Your Facebook Status Isn't Funny, Bro -- It's Street Harassment

As my twin sister said, "An example of slut-shaming and why I hate everyone." As much as I'm exhausted by Facebook-arguing with people, I often feel like it's the only platform I have (apart from real life encounters) to educate people as to why their societal views are often problematic.

There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, let's stop policing women's bodies/sexual encounters. Sexuality is an entirely fluid, individual thing, and it's not up to you to dictate what others  should or should not do with their bodies, male or female. Period. When you dictate what another person does with their body, that is rape in and of itself. Slut-shaming serves as a tool for social control in which women are "not allowed" to have sexual desires or act in a way that's deemed "too sexual." The mixed messages women receive about sexuality are absolutely infuriating, but that's a topic for another day.

Second, cat-calling is not funny in any way, it's street harassment. I presented a research paper on this topic at Penn State's Women's Studies Graduate Organization Conference last spring, and I volunteer for Stop Street Harassment, a nonprofit organization. I am acutely aware of the fact that street harassment--whether it be cat-calling, leering, inappropriate remarks, kissing noises, anything that makes a woman in public feel uncomfortable--serves only to intimidate women, to remind them they are objects to be judged and objectified, that they are unwelcome in the public sphere. It's obviously an intersectional issue (like all things) also tied to socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, with women of color often experiencing it at greater levels and women of the higher socioeconomic class being able to afford private transportation (cars, cabs) to avoid this type of treatment.

Either way, your Facebook status is not funny or cute or entertaining, and I don't let this kind of awful mentality slide. If I see someone saying something problematic on such a public level, I will call them out, and you should, too. The first step to social justice is advocating it in your personal life. Thank you and goodnight.