Cat Calling

The main street near Bryn Mawr is cat calling central. The only other time I've had so many honks, yells, and whoops from passing cars is that night when we went clubbing in Spain.

Now, it's sometimes kind of flattering, but also incredibly awkward. And it's usually not really even flattering. More demeaning, degrading, de-anything you want to call it. Anyway, what are you supposed to do when someone yells out of a car at you? I normally just walk away.

I've had two times when that really wasn't an option. The first time wasn't really cat calling. There were a couple of guys standing on the side walk. After I passed them, they offered to walk with me. How kind, you might think. Let's just say it didn't feel "kind" per se. I tried to ignore it, they repeated the offer louder. I said no thank you and practically ran.

The second time was this afternoon. I wasn't even ON Lancaster at the time but a side street, about 50 yards from Lancaster. Maybe less. I dunno. I can't judge distance.

Anyway, there I was, walking back towards school and this guy walks past with two girls. I was on the sidewalk, which is kind of on top of a hill next to the road and they were on the street, so they were probably 10 feet from me and below me.

First the guy yells "hey" at me. I try to ignore it and speed up, but I made the mistake of glancing slightly to the side and back 'cause I wasn't sure he actually was talking to me. He definitely was. He was looking straight at me (which by now means over his shoulder since, of course, I had sped up...).

Then I hear the words "cutey with the booty."

I speed up a LOT and practically run away.

I can't decide what level of degrading/demeaning flattery this qualifies as. Normally I don't get particular assets appreciated by random people on the street, but I also don't particularly desire to have such appreciations.

Besides, couldn't he have come up with something a little more original?

And am I the only one who thinks it's weird to use a word like "cutey" in a practice like cat calling that makes me feel like a piece of meat? I mean, meat isn't the cutest thing in the world.... Cat calling makes me feel like the cat caller isn't particularly interested in the cuteness level of the cat callee........

Ok. I'm done with my rant.