Women and girls as young 12 in Cheltenham, say their biggest safety fear they face on the town’s streets is catcalling.
The worrying finding has emerged in response to a survey completed by scores of women, as part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign against-gender based violence.
Catcalling can affect girls’ confidence and body image especially when unwarranted. It can usually be defined by ‘a loud whistle or a comment of a sexual nature made by a man to a passing woman’.
Whilst most women probably experience catcalling on a night out, catcalling can also happen at a young age, walking down the street. University student Maisie Waterson says, “It happens way to often and has sadly happened to me from a younger age like 14 by young men probably aged like 18 and still happens. Men seem to be more confident if it’s more than one girl”. Another university student Ellie Kayser says, “I got catcalled more when I was 12 or 13 than I do now… it’s very normal, I get catcalled in front of my parents”. Not only is this objectifying women, but it installs the idea women being sexual objects onto impressionable, young girls.
Catcalling can be dismissed by both men and women as compliments as it usually occurs when a man finds a woman attractive. As a result, it can often be excused as a form of flirting. Even though some men might have good intentions when making catcalls, this behaviour still causes women to feel fearful across all contexts. College and university aged men are more likely to engage in catcalling because it can be described as harmless and fun, with the majority reporting that catcalling helped them to relieve boredom.
Although catcalling is the highest rated incident according to the safety of women and girls survey, in 2021, Cheltenham Borough Council also undertook a Safety of Women at Night Survey and with the feedback they received, applied for the Safer Street Fund. The full funding request was denied but since then, taxi marshalls have been introduced, instillation of CCTV and lighting, bystander intervention training for evening staff and Cheltenham has achieved a Purple Flag status.
The Gloucestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (GRASAC) have plans to recruit new staff in order to go into schools and university and deliver community engagement work to talk about consent, healthy relationships and bystander training to “Move on from the culture of boys will be boys” says GRASAC CEO, Gilli Appleby.
The Cheltenham Borough Council’s safety survey is open for comments until January and will only take a few minutes. Click here to find out more and give your views.
