I’m almost hesitant to bring up the catcalling experiment from last week, which — depending how you look at it — was a massive failure or provided exactly the point it was trying to make. What was supposed to be an eye-opening experiment of what happens when a reasonably attractive woman walks around a major U.S. city, the loudest voices in the aftermath were the ones dismissing the video as making an issue out of typical male behavior or, even worse, telling women that they should be grateful for unwanted attention.
About that typical male behavior. The New Zealand Herald decided to experiment with the experiment, by following a model walking around Auckland for ten hours. And the result? She didn’t get one catcall. Not a single one. One man with a European accent stopped her and asked if she was Italian, then told her she looked nice and immediately apologized for it, and another asked her for directions.
So, take away from this what you will — but when it comes to catcalling, it would seem that when it comes down to it men aren’t hard-wired to turn into cavemen every time a pretty face and nice figure walks by, but that we’re all by-products of a society that encourages and fosters this behavior. ‘Murica.
(Via Slate)