READ: Woman Speaks Up About Online Catcalling

Contrary to what most people may think, catcalling doesn’t only manifest in whistles, hi’s and hello’s from strangers, or random people calling a person with names. The thing is, it doesn’t just happen in the streets.

Catcalling also exists in the virtual world.

And while some victims may choose to ignore it and let it slip, here’s a post from a woman who chose to speak up about how inappropriate catcalling is, both online and offline.

Here’s the full post:

(I originally didn’t intend to post anymore about this, but many people reached out to me for speaking out on the matter and asked that I write about it on Facebook, so here.)

Last night, a former male student sent me a friend request on Facebook and I accepted. While scrolling through my feed, I noticed that Facebook had published the event which didn’t bother me at first until I saw the comments. Apparently, several guy friends of my students thought it would be hilarious to tease him for it and honestly, I felt embarrassed. I felt embarrassed to be so casually regarded as nothing but an accessory to the fragile male ego, for the fleeting pleasure of a bunch of college boys with the online world watching. Unfortunately, I’m not the first to experience this and probably not the last.

These types of comments (“Paturo naman, master!”, “Tunay na hokage!” “Damn bro idol!”, “LAKAS ????????” etc.) are said all too often but for too long, we’ve kept quiet. Women fear being “basag trip” or “patalo” because all our lives, we’ve been told to just take this humiliation sitting down. Online catcalling is not just a case of “boys being boys”; it’s a case of boys being misogynist idiots who may one day inflict worse and irreparable damage to even more people.

Online catcalling is not okay. Sexual violence begins with the objectification of people, whether or not you intended it. The moment you think you’re entitled to make someone else feel uncomfortable because you need to make an overused and unfunny joke, stop. If you have friends or see people who still do this in 2016, tag them and call them out. It takes both men and women taking a stand to end this disgusting culture. Don’t be afraid to speak out just because people keep insisting these jokes are “harmless fun”. No one is laughing and neither should you.

Today, I choose to speak out not because I’m faculty, not because I’m a woman, but simply because I’m a human being worthy of respect, online and offline.

At present, the post already has over 6,000 shares. Nathania told When In Manila that she received a mix of sentiments regarding it. Some referred to it as hypersensitivity, while most people shared the same opinion.

More importantly, “The boys who made the comments sincerely apologized and are taking steps to better understand gender sensitivity.”, Nathania shared with us.

What do you think of this? Share your thoughts with us.