Analysis Of The Article Stop With The Catcalls By Mel Robbins

Men catcalling women is a pervasive issue that many women face. The catcalling usually begins around the age when girls are prepubescent and continue on throughout their adulthood. In Mel Robbins’ article, “Attention, men; Stop with the catcalls”, the author talks about the issue of men catcalling women and how it can be stopped. Robbins states that it is initially hard to understand why catcalls and unwanted comments amount to harassment. She also states that instead of men catcalling women, men should approach women with the 3 rules she came up with. I agree with Robbins’ point of view that men catcalling women is an issue that needs to be addressed. However, as a young woman who has been harassed in this manner several times, I am unable

They give us lewd looks and unwanted comments and catcalls about how our body looks and sometimes what they want to do with us. They sometimes come into our personal space and say, “You look so beautiful I had to say hello. What’s your name? Can I get your number?” It is emotionally and physically uncomfortable because you don’t know this man and yet you don’t want to be rude at the same time. Even when you tell them that you do not wish to talk to them and try to walk away, some will even go as far as following us. Especially if this happens at night, it is downright, frightening. What I can’t understand is how she can’t see why it’s so hard to see how this can amount to harassment. Robbins states that “For a long time, I didn’t see it that way… because at 45 [I] have grown to be a very confident, extroverted person.” She later changed her point-of-view after seeing the unacceptable way grown men were eyeing her 15-year-old daughter. With this, it’s not hard to see how stalking, unwanted comments, and looking at a woman in a lewd manner, or anyone for that matter, is harassment. Think about it this way, if you wouldn’t want it happening to your 15-year-old daughter or even son, it shouldn’t be acceptable to do it at all. It also shouldn’t be acceptable to create so-called “rules” to approaching women. To me, it seems as though

Here are the 3 rules that she has proposed; “1. Speak “to” her, not “at” her. 2. Start a conversation “with” her, not “about” her. 3. If she walks away do not follow her.” I don’t have a problem with these rules, but when placed in this situation, it doesn’t seem right. When you think about it, men only harass women because they have a sexual interest in them. Robbins implies it herself in her article. She states, “Guys will likely always have sex on the brain more than women do [particularly when the sex center of the male brain is 2.5 times larger than the female sex center in the brain.] And sexual desire and power is the root of catcalls… and it’s also why guys think there’s nothing wrong with it.” So even with these so-called rules, the men that follow them will still think that it’s okay to have sexual intentions when talking to a woman that they do not know. I’ve had situations where grown men would come up to me and try to talk to me by following these rules. However, they ultimately fail because they always have this sexual intent when approaching a woman they’re “interested” in. These rules should be used when in a familiar setting, such as work, school, or social gatherings, when you generally want to get know someone and not just a