100% agree. Nothing makes my blood boil more quickly than a story from my girlfriend or female friend (or even on reddit) about some asshole catcalling, harassing, following, stalking, or generally creeping on them.
Right now my girlfriend is dealing with a guy who went to the same college she went to a few years back (with one year of overlap) who comes into her store at least once a week and just stares at her from the corner of the small store. He asked to be friends on Facebook the first time he trapped her in a conversation for a half hour and asked to hang out and such, but she just redirected him to the shop's Facebook page and declined his offers and worked me into the conversation. So now he just comes in the store (or sometimes stands right outside the store) and just fucking stares at her. She gave him the benefit of the doubt until the third time he just stood there staring at her the entire time and refused help from all her coworkers.
Her coworkers are ready to just yell at the guy and kick him out, but my girlfriend is very rule-bound and wants to follow the corporate policy, which means he's have to actually ask her something inappropriate again like to friend her on Facebook or where she lives. She's just afraid of him retaliating and complaining to corporate on her. It blows.
I think one of the worst parts is that other dudes say things like "oh well he's probably just..." and give some rationalization or reason why she's overreacting and he's just a completely innocent bystander and it's really my girlfriend's fault or is just a misunderstanding. Probably they'll say something about how he's probably a great or nice guy. It'll probably happen here too. Yeah, I get it, he's into her and has bad social skills. That doesn't mean it's okay for him to do something like stare at her in an enclosed space where she literally can't leave because she's paid to be there. She dreads going to work because he might be there. Just because someone doesn't understand or want to believe that they are doing something inappropriate doesn't make it okay to do.
That's a pretty tame example compared to the horrible shit that dudes say to women on the street. Why do random guys think it's okay to say they want to rape someone walking by? Or call them "sexy" names? Or talk about their bodies or part of their bodies? It seems like a single conversation with almost any woman in their lives would make them understand that it is not the case that people want to hear the inner workings of your mind when you're horny.
The thing is, I don't know if I'm more angry at the people doing this creepy shit or the people who try to explain it away or justify it as just a misunderstanding or the woman being too sensitive or not knowing how to take a compliment. They're both infuriating.