Wordslut by Amanda Montell

Author:Amanda Montell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-04-25T16:00:00+00:00

6

How to Confuse a Catcaller

(And Other Ways to Verbally Smash the Patriarchy)

In India, they call it Eve teasing, which I think is quite poetic. I picture earth’s first man tiptoeing friskily behind earth’s first woman, his fig leaf fluttering in the breeze. In Syria, it’s sometimes called taltish, which isn’t as innocent. This word, with its harsh pair of letter t’s, describes a brisk way of saying something, as if tossed upon the hearer, like a martini to the face. Piropos are famous throughout Latin America: the term comes from the Ancient Greek pyropus, which means “fire-colored.” It is said that Romans appropriated this word to mean “red-colored precious stones,” similar to rubies, which represented the heart, and hence were the stones men gave to the women they were courting. (Those who didn’t have money for these gems gave them pretty words instead.) But the only term I’ve ever used to describe it was invented in eighteenth-century England. There, it referred to the act of heckling vulnerable theater performers: “Nice costume, dandy!”; “Get off the stage!” In English, we call it catcalling.

So many languages offer a phrase to describe the act of a person (usually a man) shouting sexual comments in the street at someone they don’t know (usually a woman or feminine-presenting person), because in almost every country, you are sure to find it. As much as catcallers claim that their behavior is meant to be flattering (“Where are you going, baby?”; “Damn, look at that ass!”), both social scientists and people who deal with catcalling firsthand can tell that’s not really the intent. As a college student, an age when I would have been thrilled for just about anybody to think I was sexy, I was catcalled wearing everything from a minidress and heels to a matching Halloween pajama set from Duane Reade. The shirt said “Boo!” and so did the catcaller, before asking for my hand in marriage.

That guy didn’t want to marry me or even make me feel good about myself, but he did want me to hear him and to understand that he had control over me, at least for those few seconds. Because the act of catcalling isn’t really about sex—it’s about power.

Since the beginning of patriarchy, language has been a primary means through which men have asserted their dominance in order to make sure women and other oppressed genders have no control over what happens to them. And though salaciously taunting strangers in public may be one of the flashiest tactics, it’s hardly the only one. Equally disempowering are the practices of labeling women overemotional, hormonal, crazy, or hysterical* as a way to discredit their experiences, or addressing female colleagues as sweetheart or young lady in a professional setting as a form of (often subconscious) subordination. I once worked in an office where the company’s owner referred to every female employee by her hair color: “You’re early today, blondie.” “How’s that write-up coming, pink?” (We worked alongside a male employee with a zigzag design shaved into the back of his head, but the boss just called him Daniel.

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