Fines for catcalling would recognize street harassment as serious problem

[Tennis]

Catcalling, or street harassment, as it’s officially known these days, doesn’t usually find its way onto many lists of “Planet Earth’s most Pressing Problems.”

This is probably why whenever a feminist complains in the press about some guy yelling obscenities at her on a city street, she is met with an army of eye rolls that seem to say: “Aren’t there more important causes you girls can focus your efforts on?”

To which this feminist would like to respond: No, not really. After all, what’s more important than a person’s right to a pleasant stroll down the street? Equal pay for equal work doesn’t count for much if you can’t walk to your job unmolested by leering creeps.

American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with writing the popular inspirational quote sewn onto many a throw pillow: “Life’s a Journey, not a Destination.” But it’s obvious that Emerson, a man, was never a victim of cat calling.

Because when you’re a woman — i.e. when your walk to work, school or the corner store is, at some point in your life, invariably interrupted by a guy hollering “Suck it beautiful!” out of a car window, it’s the destination, not the journey that you celebrate.

All this is to say I wholeheartedly support French politician Marlene Schiappa’s new campaign to target street harassers and cat callers in France.

Schiappa, France’s official Secretary of State in charge of Equality between Women and Men, and the youngest member of President Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet (she’s 34 years old), would like to see French authorities apprehend street harassers on the spot and issue them a steep fine. In other words, she’d like to see street harassers and cat callers — overwhelmingly men who shout at, grope, and follow women on the street — publicly shamed in a similar fashion to shoplifters and people who refuse to pick up after their dogs.

Schiappa doesn’t appear to have worked out the details of a policy targeting street harassment (for example, how it will be written so as not to infringe on free speech rights), but the general idea behind it is a promising one: shift the shame and embarrassment women feel when they are cat called back onto the guys doing the cat calling.

Not only would such a policy give street harassers a dose of their own medicine, but the threat of a stiff monetary penalty might dissuade them from harassing people, even if such a penalty was rarely doled out.

With any luck, it would also help dispel the myth that street harassment is no big deal and that women need to toughen up. This is a myth I once believed myself, because I was a) insensitive and b) extremely lucky.

Most of the crude dudes I’ve stood up to in my life were pretty easy competition: teenage boys who became immediately bashful and remorseful when confronted about their inappropriate behaviour and idiots shouting from cars who disappeared in an instant (my profanity laced retorts a distant echo in their ears).

But I’ve since come to realize that not all cat callers fit neatly into the category of all bark and no bite. Some get angry when rejected. Others follow you. Some, practically foaming at the mouth, call you a f---ing dyke after you refuse to give them your phone number outside a Pita Pit at one o’clock in the morning (true story).

Others follow you, egged on by a group of their rowdy peers. This latter scenario is one all too familiar to Marlene Schiappa herself. The politician told NPR recently that as a teen in Paris, she and her sister “took alternative routes” to avoid “bands of boys” prone to cat calling and groping women on the street.

In the end, the French leader’s proposal to crack down on street harassment in her nation may amount to nothing more than a series of debates and columns like this one. And no doubt backlash from conservatives who demand to know why a feminist in a first-world country is complaining about men making lewd remarks in a jewel of a democracy like Paris when she could be fighting to end the far worse subjugation of women in the far East (that a feminist is capable of doing both of these things at the same time, conveniently never seems to cross their minds).

But Schiappa’s proposal will be successful even if it changes no laws, because it will redefine street harassment in the public conversation, from an inalterable fact of urban life to a problem that can and should be corrected.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...em-teitel.html

Very interesting argument being presented here. The question really is if fines are the tool that should be used in this situation or something else.

What do you think? What should be done?

[Tennis]

You are aware that this law will negatively impact minorities significantly more than whites right?

I disagree with the premise.

Also, it doesn't matter who gets impacted the most, what matters is that our citizens feel safe when walking on the streets.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Fines, if you hit a jackass hard enough with their pocket book, they'll stop or seriously start considering the next dumb thing that comes out of their mouths. Unfortunately the drawback to this is that if you have enough it won't work, but the way you deal with that, make it a % of someones over all wealth and net income.


Tailor the fine for a specific result, and this shit will end.

[Templar 331]

In other words, she’d like to see street harassers and cat callers — overwhelmingly men who shout at, grope, and follow women on the street — publicly shamed in a similar fashion to shoplifters and people who refuse to pick up after their dogs.

I'm willing to bet at least two of these are illegal already. So what's the point in shaming them?

Not only would such a policy give street harassers a dose of their own medicine, but the threat of a stiff monetary penalty might dissuade them from harassing people, even if such a penalty was rarely doled out.

You seriously underestimate the type of people who cat call in public. They mostly don't care about their self image to begin with. And the ones that do will find a way to blame others for them being called out for cat calling.

But I’ve since come to realize that not all cat callers fit neatly into the category of all bark and no bite. Some get angry when rejected. Others follow you. Some, practically foaming at the mouth, call you a f---ing dyke after you refuse to give them your phone number outside a Pita Pit at one o’clock in the morning (true story).

Oh, never mind. You do understand them. XD

[burzian]

In many states, a lot of the actions that constitute street harassment are already illegal. Rather than try to create some kind of new designation or new fines, a concerted effort by law enforcement to cite people for these already illegal things could help send the appropriate message.

More information: http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/...eLaw-20131.pdf

[frogger237]

Unless you video tape it, how will you even prove it happened? Or that the person saying they were catcalled was even the target of the yelling?

[burzian]

I hope hope law enforcement would be doing things that actually matter.

Yawn. Like what?

[Independent voter]

You are aware that this law will negatively impact minorities significantly more than whites right?

That was my first thought, it's aimed at immigrants.

[the]

can’t walk to your job unmolested by leering creeps....

target street harassers and cat callers in France.

apprehend street harassers on the spot and issue them a steep fine.

In other words, she’d like to see street harassers and cat callers — overwhelmingly men who shout at, grope, and follow women on the street

she and her sister “took alternative routes” to avoid “bands of boys” prone to cat calling and groping women on the street.

Molesting and groping are not speech. Those are different but lumped together as a single item here.

[Daedius]

Can women do it still towards men?

[burzian]

Literally anything else.

Pulling over people who run red lights would be more productive.

Hahaha, okay pal. You've determined street harassment isn't a real problem. We get it.

[McFuu]

“Suck it beautiful!”

My new pick up line. Thank you.

[lockedout]

lol fines for cat calling are silly.

[Grimbold21]

The bait has landed

[Super Kami Dende]

>comparing Catcalling to groping/stalking/verbal abuse.

Yeah these people are fucking delusional.

[Independent voter]

The groping thing is a whole another level from catcalling, nobody wants their mom or daughter groped by some degenerate. My mom would probably appreciate some catcalling.

[Martymark]

This if a law specifically hits immigrants and minorities the hardest, is it inherently racist?

[Tennis]

I'm just curious are you allowed to say a lady looks hot or sexy without going to jail or being fined?

So she could be a married mom of 3 and your concern is whether you can try to sweet talk her? Um what...

[Darknessvamp]

I'm just curious are you allowed to say a lady looks hot or sexy without going to jail or being fined?

No because something something clearly putting your mental penis on display and hypothetically raping them by saying such things. Or some other estranged explanation that'll support the narrative.

So she could be a married mom of 3 and your concern is whether you can try to sweet talk her? Um what...

That's an extremely specific example Tennisace (o_-) but I'm pretty sure if that were the case she would probably be able to communicate she's not interested.

[Theodarzna]

These men need to learn only attractive men are allowed to make advances at women. :3