She's The First which provides scholarships to girls in low-income countries, posted a picture of what she was wearing the morning she was catcalled.
Along with the picture of her outfit, Brandt wrote a description of what the catcaller said to her --"Damn, you have some great legs" -- and how frustrated she was by his assumption that her body was his to comment on:
When I ignored him and kept walking, he turned around to follow me, to get closer, even as I was moving away. "Did you hear me, honey? I said you have nice legs. Damn! Thank you." It was the "thank you" that got me. As if my 5 inches of legging-covered skin were there for him... Existing in the world for him to appreciate, or not.
Read Brandt's full post below.
In the photo, Brandt wears a scarf, a heavy winter coat and boots.
"Next time you wonder whether your skirt is too short, next time you ask your teen daughter to change her clothes, or the next time you hear about school dress codes in the news, remember this photo," she wrote. "I am in a fucking parka and boots. And it. doesn't. matter."
The Facebook post struck a chord -- at the time this piece was published, Brandt's post had received more than 42,000 shares and more than 77,000 likes.
At the end of the post, Brandt summed up the problem with treating street harassment as something women just have to deal with.
"All women have these moments," she wrote. "All of us. And yet the world acts as if it's still our problem to fix. Get your shit together, guys."
H/T Cosmopolitan
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