Where have all of the bad men gone?

Jessica Valenti complains that not only are men in New York City no longer catcalling her, but our patriarchal culture makes her crave sexual attention from random strangers: Men rarely catcall me any more. I hate that our culture makes me miss it*

From the time I was 11 or 12 years old – when I began taking the train to school – I’ve been on the receiving end of some of the worst things men say to girls and young women. There was the man in a business suit who told me to “take care of those titties for me”; the man who – when I was in seventh grade – masturbated in front of me on the subway platform near my home; the man who walked by me in the street, leaned in close, and whispered “I want to lick you” so close to my ear that I could feel his hot breath.

It was miserable. But still, as much as I wish it didn’t, the thought of not being worth men’s notice bothers me. To my great shame, I assume I must look particularly good on the rarer days that I do get catcalled.

I think we should be careful not to take anything she tells us about what men in business suits said to her as accurate.  As it has been explained, when men in business suits catcall women in NYC what they say is always masked by spontaneous sounds of sirens, car horns, jackhammers, etc.

HT Vox Day.

*Some time after Vox created the archive link to the page The Guardian changed the headline to:  One perk of older age? Fewer catcalls.