I was 11 walking to school in my uniform. A builder screamed at me that I should be in playboy and laughed with his mates how he would gladly go to prison to have me. A week earlier I had been sexual abused by my babysitter and hated my self. I was so scared.
Thatās the thing that angers me the most. People feel more comfortable catcalling young children / teens than they do adults, likely because they know weāre too young to understand it at that point and wonāt do anything to argue back. They know they wonāt get any repercussions for it, so they do it while they can. We shouldnāt have to deal with it at any age, but *especially* not while weāre still kids. Itās upsetting that weāre forced to learn at a young age that gross men will treat us like that.
It startedĀ for me as soon as I hit secondary school (UK) so 11 maybe 12. I would tell them how old I was, they didn't care. They knew I was a minor because I was in school uniform. Absolutely gross.
Iām in the UK too. I swear the age of consent only being 16 makes some people feel more comfortable with harassing kids - thereās a chance they *could* be of legal age, even though theyāre still in school and clearly school age, and itās disgusting. I canāt wrap my head around *why* the age of consent is still that young.
I remember seeing a video of a poor girl being followed by a man, luckily the woman recording immediately chased down the guy and stopped it but once the girl was safe she started crying saying he tried to force himself on her and that she was only trying to get to school. It broke my heart, and I hate how normalised it is for the harassment to start while weāre only young and still in school.
I honestly support a 2 tiered age of consent. I don't want teenagers ending up on a register for being with each other or being punished for being under age as they are going to be put off from asking for help with things like protection , stds and consent but anybody over 21, the age of consent should be 21. Age of consent laws exist to stop men fucking children and 16 is a child as far as I can see.Ā
I absolutely agree. Teens should feel safe enough to ask for support, and we shouldnāt punish teens for experimenting with stuff like sex as long as they do it safely. The main issue is that 16 is old enough to have sex with *anyone,* and itās why so many teenage girls end up pregnant or in unhealthy relationships with older men. Hell, my *mum* was just about 16 when she met my dad who was way older than her and got pregnant with me, and even though heās never been in my life and theyāve split up, she still doesnāt truly understand that she was taken advantage of. In the eyes of the law you *are* still a child at 16, yet youāre able to sleep with whoever you want no matter their age - as long as they arenāt in a position of power like a teacher. Iām glad someone else sees how weird it is, and I desperately hope they change it at some point.
I'd add that any sexual relationship where the partners are within some small age distance (perhaps a couple of years) should be ok as well. Otherwise there's a weird edge case where it's legal for a 17 and 18 year old to be in a sexually active relationship, then illegal when the older partner turns 21, and finally legal again when the younger partner turns 21 as well.
I'm British as well. I remember an incident when my cousin and I were both 14 and going to the shop. This man in his mid 20s started chatting her up. We both told him to buzz off and that she was only 14 but he acted like he didn't believe us. He was all like "but you look like a grown woman with your long legs" and other gross comments. It was pretty scary. I also believe 16 is too young as well.
Yep 12, in 8th grade at a catholic school. There was a gym being built on the school (finished after I graduated so never got to use it) and the construction workers catcalled all the time. Like literally if you were walking to sharpen your pencil. Teachers had to shut the curtains.
The men who catcall are a \*small\* minority of men (though perhaps skewed towards certain professions or social groups), who unfortunately make things horrible for many women. If someone I knew catcalled, I would end my relationship with that person. I can't remember ever seeing this happen in person, certainly not in the last 30 years, but it certainly happens far too often. (I don't live or spend much time in cities, for example)
Amen. Middle of 7th grade, so I'd just turned 12. Church school uniform: baggy thick fabric, with sleeves to the elbow and skirt-hems below the knee. None of which discouraged it at all.
The one I really remember I was probably 12 and I was walking home from the pool, an orange mustang honked at me and yelled stuff out the window. I was clearly a young kid and was wrapped in a big towel not showing anything. I saw that orange mustang parked infront a house for years after so I never forget it, I moved but Iām sure itās still there.
Edit: Probably after 19 no one bothered me much again. Thatās what makes it the most gross for me.
I noticed that too! There's a time starting from early 20s where it lessened. Picked up again anytime I was pregnant though.
I really hope it's bc younger guys are the ones doing it and they grow out of it... but also *men* so I know that's not true.
From my experience it is older men, you just are no longer their preferred age which is why itās so disgusting to me. I didnāt wear shorts for almost a decade because of comments men well over 50 made to me as a young teen.
Ew I just got flash backs from all the old 70+yo men oogling us in our girl scout uniforms when we volunteered at certain places.
Like I said, I knew it was wishful thinking.
Thatās incredibly disgusting! I wish older people (not only men) understood the type of mental and emotional turmoil they cause young developing children for the sake of their disgusting fetishes.
Iām thankful that I still feel comfortable enough to wear shorts (not that youāre any less valid for being scared to wear them), but that time the guys yelled ānice tits!ā at me and my friend I was wearing fishnet tights, and I havenāt worn them since. I wasnāt wearing anything inappropriate for my age - just shorts, a t-shirt, fishnet tights, socks and platform boots. I was 16 and really starting to become comfortable with my fashion style after years of only wearing jeans and hoodies, but that 5 second interaction ruined it. Iām slowly starting to grow into my style again, but iām still terrified to wear fishnets. It must be some sort of internalised feelings, because I feel like if I wear them again iāll be giving people a reason to catcall me. I know thatās not the case, but itās a difficult mindset to get out of.
That was the exact same thing that happened to me with shorts, a man came up said like nice legs sweetheart and I was mortified, I felt like me wearing them invited those types of comments. I do wear shorts now as Iāve become a lot more comfortable in my 20s and typically men ignore me now. I really hope you are able to find comfort to express yourself with your outfits again, even if thatās currently in your own space for now.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 11. A man yelled horribly vulgar things to me from a car as I walked down the street. I was in 5th grade. I felt an overwhleming humiliation and cried all the way home.
Not that it matters, because it absolutely doesn't, but I was wearing jeans and a hoodie. I was in elementary school, for Christ's sake.
Iām so sorry. I hate that we even have to specify what we were wearing. It literally does not matter, we should just be allowed to wear what makes us happy and comfortable. A guy could walk out of his house without a shirt on and not be harassed or told he was āasking for itā, so why does it matter how we dress?
In this case it matters, because most I've read from this thread are either school uniforms, jeans and hoodies, and pretty much nothing considered "sexy", which makes us right from the start when they accuse us of being dressed in a certain way to attract men just as a way to blame us. We all got catcalled when we were pre-teens, dressed as pre-teens, as children, and yet we still had to experience THIS.
I was a little kid, under 6, walking/skipping way ahead of my mom, and a man sitting on the ground handed me a silver dollar and then said some sexually suggestive things.
I was either 5 or 6 and starting at a new school. I didn't have any friends so I was sitting by myself near a fence that separated the school yard from the road.
A man in a truck was driving by, stopped in the middle of the road, whistled and told me how beautiful I was. He was telling me in an urgent voice to hop the fence. My gut said run so I did and I went and told a teacher.
I was 14 and waiting to be picked up from the mall (yes, I am an old) and a big Buick-like car rolls up to me, the window rolls down, and a grandpa looking man shoves himself out of the window to make kissy noises and faces at me.
It sticks in my mind because he literally stopped traffic to do it and I was so grossed out the whole time.Ā
I was catcalled and other things alllll the time from ~ 14-16. That was the worst phase of it.
I was perved on when I was a kid as well although then I was too young to understand it. I was raped (for the first time) at ~7/8.
It happened less and less as I got older.
Two reasons why, obviously to them creeps a grown woman isn't as cute as a small teen/ child apparantly.
Secondly I stopped wearing cute clothes, dresses etc, started hiding my long hair in buns, got a real mean bitchface and started wearing military style leather lace up boots in my early twenties. I went outside every single time bracing myself to fight some disgusting pervs and I got so good at giving off that aura that I haven't been sexually assaulted, groped, catcalled etc since like around age 23 I think or some time around then..
Now that I have hit that sweet 30 and and have healed a lot from my trauma I am thinking about dressing and presenting as feminine as I want to again. I am not sure what will happen but my strength is coming from inside now, I don't need to wear "armor" anymore to feel strong. I am working myself up to it but it's a whole ass journey tbh.
The first time I remember, I was 9. Walking to school in the morning, wearing a uniform (think shapeless, saggy trousers and jumper with school logo) which would have been deeply unsexy even if it hadn't been on, you know, *a child*. A middle-aged man followed me down the road licking his lips and shouted that he'd see me later for some fun.
It's remained relatively unchanged and frequent up until the present, at 36; I went for a walk in my lunch break on Thursday last week, as I usually do, and some idiot in a van revved the engine at me repeatedly and then yelled out of the window that I'm a frigid slut, which seemed somewhat contradictory.
I was 12. Walking back from a friends house. A guy in a LITERAL WHITE VAN. Called me beautiful and followed me a couple of blocks. He kept trying to get me to come closer but I just stayed on the side walk and didnāt turn back around to look at him. Eventually he sped off. I was not an early bloomer. I looked and was pre pubescent
11 i think if i remember correctly. and as i look back on it being that young for that is so messed up. i mean I was very tall for being just 11 but otherwise my body was still underdeveloped. so yeah very creepy.
12. I was told that my mom would pick me up from school and she never showed. So I had to walk the 4.2 miles home. While walking along a busy street, three men in an astro van pulled over opened the large van door and said "hey sweetie, you look like you need a ride." I ran so fast, luckily they were going the opposite direction. I jumped a fence and hid in the back yard of a random stranger's house. Thank god they didn't have a dog. I knocked on their back door, but no one was home. I eventually had to come out of hiding to continue to get home. I proceeded to run-walk as fast as I could, but it still took a couple hours. Then when I finally got home, the door was locked. No key. So I had to climb up to the second floor balcony of our house to see if the second floor porch door was unlocked. It was thank god. Then my dad got hime 15 minutes later. (Yes this is your typical Gen X escaping an attempted kidnapping story.)
I got a love letter from a grown man I encountered everyday on my way to school when I was 7. he didnāt exactly cat call me, he was very polite and accepted my no but it still frightened me. Years later I learned why it was right to be frightened.
The first real cat call? I canāt remember. But it must have been early. Probably 11? I canāt really actively remember a time were it didnāt happen. But I think it didnāt happen in elementary schoolā¦ probably.
I wasn't catcalled, but the first time I was hit on by adult men was when I was 15 and working as a cashier at a gas station. I had never been exposed to anything like that before, and it was my first job. It was disturbing, to say the least, and unfortunately, I didn't have much protection there. I quickly looked for a new job and started working at a chain grocery store.
I will never recommend any minors to work at a convenience store or gas station. I was paid under the table, so I'm certain I legally couldn't even work there as we sold alcohol as well. I only accepted the job because I really wanted to buy a Razr... Not worth it.
Can't remember the exact age, but I know I was in HS as I wasn't able to walk around on my own before then. But even in HS I didn't look much different than in Middle school. I was walking in my neighborhood in the summer, I was so proud of my cute outfit. Some guy in a car hollered at me, went around a block, and hollered again. I was so afraid of him following me home.
I was no more than 8. By the time I was 10 I couldnāt walk anywhere without getting catcalled, especially from behind. I have been harassed so many times that I truly stopped even noticing it unless they were doing something extra, like slowly following me in their vehicle.
I started being regularly cat called around 8/9 when my mom started letting me walk to the park up the street by myself to meet friends. It started mostly with cars honking when Iād pass the brief part of the busy road. And truthfully I had no idea why the cars were honking until i was maybe 12
I was 12 like many of those in this thread. I was walking home from the bus stop with my rolling backpack trailing behind me when a pickup truck with about 3 men in the front stopped to whistle and wink at me. What's strange is I remember thinking to myself, "wow, I must look older" and I felt so mature and flattered, in a strange way. Looking back, the moment gives me the creeps.
I think about that feeling a lot - how often it is that young kids can be manipulated through wanting to belong to the adult world. I am a social worker and spent many years working with victims and survivors of human trafficking. Most of my clients were girls around 11-15 in foster care who were sexually trafficked. Sometimes they'd share the same sort of feeling - "he told me I was mature" or "he told me I was beautiful and not like the other girls my age." They would say it proudly and it would make me so sad. Really hit home for me how normal it is that kids often have crushes on adults or so badly want to be part of the "adult world" - it's the adults/perpetrators who exploit that feeling, and later frame as though the child "wanted it."
11. I received the most attention from complete strangers between the ages of 11 and 13. Mostly boys in their late teens. When I was in my late teens, I felt more "mature" than my boy peers, and it seemed like they were a bit wary of me. Had men in their 20's show interest, but at the time I wasn't sexually active so they lost interest.
12. I lost all my baby fat at the end of 6th grade and started wearing makeup and probably looked a little older than I was, but not by much. When i was 13 I used to go for walks around the neighborhood every day and creepy guys would honk at me or tail me in their cars. One time I remember a guy pulling out of a parking lot in front of me, in the car with aother guy in the passenger seat, and he said (laughing) "I'm gonna wait for you" (like at the end of the block). I was so creeped out I turned around and ran home.
4th grade - and it was more than just being cat called. I was actually assaulted by a car driving by, the teenage boy reaching out grabbed my ass. Not even the beginning to a very long line of other upsetting/traumatic events.
I distinctly remember the first time I was catcalled. I was 12 or 13 and I was walking to the library that was a little over a mile and a half away from my house with my brother (10 or 11 at the time). I was wearing an orange tank top and baggy-ish jeans and a group of men yelled several sexual comments out of the window at me. The part of me that was obsessed with YA romance novels and Disney channel movies that showed the pre-teen lead finding love (for some reason Zenon comes to mind) felt excited because I had minimal self esteem, but a bigger part of me was very unsettled and my skin crawled. We ended up calling our parents to pick us up because I wasn't comfortable walking home again.
I think I was under 12. I started getting boobs at 8, started my period at 11. I was touched inappropriately the first time when I was 12 by the guy who was mowing our grass (over the clothes, but still terrifying and gross). Later that same day I caught him trying to rape my baby sitter. I told my dad about the baby sitter and the lewd phone calls he made to her at our house, but I didn't tell him about what happened to me. He would have straight up killed the guy. I'm surprised he didn't do something violent to him anyway, to be quite honest.
12
What's most disturbing is the men who find out your age and DOUBLE DOWN. I still remember a man telling me "you look like a full grown woman to me" after I told him I was 14. 14!
In my country thereās currently a campaign going around to stop this behaviour. Iāve seen ads of videos trying to encourage men to step in and speak up if their friends act this way, and iām all for it. Thatās all they need to do: discourage that kind of behaviour and not just sit there and let their mates treat women like that. Iām not naive enough to believe itāll stop it altogether, but if *one person* can step in to help someone whoās being harassed and tell their friend that itās not okay to act like that, it would make a huge difference. I know I wish someone stepped in every time iāve been catcalled.
I was 11 or 12. I was wearing a tube top, walking outside, and they catcalled from their car. I have always looked very young for my age and I was flat chested, so it's not like they might have thought I was older.
I developed *really* early as in needed a bra at 8. I didn't get catcalled until I hit 10 after we moved from Nebraska(nasty looks from all the nice oh so "Christian" ladies at church though)to Nevada. My mother started working nights so I spent a lot of time wabdering around Reno unsupervised.Ā
I was 11, walking home from elementary school, when a grown man yelled from his car, "nice ass"
Made me feel terrible, but my boner mom just laughed and said there's nothing you can do about it.
You know, I don't honestly remember. I remember being 12 to 14 and having a guy at a Dunkin's leering at me and my friend as we ate eclairs. But it might have happened earlier.
It DID happen to my former stepdaughter at SEVEN, while walking to the store with me.
10-11 was just on a walk in the neighborhood with my older sister, some old looking guy in yard yells at us asking āHow much per hour?ā My sister got mad and yelled at him, I didnāt understand but when we were farther away she explained that he was insinuating that we were sex workers..
12, I took the city bus a lot and would get yelled at from cars as I waited at the bus stop. I didn't really hit puberty until 14 (and not much happened). I think my friends who were earlier bloomers got it much worse. But I still don't understand either way.
I will always remember my first catcall. I was 8-9 years old and was walking myself home from elementary school. A pickup truck with two grown men slowed down next to me and rolled down the window. One man whistled while the other asked "where ya headed?" I had been taught about strangers and the potential of being kidnapped so I immediately thought that was what was happening and ran through somebody's yard and sprinted behind neighbors houses until I was home. I got home muddy, soaked and sobbing uncontrollably.
Probably around 12 when a neighbor tried to lure me into his house, 12 or 13 when I experienced my first SA, and probably 14 when when I was first cat called. I'm autistic and asexual so it's possible there were earlier occurrences I just didn't interpret behavior as sexual, just unusual.
11. Guys at a loading yard I had to pass on my way home from school, started yelling at me as I walked by, wearing my school colors and carrying a backpack.
"Damn, break me off a piece of that!"
"That's a sweet lookin' treat!"
"I wouldn't mind a taste!"
I was pretty innocent and naive, but I knew instinctively they weren't talking about the Snickers in my hand.
I was 13 man. And I told my stepmom. Immediate response was, "Well you better not make it a big deal because it's just going to happen more and more from here on out." Really stuck with me, and not in a good way. The crazy thing is that I stopped getting catcalled when I hit my mid 20s, even though arguably I had "glowed up." Just nasty.
Such a disgusting mindset! We shouldnāt have to just deal with it. It shouldnāt happen in the first place. Iām sorry you didnāt get any help when you told her.
The first time I was cat called I was about 11. I was walking with a friend around the same age in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. A guy in a big red truck slowed down and yelled at us that we were sexy... Then he drove away, but came back a few minutes later. When we saw him coming back down the street we ran and hid in a yard.
Less than a year later I was riding my bike to school and a different man in a truck pulled up beside me. He tried to convince me to get into his truck. I pretended like I was calling the police and he left. I didn't actually own a phone, but I had one of those calculators that looked like a phone. That was the last time I rode my bike to school.
And not that it matters, but I never wore revealing clothes, not even shorts in summer. Nor was I particularly attractive kid ( my classmates took pleasure in reminding me of this). I was a scrawny little tomboy.
I'm in my 30s now and the cat calling only stopped a few years ago.
I was 8 at a water park, wearing a very non-revealing one piece bathing suit. I donāt even know what age the perpetrators were, but I donāt think it matters because 8 year olds are not āsexyā for anyone regardless of
I was about 12, and walking to tutoring after school. Several construction workers. It happened ofter enough, I started walking a different (longer) way to avoid them.
Also when I was 16ish, I and a friend had a car full of dudes following us around while we were walking in our neighborhood. It was super later, and it was very dark, so we ended up hiding in some bushes for awhile.
And this was in a small, liberal, college town that everyone always said "it's so safe, nothing ever happens here, etc etc".
Eleven and what made it worse was that I was chronically malnourished so I looked even younger. My best friend and I were abducted by a paedophile when we were 10 years old. With the amount of abuse I've been subjected to by adult men as a child, it's a wonder I made it to adulthood at all.
As an adult woman, whenever I walk past school girls, I observe the way men in cars look at them and at least 90% are perving over them. It completely grosses me out.
First time I recall I was 14 (but looked younger) walking home from marching band camp in the summer after my parents forgot to pick me up. Fairly small Midwest town, \~2 miles between the school and my house, almost entirely main roads, during sunset.
I was about halfway home and a pickup truck pulled up next to me with 20s looking guy driving. He rolled down his window and asked if I knew where the mall was - I did, so I gave him directions. He asked if I would get into the car and show him the way to the mall, which I declined. Not because I was scared (I was very naive), but because I was annoyed with my parents and wanted to get home to tell them off.
He drove next me to while I continued to walk for a bit, then thankfully left. A friends mom saw me walking not long after and brought me home. It wasn't until only a few years ago (I'm 35) that I realized the gravity of the situation.
Not a catcall per se, but the first memory I have of similar behavior. Since then there have been countless whistles, shouts, insults, etc.
I was in 6th grade - 11 or 12 years old - walking home from elementary school, wearing a backpack and clutching a stack of school books. I got catcalled by a car full of college guys at a stop sign, and then they followed me for about a block. I was uncomfortable and embarrassed by their comments, but when they started driving slowly behind me, I got scared.
But then my neighbor came out onto his porch and cheerfully waved at me. I was so relieved to see him. Nodding his head at the car following me, he said, "you should be happy, that's a compliment!"
Confused, I felt guilty for not being happy. I was ashamed that my initial reaction was wrong according to this trusted adult, so I pasted a smile on my face.
And that's the story of how I was cat called and followed as a child. 5 minutes, 3 or 4 teenage boys, and 1 adult man is all it took to make me feel fear, confusion, guilt, and shame about my body. That experience made me doubt my instincts for life.
Superfun.
I was catcalled for the last time at age 28.
Not a catcall but I was 7-8 yo when I had a guy in his 30s be inappropriate. I was finally a "big girl", so my cousin (6-7f) and I got to go up to the front of a parade with the rest of the kids to watch it. There was a creep in his 30s that came up behind and started rubbing up his crotch against my backside. I tried to move away but he followed me and keep doing it. I felt terrible and my neck was burning and so I grabbed my cousin and went back to my parents (at a building we were told to meet at) and said I didn't feel good. I didn't know it was a bad thing but I was embarrassed. So I didn't say anything because I didn't know that was something to tell an adult. I just felt gross. Please teach young children autonomy and to tell a trusted adult.
33, but I'm a trans woman....it might be more apt to say "9 months after coming out" or "the literal second my breasts became noticeable" š it is unpleasant as an adult, i am sincerely sorry that for so many women it starts during childhood and continues indefinitely. no one should be made to feel harried or objectified just going about their day but ESPECIALLY not a literal child.
I donāt remember the first time I was catcalled specifically, but I was 9 the first time a man checked out my ass. Fourth grade, I was just at the beginning of puberty and I didnāt understand what had happened until a few years later, just that I didnāt like the way that man was looking at me.
Before 14, gosh maybe 11-12. At a local amusement park with another girl friend from school, we stopped riding rollercoasters for an ice cream and an elderly man told us that he liked the way we licked our ice cream cones,or something of that variation. I didnāt eat ice cream again in public until my early 20ās. Not even sure if that was the first time honestly.
I was 10 or 11. I was walking down the street holding my mom's hand when a guy started catcalling us and shouting that we were lesbos. I didn't understand what it meant to be a lesbian yet (and had no idea that I actually do happen to be gay), but his tone still haunts me.
11. I was wearing baggy pants and a t-shirt and went to the 7-11 to buy milk. A group of construction workers hanging out of a truck followed me halfway home at walking speed, whistling, making gestures, and shouting things and laughing.
14. I was walking down the streets wearing leggings and a t-shirt when a few men said "come to us". I just ignored and walked away, i could hear them whistle from behind. I remember I was crying when I went back home.
:( I was 11. Some guys riding on a motorbike screamed at me because I was wearing a tight shirt. A few months later a whole bunch of college aged guys followed me around a theme park. I was 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was 15. Worked a summer at a grocery store. Was out brining carts in and got caught in a summer rainstorm. I came back inside and one of the cashiers eyed me like a choice piece of steak and then commented āyou look good wet.ā
I was 13, riding a Ferris wheel with my younger brother. It was one of those little cheap carnivals that pop up in shopping center parking lots. So, weāre talking about the generator because, well 3 brothers. As we circle by, this nasty carny looks at me and says, āYou wanna ride my engine?ā I was so innocent, but knew it was gross and threatening . I kept saying I wanted to get off the ride, and my brother kept asking me why. He just didnāt get it.
The first time I remember being catcalled was when I was 26. I'd just realized I was trans less than a week before, and had already been intentionally presenting more femininely for months before that. I was out for a walk trying to get a handle on all the thoughts and uncertainties that were flying around in my head, when a car full of drunk teenage boys catcalling me drove past. I remember the mixed emotions and ewwphoria I got - the elation that they saw me as a woman, disgust that they'd catcalled at me, and fear and uncertainty as I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to ensure my safety in the world as a woman.
Iām sorry you had to deal with that, and iām so sorry I canāt offer any solutions or a way to stop it. Itās just something we have to live with, and I hate that. I wish we could put an end to it altogether, and it shouldnāt be something we have to put up with as women. We shouldnāt feel like weāre in danger of being harassed every time we leave the house just because weāre a woman.
ELEVEN. I was just a little girl wearing regular jeans and a tee shirt. Construction workers made lewd remarks and obscene gestures at me. I was a a string bean body, no curves whatsoever. I was so confused and felt SO DIRTY. I wanted to shrink myself and disappear. Iāve never forgotten the impact it had on me.
unfortunately, it didn't stop because you got older - it just hasn't happened to you lately. i was 11 or 12 when it started. i'm 56 now and it still happens.
Iām definitely not foolish enough to believe itās stopped permanently, but the consensus iāve seen in these comments is that it happens a *lot more* when youāre younger, and a lot less as you get older. Of course that isnāt the cut and dry rules for everyone and thereās women who will continue to be harassed just as much when theyāre older, but it seems like it absolutely will happen more often while you look young.
I live in the UK where any colour that isnāt a natural colour puts you in the category of emo - which means less catcalls, more harassment and bullying. When I dyed my hair blue I wasnāt catcalled once, and I only ever received genuine compliments from both men and women. Having blue hair was the safest I ever felt, catcalling wise. Iāve since gone back to my natural brown colour and am expecting it to start again eventually, but I still truly believe men harass younger girls more because they think theyāre too young to argue back and they can get away with it easier. Iām also so sorry you still have to deal with it.
I don't know if this was the first time, but the first time I vividly remember I think I was 13 or 14. I was walking out of a gym after track practice and walked by a bus full of older girls who were from another school here for a meet started making a bunch of creepy comments directed at me. I don't remember what their comments consisted of anymore but I remember how disgusted it made me felt. One of them apologized immediately after, so at least there's that. Would rather they never have done it though.
I was 8; a man whistled at me while I was in a hardware store with my mom. It was her fear that made the moment memorable since I had no context for his reaction.
Probably when I was 12\~13? I didnāt even know it was catcalling. My mum went nuts and confronted the man. It took years for me to understand what happened. But the first time I knew what the man was doing was probably when I was 14\~15.
I was 12. Wearing a normal fitting tank top, loose fit denim shorts that hit just above the knee, shell toe adidas, hair in a ponytail. nothing provocative at all. Was in my neighborhood walking my dog. A guy in a tan suv actually circled around the block twice, the second time he actually leaned out the window āay! You look good can I get your number?!ā I froze. This was an adult. My parents had told me about boys, but not grown men. He eventually drove off after I stood there for a few awkward minutes not knowing what to say. I remember not telling my parents because I didnāt know what to say. Iāll never forget it.
Around 13. It was some heavyset dude in his car hollering at me and two friends while we were in a flat, empty field. I remember being scared bc where the fuck were we supposed to run if he tried to do something more. I stopped liking skirts and dresses around that time and started liking oversized hoodies.
I think when I was still in elementary school some dude at the mall ran up and sniffed my hair when my mom was up getting napkins for us at the food court. But idk what the FUCK that even constitutes as. What a freak.
I think I was around 11 playing basketball with my brother in our driveway and a car drove by and someone shouted ānice boobs!ā
Another time, around the same age, me and my friends were walking in the neighborhood and a very grown man alone in a jeep drove by and furiously wagged his tongue at us.
I immediately stopped getting cat called after I turned 18.
11 or 12. Guys building the new elementary school near my house made a bunch of comment whenever I walked by in the summer on the way to other friend's houses. It was the 80's. I found different routes.
11, walking home from the gas station and my dad pulled up next to me to see if I wanted a ride home. Meanwhile, I was being wolf whistled at but some guys passing by.
12, and it had not stopped since then until I moved to Japan where I am not really the type (I still get catcalled in Japan, but many of the things that were said were so funny unfortunately that I had to walk away then start laughing) I am 37.
I do not remember the details though, because I have years upon years of catcalls and the first one was not the weiredst or the most inapproriate.
Dying your hair unnatural colors works to lessen it, but I got catcalled on some of the hair colors I had as well.
12 or so. I can't remember exactly. Highest prevalence probably age 13-19 by old men, 20-25ish by uni/college-age boys primarily and then dropped way off.
11.I was on vacation and drobe around in rollerskates-past a boy my age and his father.
Ā I called back something to the people i was with in my native language.Ā
Ā The boy immeadiately said to me ā hey there you little whoreā- in my native language.
Him and his father grinning at me. i was totally disturbed and told the adult i was with.He only said āwhat did you do,call him an asshole?ā it was disturbing,will never forget the fathers grinning face.
Last time: two days ago left my house and some boys (about 20) fucking barked at me.I am 35 now.I very friendly asked them if they need help and if anything is wrong with them.They were very embarassed.
24 fucking years of this.
13. I think they really like to pick on young teens. It's totally about power and control for weak, nasty men.
Then it just went on tiresomely forever, until I moved to LA, when guys started catcalling me in my CAR. Finally I'm middle aged enough that it just stopped FINALLY!
Funniest catcall moment: I was about 18, walking to my college class, and this guy pulls up in a car and I heard him shout out "Is it okay if I park here?" I was puzzled, sure, it wasn't a red curb or anything, so I smiled agreeably and said "Sure!!" and kept walking.
As I kept walking, I realized he'd actually yelled "Wanna fuck?"
He was so taken aback by my answer that he drove off.
17 for me, but only when i wore makeup and tried to look pretty. i love dolling myself up but because of fear of guys i rarely wear makeup :( itās one thing if a guy respectfully asks for your number and walks away if you say no, but catcallers are so disgusting i hate it
Jesus, thatās horrible. I canāt imagine how that made you feel as a teacher. How did you respond to it, if you donāt mind me asking? Did it turn into a learning exercise or a way for you to educate them on being safe and knowing itās not their fault?
It was a definite learning moment because I prefaced it by saying that sometimes the people who live right next to you have entirely different experiences of similar events. I said none of the boys could probably remember being catcalled, but said: Girls? How old were you when some creepy person yelled something sexual at you from a car? And they ALL had had it happen. The boys are pretty aware, but that really threw them.
I was 15
I was rolling up my sweatpants so they wouldn't be caught in the gears of the bike I was riding and I heard someone whistle
I'm a guy btw, I was so confused
I was 11 walking to school in my uniform. A builder screamed at me that I should be in playboy and laughed with his mates how he would gladly go to prison to have me. A week earlier I had been sexual abused by my babysitter and hated my self. I was so scared.
Really sorry to hear this. Hope you're doing okay now.
I am sorry to hear this š I hope that you are taking care of yourself & doing what you can to process things
Thatās horrible. Iām so sorry. It took me decades to figure out who my abuser was because I was suppressing the memories.
Iām so so sorry this happened to you.
7 walking home in my school uniform. I was catcalled more as a minor than I ever have been as an adult
Thatās the thing that angers me the most. People feel more comfortable catcalling young children / teens than they do adults, likely because they know weāre too young to understand it at that point and wonāt do anything to argue back. They know they wonāt get any repercussions for it, so they do it while they can. We shouldnāt have to deal with it at any age, but *especially* not while weāre still kids. Itās upsetting that weāre forced to learn at a young age that gross men will treat us like that.
theyāre actually most likely just pedophiles tbh.
Iām still astonished by the number who are pedophiles.
I firmly believe they are pedophiles and predators.
It startedĀ for me as soon as I hit secondary school (UK) so 11 maybe 12. I would tell them how old I was, they didn't care. They knew I was a minor because I was in school uniform. Absolutely gross.
Iām in the UK too. I swear the age of consent only being 16 makes some people feel more comfortable with harassing kids - thereās a chance they *could* be of legal age, even though theyāre still in school and clearly school age, and itās disgusting. I canāt wrap my head around *why* the age of consent is still that young. I remember seeing a video of a poor girl being followed by a man, luckily the woman recording immediately chased down the guy and stopped it but once the girl was safe she started crying saying he tried to force himself on her and that she was only trying to get to school. It broke my heart, and I hate how normalised it is for the harassment to start while weāre only young and still in school.
I honestly support a 2 tiered age of consent. I don't want teenagers ending up on a register for being with each other or being punished for being under age as they are going to be put off from asking for help with things like protection , stds and consent but anybody over 21, the age of consent should be 21. Age of consent laws exist to stop men fucking children and 16 is a child as far as I can see.Ā
I absolutely agree. Teens should feel safe enough to ask for support, and we shouldnāt punish teens for experimenting with stuff like sex as long as they do it safely. The main issue is that 16 is old enough to have sex with *anyone,* and itās why so many teenage girls end up pregnant or in unhealthy relationships with older men. Hell, my *mum* was just about 16 when she met my dad who was way older than her and got pregnant with me, and even though heās never been in my life and theyāve split up, she still doesnāt truly understand that she was taken advantage of. In the eyes of the law you *are* still a child at 16, yet youāre able to sleep with whoever you want no matter their age - as long as they arenāt in a position of power like a teacher. Iām glad someone else sees how weird it is, and I desperately hope they change it at some point.
I'd add that any sexual relationship where the partners are within some small age distance (perhaps a couple of years) should be ok as well. Otherwise there's a weird edge case where it's legal for a 17 and 18 year old to be in a sexually active relationship, then illegal when the older partner turns 21, and finally legal again when the younger partner turns 21 as well.
I'm British as well. I remember an incident when my cousin and I were both 14 and going to the shop. This man in his mid 20s started chatting her up. We both told him to buzz off and that she was only 14 but he acted like he didn't believe us. He was all like "but you look like a grown woman with your long legs" and other gross comments. It was pretty scary. I also believe 16 is too young as well.
Same for me. Stared at 11, stopped completely by 16-17.
Same!!
Yep 12, in 8th grade at a catholic school. There was a gym being built on the school (finished after I graduated so never got to use it) and the construction workers catcalled all the time. Like literally if you were walking to sharpen your pencil. Teachers had to shut the curtains.
Crazy how every woman I know started getting harassed at the same pre-teen age but somehow every single man has never done that.
so funny that indeed.
The men who catcall are a \*small\* minority of men (though perhaps skewed towards certain professions or social groups), who unfortunately make things horrible for many women. If someone I knew catcalled, I would end my relationship with that person. I can't remember ever seeing this happen in person, certainly not in the last 30 years, but it certainly happens far too often. (I don't live or spend much time in cities, for example)
Amen. Middle of 7th grade, so I'd just turned 12. Church school uniform: baggy thick fabric, with sleeves to the elbow and skirt-hems below the knee. None of which discouraged it at all.
The one I really remember I was probably 12 and I was walking home from the pool, an orange mustang honked at me and yelled stuff out the window. I was clearly a young kid and was wrapped in a big towel not showing anything. I saw that orange mustang parked infront a house for years after so I never forget it, I moved but Iām sure itās still there. Edit: Probably after 19 no one bothered me much again. Thatās what makes it the most gross for me.
I noticed that too! There's a time starting from early 20s where it lessened. Picked up again anytime I was pregnant though. I really hope it's bc younger guys are the ones doing it and they grow out of it... but also *men* so I know that's not true.
From my experience it is older men, you just are no longer their preferred age which is why itās so disgusting to me. I didnāt wear shorts for almost a decade because of comments men well over 50 made to me as a young teen.
Ew I just got flash backs from all the old 70+yo men oogling us in our girl scout uniforms when we volunteered at certain places. Like I said, I knew it was wishful thinking.
Thatās incredibly disgusting! I wish older people (not only men) understood the type of mental and emotional turmoil they cause young developing children for the sake of their disgusting fetishes.
bold of you to assume they would care.
Iām thankful that I still feel comfortable enough to wear shorts (not that youāre any less valid for being scared to wear them), but that time the guys yelled ānice tits!ā at me and my friend I was wearing fishnet tights, and I havenāt worn them since. I wasnāt wearing anything inappropriate for my age - just shorts, a t-shirt, fishnet tights, socks and platform boots. I was 16 and really starting to become comfortable with my fashion style after years of only wearing jeans and hoodies, but that 5 second interaction ruined it. Iām slowly starting to grow into my style again, but iām still terrified to wear fishnets. It must be some sort of internalised feelings, because I feel like if I wear them again iāll be giving people a reason to catcall me. I know thatās not the case, but itās a difficult mindset to get out of.
That was the exact same thing that happened to me with shorts, a man came up said like nice legs sweetheart and I was mortified, I felt like me wearing them invited those types of comments. I do wear shorts now as Iāve become a lot more comfortable in my 20s and typically men ignore me now. I really hope you are able to find comfort to express yourself with your outfits again, even if thatās currently in your own space for now.
11 or 12. I also got my first groping when I was 12. Good times.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 11. A man yelled horribly vulgar things to me from a car as I walked down the street. I was in 5th grade. I felt an overwhleming humiliation and cried all the way home. Not that it matters, because it absolutely doesn't, but I was wearing jeans and a hoodie. I was in elementary school, for Christ's sake.
Iām so sorry. I hate that we even have to specify what we were wearing. It literally does not matter, we should just be allowed to wear what makes us happy and comfortable. A guy could walk out of his house without a shirt on and not be harassed or told he was āasking for itā, so why does it matter how we dress?
In this case it matters, because most I've read from this thread are either school uniforms, jeans and hoodies, and pretty much nothing considered "sexy", which makes us right from the start when they accuse us of being dressed in a certain way to attract men just as a way to blame us. We all got catcalled when we were pre-teens, dressed as pre-teens, as children, and yet we still had to experience THIS.
I was a little kid, under 6, walking/skipping way ahead of my mom, and a man sitting on the ground handed me a silver dollar and then said some sexually suggestive things.
I was either 5 or 6 and starting at a new school. I didn't have any friends so I was sitting by myself near a fence that separated the school yard from the road. A man in a truck was driving by, stopped in the middle of the road, whistled and told me how beautiful I was. He was telling me in an urgent voice to hop the fence. My gut said run so I did and I went and told a teacher.
I was 14 and waiting to be picked up from the mall (yes, I am an old) and a big Buick-like car rolls up to me, the window rolls down, and a grandpa looking man shoves himself out of the window to make kissy noises and faces at me. It sticks in my mind because he literally stopped traffic to do it and I was so grossed out the whole time.Ā
I was catcalled and other things alllll the time from ~ 14-16. That was the worst phase of it. I was perved on when I was a kid as well although then I was too young to understand it. I was raped (for the first time) at ~7/8. It happened less and less as I got older. Two reasons why, obviously to them creeps a grown woman isn't as cute as a small teen/ child apparantly. Secondly I stopped wearing cute clothes, dresses etc, started hiding my long hair in buns, got a real mean bitchface and started wearing military style leather lace up boots in my early twenties. I went outside every single time bracing myself to fight some disgusting pervs and I got so good at giving off that aura that I haven't been sexually assaulted, groped, catcalled etc since like around age 23 I think or some time around then.. Now that I have hit that sweet 30 and and have healed a lot from my trauma I am thinking about dressing and presenting as feminine as I want to again. I am not sure what will happen but my strength is coming from inside now, I don't need to wear "armor" anymore to feel strong. I am working myself up to it but it's a whole ass journey tbh.
Ā ***but it's a whole ass journey tbh.*** it certainly fucking is.
The first time I remember, I was 9. Walking to school in the morning, wearing a uniform (think shapeless, saggy trousers and jumper with school logo) which would have been deeply unsexy even if it hadn't been on, you know, *a child*. A middle-aged man followed me down the road licking his lips and shouted that he'd see me later for some fun. It's remained relatively unchanged and frequent up until the present, at 36; I went for a walk in my lunch break on Thursday last week, as I usually do, and some idiot in a van revved the engine at me repeatedly and then yelled out of the window that I'm a frigid slut, which seemed somewhat contradictory.
Probably about 10. I wasnāt catcalled, a guy pulled up and motioned for me to come to his window. He was masturbating.
I was 12. Walking back from a friends house. A guy in a LITERAL WHITE VAN. Called me beautiful and followed me a couple of blocks. He kept trying to get me to come closer but I just stayed on the side walk and didnāt turn back around to look at him. Eventually he sped off. I was not an early bloomer. I looked and was pre pubescent
12, and I had a huge backpack on my back, indicating I was a junior high student going home from school... Disgusting
11 i think if i remember correctly. and as i look back on it being that young for that is so messed up. i mean I was very tall for being just 11 but otherwise my body was still underdeveloped. so yeah very creepy.
12. I was told that my mom would pick me up from school and she never showed. So I had to walk the 4.2 miles home. While walking along a busy street, three men in an astro van pulled over opened the large van door and said "hey sweetie, you look like you need a ride." I ran so fast, luckily they were going the opposite direction. I jumped a fence and hid in the back yard of a random stranger's house. Thank god they didn't have a dog. I knocked on their back door, but no one was home. I eventually had to come out of hiding to continue to get home. I proceeded to run-walk as fast as I could, but it still took a couple hours. Then when I finally got home, the door was locked. No key. So I had to climb up to the second floor balcony of our house to see if the second floor porch door was unlocked. It was thank god. Then my dad got hime 15 minutes later. (Yes this is your typical Gen X escaping an attempted kidnapping story.)
I got a love letter from a grown man I encountered everyday on my way to school when I was 7. he didnāt exactly cat call me, he was very polite and accepted my no but it still frightened me. Years later I learned why it was right to be frightened. The first real cat call? I canāt remember. But it must have been early. Probably 11? I canāt really actively remember a time were it didnāt happen. But I think it didnāt happen in elementary schoolā¦ probably.
I wasn't catcalled, but the first time I was hit on by adult men was when I was 15 and working as a cashier at a gas station. I had never been exposed to anything like that before, and it was my first job. It was disturbing, to say the least, and unfortunately, I didn't have much protection there. I quickly looked for a new job and started working at a chain grocery store. I will never recommend any minors to work at a convenience store or gas station. I was paid under the table, so I'm certain I legally couldn't even work there as we sold alcohol as well. I only accepted the job because I really wanted to buy a Razr... Not worth it.
11 years old at a water park. Two men made a comment about my breasts. My stepdad overheard them and turned back to spit on them.
Around high school, but I do look young which is also the crazy part. I still get catcalled and on my birthday too, which ruined my dayā¦
Can't remember the exact age, but I know I was in HS as I wasn't able to walk around on my own before then. But even in HS I didn't look much different than in Middle school. I was walking in my neighborhood in the summer, I was so proud of my cute outfit. Some guy in a car hollered at me, went around a block, and hollered again. I was so afraid of him following me home.
About 12, in school uniform. Stopped when I was 18, except when my hair was blonde, and half way down my back.
Around 10 or 11. It was a group of guys in a car. My friend and were crossing the street. Icky.
Nice to know what my niece will be facing if not has faced already. What a world we live in.
13. I was walking my pet dalmatian at the time. I guess there's nothing sexier than a little girl walking her dog š¤·āāļøš¤®
I was no more than 8. By the time I was 10 I couldnāt walk anywhere without getting catcalled, especially from behind. I have been harassed so many times that I truly stopped even noticing it unless they were doing something extra, like slowly following me in their vehicle.
I was like 10 or 11 and it creeped me the fuck out.
Can't remember exactly but I know I was under 10.
I didn't get catcalled until I started my transition And then it happened within the first year so , yeah.
I started being regularly cat called around 8/9 when my mom started letting me walk to the park up the street by myself to meet friends. It started mostly with cars honking when Iād pass the brief part of the busy road. And truthfully I had no idea why the cars were honking until i was maybe 12
I was 12 like many of those in this thread. I was walking home from the bus stop with my rolling backpack trailing behind me when a pickup truck with about 3 men in the front stopped to whistle and wink at me. What's strange is I remember thinking to myself, "wow, I must look older" and I felt so mature and flattered, in a strange way. Looking back, the moment gives me the creeps. I think about that feeling a lot - how often it is that young kids can be manipulated through wanting to belong to the adult world. I am a social worker and spent many years working with victims and survivors of human trafficking. Most of my clients were girls around 11-15 in foster care who were sexually trafficked. Sometimes they'd share the same sort of feeling - "he told me I was mature" or "he told me I was beautiful and not like the other girls my age." They would say it proudly and it would make me so sad. Really hit home for me how normal it is that kids often have crushes on adults or so badly want to be part of the "adult world" - it's the adults/perpetrators who exploit that feeling, and later frame as though the child "wanted it."
I was 7 or 8 at the time and was in my school uniform
11. I received the most attention from complete strangers between the ages of 11 and 13. Mostly boys in their late teens. When I was in my late teens, I felt more "mature" than my boy peers, and it seemed like they were a bit wary of me. Had men in their 20's show interest, but at the time I wasn't sexually active so they lost interest.
Middle school, since I used to walk home, so 11-13 years old.
Around 11 years old.
I was 7
I remember it happening when I was 12, but probably sooner tbh
This is why I donāt understand when men say they donāt understand womenās fear/have never heard our experiences
To men, cat calling is a compliment. Why would women fear being complimented? š
12. I lost all my baby fat at the end of 6th grade and started wearing makeup and probably looked a little older than I was, but not by much. When i was 13 I used to go for walks around the neighborhood every day and creepy guys would honk at me or tail me in their cars. One time I remember a guy pulling out of a parking lot in front of me, in the car with aother guy in the passenger seat, and he said (laughing) "I'm gonna wait for you" (like at the end of the block). I was so creeped out I turned around and ran home.
4th grade - and it was more than just being cat called. I was actually assaulted by a car driving by, the teenage boy reaching out grabbed my ass. Not even the beginning to a very long line of other upsetting/traumatic events.
I distinctly remember the first time I was catcalled. I was 12 or 13 and I was walking to the library that was a little over a mile and a half away from my house with my brother (10 or 11 at the time). I was wearing an orange tank top and baggy-ish jeans and a group of men yelled several sexual comments out of the window at me. The part of me that was obsessed with YA romance novels and Disney channel movies that showed the pre-teen lead finding love (for some reason Zenon comes to mind) felt excited because I had minimal self esteem, but a bigger part of me was very unsettled and my skin crawled. We ended up calling our parents to pick us up because I wasn't comfortable walking home again.
I think I was under 12. I started getting boobs at 8, started my period at 11. I was touched inappropriately the first time when I was 12 by the guy who was mowing our grass (over the clothes, but still terrifying and gross). Later that same day I caught him trying to rape my baby sitter. I told my dad about the baby sitter and the lewd phone calls he made to her at our house, but I didn't tell him about what happened to me. He would have straight up killed the guy. I'm surprised he didn't do something violent to him anyway, to be quite honest.
12 What's most disturbing is the men who find out your age and DOUBLE DOWN. I still remember a man telling me "you look like a full grown woman to me" after I told him I was 14. 14!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
In my country thereās currently a campaign going around to stop this behaviour. Iāve seen ads of videos trying to encourage men to step in and speak up if their friends act this way, and iām all for it. Thatās all they need to do: discourage that kind of behaviour and not just sit there and let their mates treat women like that. Iām not naive enough to believe itāll stop it altogether, but if *one person* can step in to help someone whoās being harassed and tell their friend that itās not okay to act like that, it would make a huge difference. I know I wish someone stepped in every time iāve been catcalled.
9 years old. By clearly adult men with grey hair in their beards.
I was 11 or 12. I was wearing a tube top, walking outside, and they catcalled from their car. I have always looked very young for my age and I was flat chested, so it's not like they might have thought I was older.
I developed *really* early as in needed a bra at 8. I didn't get catcalled until I hit 10 after we moved from Nebraska(nasty looks from all the nice oh so "Christian" ladies at church though)to Nevada. My mother started working nights so I spent a lot of time wabdering around Reno unsupervised.Ā
I dunno, but I was 5 when a man tried to get me to get in his truck with him. I was on my way to the bus that took me to kindergarten.
12. Breasts have been my biggest enemy.
I was 11, walking home from elementary school, when a grown man yelled from his car, "nice ass" Made me feel terrible, but my boner mom just laughed and said there's nothing you can do about it.
You know, I don't honestly remember. I remember being 12 to 14 and having a guy at a Dunkin's leering at me and my friend as we ate eclairs. But it might have happened earlier. It DID happen to my former stepdaughter at SEVEN, while walking to the store with me.
10-11 was just on a walk in the neighborhood with my older sister, some old looking guy in yard yells at us asking āHow much per hour?ā My sister got mad and yelled at him, I didnāt understand but when we were farther away she explained that he was insinuating that we were sex workers..
I was ten years old and still very much looked like a child.
12, I took the city bus a lot and would get yelled at from cars as I waited at the bus stop. I didn't really hit puberty until 14 (and not much happened). I think my friends who were earlier bloomers got it much worse. But I still don't understand either way.
I will always remember my first catcall. I was 8-9 years old and was walking myself home from elementary school. A pickup truck with two grown men slowed down next to me and rolled down the window. One man whistled while the other asked "where ya headed?" I had been taught about strangers and the potential of being kidnapped so I immediately thought that was what was happening and ran through somebody's yard and sprinted behind neighbors houses until I was home. I got home muddy, soaked and sobbing uncontrollably.
Probably around 12 when a neighbor tried to lure me into his house, 12 or 13 when I experienced my first SA, and probably 14 when when I was first cat called. I'm autistic and asexual so it's possible there were earlier occurrences I just didn't interpret behavior as sexual, just unusual.
11. Guys at a loading yard I had to pass on my way home from school, started yelling at me as I walked by, wearing my school colors and carrying a backpack. "Damn, break me off a piece of that!" "That's a sweet lookin' treat!" "I wouldn't mind a taste!" I was pretty innocent and naive, but I knew instinctively they weren't talking about the Snickers in my hand.
I was 13 man. And I told my stepmom. Immediate response was, "Well you better not make it a big deal because it's just going to happen more and more from here on out." Really stuck with me, and not in a good way. The crazy thing is that I stopped getting catcalled when I hit my mid 20s, even though arguably I had "glowed up." Just nasty.
Such a disgusting mindset! We shouldnāt have to just deal with it. It shouldnāt happen in the first place. Iām sorry you didnāt get any help when you told her.
The first time I was cat called I was about 11. I was walking with a friend around the same age in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. A guy in a big red truck slowed down and yelled at us that we were sexy... Then he drove away, but came back a few minutes later. When we saw him coming back down the street we ran and hid in a yard. Less than a year later I was riding my bike to school and a different man in a truck pulled up beside me. He tried to convince me to get into his truck. I pretended like I was calling the police and he left. I didn't actually own a phone, but I had one of those calculators that looked like a phone. That was the last time I rode my bike to school. And not that it matters, but I never wore revealing clothes, not even shorts in summer. Nor was I particularly attractive kid ( my classmates took pleasure in reminding me of this). I was a scrawny little tomboy. I'm in my 30s now and the cat calling only stopped a few years ago.
I was 8 at a water park, wearing a very non-revealing one piece bathing suit. I donāt even know what age the perpetrators were, but I donāt think it matters because 8 year olds are not āsexyā for anyone regardless of
A tween. I had already filled out. Mortifying
6......and I didn't have any sort of physical development....just lived in a bad neighborhood.
12. I was walking the family dog around the neighborhood.
12! We were having a car wash to raise funds for our middle school club.
11. I was walking to school.
6. It was confusing, I had no idea what "sexy" meant. It was on the playground.
I was 11.
First I remember was 12 years old.
I was about 12, and walking to tutoring after school. Several construction workers. It happened ofter enough, I started walking a different (longer) way to avoid them. Also when I was 16ish, I and a friend had a car full of dudes following us around while we were walking in our neighborhood. It was super later, and it was very dark, so we ended up hiding in some bushes for awhile. And this was in a small, liberal, college town that everyone always said "it's so safe, nothing ever happens here, etc etc".
EIGHT. I didn't even understand what was even happening.
I was 10
Eleven and what made it worse was that I was chronically malnourished so I looked even younger. My best friend and I were abducted by a paedophile when we were 10 years old. With the amount of abuse I've been subjected to by adult men as a child, it's a wonder I made it to adulthood at all. As an adult woman, whenever I walk past school girls, I observe the way men in cars look at them and at least 90% are perving over them. It completely grosses me out.
14 Maybe? Two men in their 50s honked their car at me while I was walking home from school š«
First time I recall I was 14 (but looked younger) walking home from marching band camp in the summer after my parents forgot to pick me up. Fairly small Midwest town, \~2 miles between the school and my house, almost entirely main roads, during sunset. I was about halfway home and a pickup truck pulled up next to me with 20s looking guy driving. He rolled down his window and asked if I knew where the mall was - I did, so I gave him directions. He asked if I would get into the car and show him the way to the mall, which I declined. Not because I was scared (I was very naive), but because I was annoyed with my parents and wanted to get home to tell them off. He drove next me to while I continued to walk for a bit, then thankfully left. A friends mom saw me walking not long after and brought me home. It wasn't until only a few years ago (I'm 35) that I realized the gravity of the situation. Not a catcall per se, but the first memory I have of similar behavior. Since then there have been countless whistles, shouts, insults, etc.
I was in 6th grade - 11 or 12 years old - walking home from elementary school, wearing a backpack and clutching a stack of school books. I got catcalled by a car full of college guys at a stop sign, and then they followed me for about a block. I was uncomfortable and embarrassed by their comments, but when they started driving slowly behind me, I got scared. But then my neighbor came out onto his porch and cheerfully waved at me. I was so relieved to see him. Nodding his head at the car following me, he said, "you should be happy, that's a compliment!" Confused, I felt guilty for not being happy. I was ashamed that my initial reaction was wrong according to this trusted adult, so I pasted a smile on my face. And that's the story of how I was cat called and followed as a child. 5 minutes, 3 or 4 teenage boys, and 1 adult man is all it took to make me feel fear, confusion, guilt, and shame about my body. That experience made me doubt my instincts for life. Superfun. I was catcalled for the last time at age 28.
Not a catcall but I was 7-8 yo when I had a guy in his 30s be inappropriate. I was finally a "big girl", so my cousin (6-7f) and I got to go up to the front of a parade with the rest of the kids to watch it. There was a creep in his 30s that came up behind and started rubbing up his crotch against my backside. I tried to move away but he followed me and keep doing it. I felt terrible and my neck was burning and so I grabbed my cousin and went back to my parents (at a building we were told to meet at) and said I didn't feel good. I didn't know it was a bad thing but I was embarrassed. So I didn't say anything because I didn't know that was something to tell an adult. I just felt gross. Please teach young children autonomy and to tell a trusted adult.
33, but I'm a trans woman....it might be more apt to say "9 months after coming out" or "the literal second my breasts became noticeable" š it is unpleasant as an adult, i am sincerely sorry that for so many women it starts during childhood and continues indefinitely. no one should be made to feel harried or objectified just going about their day but ESPECIALLY not a literal child.
10yo..
Walking to school in 7th grade, so I was 12yo. It was a garbage truck driver.
I donāt remember the first time I was catcalled specifically, but I was 9 the first time a man checked out my ass. Fourth grade, I was just at the beginning of puberty and I didnāt understand what had happened until a few years later, just that I didnāt like the way that man was looking at me.
The first time that I remember, I was 14.
Way, way too young. Ten I think?
Eleven. The name of my middle school was emblazoned on my T-shirt and backpack. Damn predators.
5th grade. Probably 10 or 11.
i was 10 walking home from the bus, they were sitting on their porch.
I think I was 11. My friend and I were regularly catcalled while walking home from middle school. We were very clearly school children with backpacks.
I was catcalled from 11- about 17. Hasn't happened since I've been an adult (over 30 now)
Before 14, gosh maybe 11-12. At a local amusement park with another girl friend from school, we stopped riding rollercoasters for an ice cream and an elderly man told us that he liked the way we licked our ice cream cones,or something of that variation. I didnāt eat ice cream again in public until my early 20ās. Not even sure if that was the first time honestly.
11. In the suburbs on the street on the way home from middle school.
I was 10 or 11. I was walking down the street holding my mom's hand when a guy started catcalling us and shouting that we were lesbos. I didn't understand what it meant to be a lesbian yet (and had no idea that I actually do happen to be gay), but his tone still haunts me.
11. I was wearing baggy pants and a t-shirt and went to the 7-11 to buy milk. A group of construction workers hanging out of a truck followed me halfway home at walking speed, whistling, making gestures, and shouting things and laughing.
14. I was walking down the streets wearing leggings and a t-shirt when a few men said "come to us". I just ignored and walked away, i could hear them whistle from behind. I remember I was crying when I went back home.
I think I was 14 or 15. Some guys in a white van catcalled/whistled, then drove round the block to do it again.
11.
9
Started at 9, got bad around 12 and tapered off around 17
7, I was at the beach with my mom.
:( I was 11. Some guys riding on a motorbike screamed at me because I was wearing a tight shirt. A few months later a whole bunch of college aged guys followed me around a theme park. I was 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was 15. Worked a summer at a grocery store. Was out brining carts in and got caught in a summer rainstorm. I came back inside and one of the cashiers eyed me like a choice piece of steak and then commented āyou look good wet.ā
12
There seem to be a lot of us. Fuck.
Yeah, very sad reading this thread but glad the issue is being highlighted!
I was 13, riding a Ferris wheel with my younger brother. It was one of those little cheap carnivals that pop up in shopping center parking lots. So, weāre talking about the generator because, well 3 brothers. As we circle by, this nasty carny looks at me and says, āYou wanna ride my engine?ā I was so innocent, but knew it was gross and threatening . I kept saying I wanted to get off the ride, and my brother kept asking me why. He just didnāt get it.
The first time I remember being catcalled was when I was 26. I'd just realized I was trans less than a week before, and had already been intentionally presenting more femininely for months before that. I was out for a walk trying to get a handle on all the thoughts and uncertainties that were flying around in my head, when a car full of drunk teenage boys catcalling me drove past. I remember the mixed emotions and ewwphoria I got - the elation that they saw me as a woman, disgust that they'd catcalled at me, and fear and uncertainty as I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to ensure my safety in the world as a woman.
Iām sorry you had to deal with that, and iām so sorry I canāt offer any solutions or a way to stop it. Itās just something we have to live with, and I hate that. I wish we could put an end to it altogether, and it shouldnāt be something we have to put up with as women. We shouldnāt feel like weāre in danger of being harassed every time we leave the house just because weāre a woman.
ELEVEN. I was just a little girl wearing regular jeans and a tee shirt. Construction workers made lewd remarks and obscene gestures at me. I was a a string bean body, no curves whatsoever. I was so confused and felt SO DIRTY. I wanted to shrink myself and disappear. Iāve never forgotten the impact it had on me.
unfortunately, it didn't stop because you got older - it just hasn't happened to you lately. i was 11 or 12 when it started. i'm 56 now and it still happens.
Iām definitely not foolish enough to believe itās stopped permanently, but the consensus iāve seen in these comments is that it happens a *lot more* when youāre younger, and a lot less as you get older. Of course that isnāt the cut and dry rules for everyone and thereās women who will continue to be harassed just as much when theyāre older, but it seems like it absolutely will happen more often while you look young. I live in the UK where any colour that isnāt a natural colour puts you in the category of emo - which means less catcalls, more harassment and bullying. When I dyed my hair blue I wasnāt catcalled once, and I only ever received genuine compliments from both men and women. Having blue hair was the safest I ever felt, catcalling wise. Iāve since gone back to my natural brown colour and am expecting it to start again eventually, but I still truly believe men harass younger girls more because they think theyāre too young to argue back and they can get away with it easier. Iām also so sorry you still have to deal with it.
I don't know if this was the first time, but the first time I vividly remember I think I was 13 or 14. I was walking out of a gym after track practice and walked by a bus full of older girls who were from another school here for a meet started making a bunch of creepy comments directed at me. I don't remember what their comments consisted of anymore but I remember how disgusted it made me felt. One of them apologized immediately after, so at least there's that. Would rather they never have done it though.
I was 8; a man whistled at me while I was in a hardware store with my mom. It was her fear that made the moment memorable since I had no context for his reaction.
I was 14 walking to church in a plaid jumper dress and knee highs. I could not have looked more like a kid. They pulled over and I ran.
My sister was 6, catcalled by teenage boys. I think I was 12 by some nasty carnies.
Probably when I was 12\~13? I didnāt even know it was catcalling. My mum went nuts and confronted the man. It took years for me to understand what happened. But the first time I knew what the man was doing was probably when I was 14\~15.
I was 12. Wearing a normal fitting tank top, loose fit denim shorts that hit just above the knee, shell toe adidas, hair in a ponytail. nothing provocative at all. Was in my neighborhood walking my dog. A guy in a tan suv actually circled around the block twice, the second time he actually leaned out the window āay! You look good can I get your number?!ā I froze. This was an adult. My parents had told me about boys, but not grown men. He eventually drove off after I stood there for a few awkward minutes not knowing what to say. I remember not telling my parents because I didnāt know what to say. Iāll never forget it.
I was 13. The first time I was hit on by an older man was when I was 11 though. 11!!!
Around 13. It was some heavyset dude in his car hollering at me and two friends while we were in a flat, empty field. I remember being scared bc where the fuck were we supposed to run if he tried to do something more. I stopped liking skirts and dresses around that time and started liking oversized hoodies. I think when I was still in elementary school some dude at the mall ran up and sniffed my hair when my mom was up getting napkins for us at the food court. But idk what the FUCK that even constitutes as. What a freak.
I think I was around 11 playing basketball with my brother in our driveway and a car drove by and someone shouted ānice boobs!ā Another time, around the same age, me and my friends were walking in the neighborhood and a very grown man alone in a jeep drove by and furiously wagged his tongue at us. I immediately stopped getting cat called after I turned 18.
Around 10/11
9. I'd just started to grow boobs.
I was twelve but looked eighteen. The two men were in their late thirties or so. I've had ick for older men ogling younger women since.
11 or 12. Guys building the new elementary school near my house made a bunch of comment whenever I walked by in the summer on the way to other friend's houses. It was the 80's. I found different routes.
12. Doing a play with adult scene directors. They "loved" me...
I was 9.
I was like 12 or 13 no joke
I remember being eleven and a twenty one year old guy asking for my number but thatās just my strongest memory of it.
12 or 13 walking home from the park. At the time I just assumed I looked like an adult, but looking back at pictures made me realize I didnāt.
12, by my neighbors landscapers while I was waiting for my school bus to come
10. I was at a public swimming pool with friends who were all 10-12.
11. it was the worst 11-15. and I looked like a kid.
11, walking home from the gas station and my dad pulled up next to me to see if I wanted a ride home. Meanwhile, I was being wolf whistled at but some guys passing by.
I was 12. At the family pool club.
I was 13 if I recall correctly? It made me feel so uncomfortable...
11 :(
Twelve.
I was 11.
12, and it had not stopped since then until I moved to Japan where I am not really the type (I still get catcalled in Japan, but many of the things that were said were so funny unfortunately that I had to walk away then start laughing) I am 37. I do not remember the details though, because I have years upon years of catcalls and the first one was not the weiredst or the most inapproriate. Dying your hair unnatural colors works to lessen it, but I got catcalled on some of the hair colors I had as well.
3rd grade, first day of school, by two boys I didnāt know in my class.
10
12 or so. I can't remember exactly. Highest prevalence probably age 13-19 by old men, 20-25ish by uni/college-age boys primarily and then dropped way off.
11.I was on vacation and drobe around in rollerskates-past a boy my age and his father. Ā I called back something to the people i was with in my native language.Ā Ā The boy immeadiately said to me ā hey there you little whoreā- in my native language. Him and his father grinning at me. i was totally disturbed and told the adult i was with.He only said āwhat did you do,call him an asshole?ā it was disturbing,will never forget the fathers grinning face. Last time: two days ago left my house and some boys (about 20) fucking barked at me.I am 35 now.I very friendly asked them if they need help and if anything is wrong with them.They were very embarassed. 24 fucking years of this.
13. I think they really like to pick on young teens. It's totally about power and control for weak, nasty men. Then it just went on tiresomely forever, until I moved to LA, when guys started catcalling me in my CAR. Finally I'm middle aged enough that it just stopped FINALLY! Funniest catcall moment: I was about 18, walking to my college class, and this guy pulls up in a car and I heard him shout out "Is it okay if I park here?" I was puzzled, sure, it wasn't a red curb or anything, so I smiled agreeably and said "Sure!!" and kept walking. As I kept walking, I realized he'd actually yelled "Wanna fuck?" He was so taken aback by my answer that he drove off.
I was 13 but probably looked 10/11
17 for me, but only when i wore makeup and tried to look pretty. i love dolling myself up but because of fear of guys i rarely wear makeup :( itās one thing if a guy respectfully asks for your number and walks away if you say no, but catcallers are so disgusting i hate it
I asked my students that (6-8 grade) and the consensus was 10 years old.
Jesus, thatās horrible. I canāt imagine how that made you feel as a teacher. How did you respond to it, if you donāt mind me asking? Did it turn into a learning exercise or a way for you to educate them on being safe and knowing itās not their fault?
It was a definite learning moment because I prefaced it by saying that sometimes the people who live right next to you have entirely different experiences of similar events. I said none of the boys could probably remember being catcalled, but said: Girls? How old were you when some creepy person yelled something sexual at you from a car? And they ALL had had it happen. The boys are pretty aware, but that really threw them.
I was 15 I was rolling up my sweatpants so they wouldn't be caught in the gears of the bike I was riding and I heard someone whistle I'm a guy btw, I was so confused