Scientists believe they can explain why men catcall women, but even with an explanation, that still doesn’t make it right.
According to a study conducted by Promundo back in 2014, 65% of 2,000 women surveyed reported to have experienced some form of street harassment. The study as a whole was centered around understanding masculinity in Middle Eastern and North African countries. This also included catcalling and the reasons why so many men partake in this act.
According to the NPR, “the report found that of the 4,830 men surveyed, 31% in Lebanon to 64% in Egypt admitted to having sexually harassed women and girls in public, from ogling to stalking to rape.”
When the men were asked why they sexually harass women, they response was gross and disheartening. They said it was “fun.”
The survey also found that of the men who harassed women in Egypt and Morocco, it was the younger men with higher levels of education who were more likely to engage in street harassment than those with little to no education.
Researchers believe this phenomenon is due to the fact that these men face more societal pressure (high unemployment rates, political instability, the expectation to support their families, etc.) and subsequently take out their frustrations on women in the street. They feel like they can get away with it because of what they face in their own lives.
About half of the men surveyed mentioned being stressed or suffering from forms of depression, having scientists believe that the worse these men feel about themselves, the more likely they are to engage in forms of street harassment.
While the current studies are based in Middle Eastern and North African countries, the discoveries that they found cross all boarders.
A 2016 survey by ActionAid found that a whopping 75% of women in the UK have been the victim of some form of street harassment, sometimes violently, while a 2014 study showed that 65% of women in the US have suffered from the same thing.
While life’s pressures can be taxing at times, they should in no way encourage the degradation of another person in any physical, verbal or mental way.