Catcalls Are Not Compliments

November 10, 2014 / Tom Fonder

Originally published on Happy Jar and cross-posted here with their permission.

Those of us who experience street harassment know that it’s not a compliment; it’s dehumanizing. But some people still insist that we should be flattered by these catcalls, claiming they “wish they got that kind of attention.”

This comic shows what street harassment really looks like, and demonstrates why, no, you really don’t want this kind of attention.

Click for the Transcript

Panel 1: A man speaking to a woman: “I don’t understand why women always complain about getting cat called. It’s a compliment! I wish I got that kind of attention.”

Panel 2: Woman: “No. You really don’t.”

Panel 3: The man is walking down a street and passes a construction worker who says “Damn, you lookin’ fine, boy. I like the way you wiggle.”

Panel 4: The man is walking down the street at night with an increasingly worried look on his face and passes a man in a suit leaning on a sports car who says “Hey, how bout a smile, sexy?”

Panel 5: The man is walking past a building’s stairs where two men with earrings are sitting. One of them says “You want some pierced dick, baby?”

Panel 6: The man’s face is distressed. He walks down a street in front of a store where another man is leaning against a wall. This other man says “Don’t ignore me, slut. You know you like it.”

Panel 7: The man is standing on the street looking very distressed and another man leans in very close to his face and says “I wanna fuck your mouth.”

Panel 8: The man sits in his dark room on his bed, curled up into a ball with a stunned, traumatized expression on his face.

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Tom Fonder, is an artist based in London, England. He is the author of Happy Jar, a webcomic that updates every Tuesday and Friday. The strip began life as a joint project between two high school students, and amounted to little more than classroom notebook doodles that were repurposed digitally to be shared amongst friends. Eventually realising the potential of not having every strip be self-referential inside jokes, the focus soon shifted toward pleasing an audience wider than three people and Happy Jar was born. For more comics, check out the Happy Jar website, or follow them on Twitter @happyjarcomic.