Today in Products that Shouldn’t Exist: The Wolf-Whistle Horn. And Also: Help a Sister Out?
Reader Laura Birek, from Echo Park, Los Angeles, blew our minds today. Her story:
I’ve come to accept the fact that getting cat-called is just a fact of life. It still pisses me off to no end, but I’ve stopped being surprised when it happens every single time I walk down my street or stand on my porch. But recently, I was walking home and I heard a CAR HORN whistle at me. Some guy had actually installed a special horn just to use for cat-calling women. I just looked them up, and apparently they’re very affordable, too!
I’m not sure what to make of this. Whenever I complain about cat-calls to my guy friends, they ask why I don’t find these whistles flattering. I always tell them that it has nothing to do with being attractive or sexy, but that the cat-calls are just a way to instantaneously put me in my place. It doesn’t matter that I have a master’s degree, suddenly I’m reduced to just tits and ass walking down the street. It doesn’t matter that I have a great, high-paying job, because it’s clear that my only value to society is in how attractive I am to men. It doesn’t matter that I’m just trying to walk to the corner store in completely unrevealing clothing, because my body is simply entertainment for passing misogynists.
First of all, um WTF. Can you imagine the meeting in which this product was pitched and approved? And what kind of dude would actually spend $19.95 on this crap?
The other day I was aggressively cat-called while I was walking to work. I did what I always do: scowled, ignored them, and picked up my pace. But then I started thinking that my basically passive response is ultimately like letting them win. Surely there must be some way to shame these assholes into shutting up. Readers, help a sister out. Advice?
Update: We just discovered a documentary about this issue, War Zone, by Maggie Hadleigh West. West turned her camera on the callers. We think there’s another woman, a Lower East Side photographer, who did a similar, lighter series, but we forget her name. Anyone know it?
