IsItBullshit: Catcalls

BIG disclaimer: These are just my own personal experiences and might not be universal. Sometimes it's possible to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time so these are certainly NOT meant to be a sweeping generalisation about any country or culture.

OK, You asked for a place-by-place comparison so these are countries I've either lived in or spent a good amount of time in (one month or more total), ranked by my catcalling experiences.

1) Turkey: Catcalling was completely constant and often fucking terrifying. If you try to ignore it or remove yourself from the situation, it's not uncommon for guys to literally block your path to stop you from getting away from them (admittedly this was a much worse and scarier problem when I was a young teenager than when I went back as an adult recently, although it was still an issue). I generally found that the only way to minimise street harassment is to have a male chaperone, always dress exceptionally modestly (with a fake wedding ring) and never smile or make eye contact with anyone. And even then, you still get hassled.

2) France. I lived in the South for a year in a fairly rough city neighbourhood and catcalling was a pretty big problem. I had a guy follow me home once trying to get me to talk to him because I didn't answer him. Overall, I found that guys were slightly more likely to back off if you were firm, although sometimes you have to invent a fake husband (who's always meeting you just around the corner) or a fake pregnancy (guys lose interest if you tell them you're in your first trimester).

4) Spain - I've been to Spain a lot. I'd say not much catcalling experience as an adult, except in Barcelona. I received quite a few outwardly explicit/sexually threatening remarks there which made my skin crawl.

3) UK. Where I'm from and currently live. In my experience, it's a much bigger issue in London than anywhere else I've been. It's usually slightly less "sinister" catcalling (I've never really been physically followed or threatened) and more nuisance stuff (sexually explicit comments about your body, weird guys on the night bus wanting to show you their penis, teenagers shouting "Bet you'd love to suck my knob" that sort of thing.)

5) Italy - Been to a few places in Italy and just experienced the odd "Hey beautiful/hey sexy, how are you?". Guys never really pushed it and I never felt particularly unsafe.

6) US - Similar to Italy. Just the odd wolf-whistle or "hey sexy".

Places where I've had no harassment:

Russia, Germany and Austria.

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