Whether you’re a feminist or not (in which case, please defer to this article) there is something that most women seem to agree on: that catcalling does not flatter us, and actually makes us feel pretty damn uncomfortable.
Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard recently discussed the profound effect being catcalled had on her as a young girl. She recalled when a man asked her and her friend, “You guys need a ride anywhere?” while they were standing outside of a movie theatre. This proved to be a pivotal point for Blanchard, who was just 12 at the time. “I just remember sitting there feeling my heart sink into my stomach. It was such a surreal moment,” she explains. “It was like I was out-of-body for a second. I had seen that in movies, on TV, on the news. But when it happens to you, it’s like, ‘Oh, crap, this is real; people look at me this way.’” She went on to explain that she never talked about this with anyone. She blamed herself for the incident, saying she felt that it was because of what she’d worn.
Blanchard’s entire life was affected by this seemingly small event. “You see it everywhere,” she continues. “When you’re watching your favorite TV show, you see a joke that maybe would have gone over your head a month ago. You can’t escape it. There’s really nothing you can do except endure it and try and speak out about it. So that’s what I tried to do.”