Many women have experienced cat calls as they walk down the street. It's annoying and upsetting, but now Inside Edition is going undercover to expose these crude dudes for what they are.
Original Airdate: September 9, 2014
When Ashley Blankenship gets ready for her day, she mentally prepares for what often happens when she heads to work: a barrage of crude comments from men, known as cat calls.
She told INSIDE EDITION, “It always makes me feel uncomfortable. I never say to myself "Oh wow, that makes me feel good, I love that.’ No never.”
One guy, Sean Lennon, makes no apologies for cat calling Blankenship and other women. He says his comments are harmless and most women don’t mind.
INSIDE EDITION’s Lisa Guerrero asked Lennon “If you had a daughter, how you would like it if somebody cat called her out on the street?”
He replied, “If I saw them say something out of line and sure, I would react as a father would.”
Lennon comments were non-stop. At one woman he says, “There she is, where have you been all my life?” At another he shouts out, “Oh yeah!”
Guerrero asked Lennon how he’d feel if someone shouted out to his daughter, “Oh yeah!”.
“I guess I would be a little offended and get upset at that,” he said.
Many women Guerrero spoke with said they feel offended by catcalls with one telling Guerrero, “Its mild harassment.”
Guerrero decided to turn the tables on the catcallers when Blankenship hit the streets and was standing nearby to have a little “chat” with the cat callers.
It didn’t take long for the attractive Blankenship to get attention. As you might expect, guys gave her the once-over as she walks by but pretty soon, the catcalling started.
When she walked passed a group of construction workers one of them cat called and said, “Yeah baby.”
And just around the corner, there were more cat calls.
One guy asked, “How are you doing, sweetheart?”
Guerrero confronted the guy and said, “Do you think women appreciate getting complimented like that on the street?”
“Certain women do, they love the attention,” he replied.
Another guy thought the cat call was our model's fault, saying, "The lady asked for it."
But when Guerrero wanted to ask him what he meant, he didn't stick around and dashed off.
Another guy stayed behind to tell Guerrero he was upset that we were recording the cat calls, saying, “You have a woman around looking to get talked to. You're full of [expletive], get the [expletive] out of here.”
Guerrero asked, “Let me ask you a question, if that was your daughter, how would you feel about the men?”
“My daughter wouldn't walk around looking to get yelled at. She would dress more conservatively,” he replied.
Guerrero asked Blankenship, “Some men say that if they shout something out on the street or they whistle to you it's a complement. What’s your response?”
She said, “I don't think it's a compliment at all, I think it's rude and inappropriate and it just makes you feel like a fool.”
All day, the unwanted comments kept coming.
One guy wasn't happy when the camera was turned on him after he shouted out to Ashley, “I love you, blue,” referring to Ashley’s blue dress.
Guerrero confronted him and asked, “Did you just say something to the blond lady that walked by?”
“No,” he replied, completely contradicting what Inside Edition caught him doing on camera.
“Wouldn't it be rude to say something on the street to a young lady?” asked Guerrero.
“No,” he said.
Most women we talked to said cat calling is not the way to meet a woman in public.
“Would you ever go out with a guy who whistled to you on the street,” Guerrero asked Blankenship.
Blankenship responded, “No, 100% no way!”
