Open Letter to Last Night's Cat Caller
I would like to apologize for my preemptive use of the word “asshole” to address you tonight. That was a primarily instinctive response. Having calmed now, I realize that in that moment I had no way of knowing if you were indeed an asshole or merely misinformed. You see, when you yelled “shake that ass girl” so loudly that anyone with two blocks of you could understand your message, I was instantly put into a state of shock. There has been so much attention on sexual harassment in the last year within our community that I honestly believed everyone was on the same page about catcalling being inappropriate and unwanted. Yelling “That’s catcalling, asshole” across the street to you happened before I even had time to process the words. I am not usually one for public confrontation, so I must attribute my vehement response to the surprise of your blatant transgression. As already stated, I would like to apologize for my use of the word ‘asshole’ at that time. Having apologized, I would like to clarify that I DO indeed think that you and your friends are assholes now. Instead of recognizing that catcalling is unwelcome in this community, you proceeded to show even brighter ass stripes by creating a chorus of “sluts,” “show us your tits,” “whore,” and a variety of other standard sexual harassment slurs. Your original comment was not directed at me, but these were. Those words were specifically designed to punish me and remind me that I am not supposed to openly challenge your masculinity. Well, I call bullshit. The woman you yelled at about her ass did not give you any positive attention, nor did any of the other women on the street at that time. If you are indeed all heterosexual males operating with the expectation that getting laid affirms your masculinity, then your effort failed utterly and absolutely. I doubt it has ever worked for you or a man on this campus. This means that you can’t even use masculinity to justify your actions. All this says to me you are an asshole who likes yelling at other people on the street. Please consider this a not-so-friendly PSA that I and the majority of this town, campus, and community find your behavior unacceptable. I may have been wrong to call you an asshole at first, but you deserve it now. Sincerely, Random Woman
Happened on October 10, 2014
Incident reported by target
Bystander Action? No
Harassment Types: Sexual
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