New York is a city that never shuts down, and the lechers are no exception. In my time away from the city I'd forgotten just how persistent they are, even in the coldest weather. Those brave souls.
114 thoughts on “#428 – white winter catcall”
Sarah
Check dat bus schedule… maaaaan, they're reachin'.
emiteg
i cant understand catcallers/wolfwhistlers/horn honkers and the like. what is the girl gonna do, drop what shes doing and have sex with you?!!
Pretty simple: they're getting off on humiliating women.
foxtail
concisely put, sir.
Midarc
I've always thought of it as the equivalent of "pulling the hair of a girl you like" in a quasi verbal form.
Unable to articulate anything other than an offensive, grunted encouragement, occasinally accompanied by a surprisingly skillful and equally offensive mime, I'm not so much surprised that this sort of thing still goes on, as I am that the people who do it have managed to stay in the genepool.
Whatever the answer, it always intrigues me to hear that the breeding call of the hooting moron still exists.
Bryy
Well, if this was The Witcher universe….
Did'ya Witch�
So many Poles around Prospect and Greenpoint it practically is.
Laura
nothing more than an assertion of male dominance and the persistence of the patriarchy… keep women in their place… etc. etc.
Happens occassionally in Boston, but I know the type. They're just dudes who think that they're funny/being fresh. However, I can't explain the middle-aged ones..
Annie
As a former Bostonian and current New Yorker, I have to say I have never been catcalled or creepily hit on in NYC (yet anyway). Boston however, the catcalling is one of the things I certainly don't miss about Boston ::shudders at the memories:: It was way worse up north. Waaaaay worse.
Also people always talk about the crazies in the NYC subway…none of the weird shit I've seen here comes close to some of the crap that regularly went on on the T.
I've lived and worked in various areas of NYC and I cannot count the amount of times I've been hit on since I hit puberty. It's awful.
SJC
I remember jogging around Boston Common with a female friend of mine — it was as if the men there had never seen a woman before (the whistles, cat calls, the multiple calls of "hey babe")! Then again, she was wearing dolphin shorts at the time. The next time we jogged, she was in sweat pants, sweat shirt — didn't matter — same amount of cat calls.
Sarah
I'm a former Bostonian who went to New York quite a bit (and now lives on the other side of the world)… and I never got catcalled. Not once, not never. Maybe I just… looked too much like a LITTLE girl to be considered womanly?
I often get mistaken for being 15 or so, so I wonder if that's actually the reason why.
Lindsey
I'm a former New Yorker now living in Boston and I got hit on wayyyy worse in NYC than here in Boston. I had someone say to me while walking to the subway train in NYC: "Hey gorgeous. You're short, I'm short, let's make short babies."
Casey
Hahahaha. That's so ridiculously brusque that I can't help but think that the sentence he spoke to you was the longest one he's ever spoken to anyone. XD
Casey
Quick note: by "longest" I meant most complex, not highest word count. Just clarifying 🙂
Current Bostoner who used to frequent NYC- NY is way worse and much more creative with their catcalls. For the non-believers: http://www.ihollaback.org
chris
In my head, all of these dudes are the same one guy making slight costume changes and following Eve around.
Sebastian
I can agree with that. He kind of looks like the same greasy guy reinventing creepy in each panel.
Rowen Morland
OMG yes! When I was reading it I double checked halfway through to see if it was!
If I recall correctly, that phrase describes that feeling of remembering what you wanted to say once you've left the situation and are on your way home. As soon as you head down the stairs it hits you. Or I could be completely wrong and then I'll feel like a moron.
jane
it means that you come up with a really good comeback after the conversation is already over. like when you're already up the stairs…
BSNYC/RTMS reader
Calling Eve out on the salmoning in panel 4.
Leslie
Ha, I had the same thought, but isn't she actually in a bike lane?
seann
Aww yeah, girl, draw that comic! Check out them alt-texts!
Gone
This is the rude way of doing it… you gotta fall on a pit, trip over something or drive your car on the sidewalk because of the sudden apearence of a beautiful sight. You can't help it, sometimes.
Rebecca
Long time reader, first time commenter. Just wanted to say I love this whole comic and today's especially with the Fleet Foxes ref in the title just made my day!
Fish
LOL
jiuotro
Panel 2 is totally Aaron Diaz.
Bright
I read the comic through thinking it was the same guy in different times of the year. I guess there is always snow though.
Have no idea why you would ever do that kind of thing.
Alain
Yet another proof that OGLAF does not have a monopoly on the fine art of the sex farce. (my first proof today was on Johnny Wander)
NextChamp
There always seems to be a common theme here where someone insults another while that other person has a weapon in their hand.
Blankus
You do know why this is, right? It must be from personal experience, miss artist :).
I'm a guy, and something similar happened to me once in the rural town I grew up in. A car full of girls about my age drove up, slowed down long enough for someone to yell out something that ended in "cute stuff," and then drove off again. Kind of flattering for an awkward teen, but I can see getting sick of it pretty quickly. I can't imagine having to put up with it on a regular basis, esp. if people acted like you should be thankful for their "compliments"… blegh.
I'm curious: for those of you who live in cities, how often does this happen? And does it go beyond what's in the comic? I've heard horror stories of creeps turning belligerent – even threatening – but I'm hoping that's a freak occurrence.
Leslie
Visit the site linked in glaneuse's comment (above yours) for answers to all your questions!
cb
Thanks for the tip! I swear that comment wasn't there when I posted…
Oh, and thanks to everyone else for all the informative comments. It's kind of hard to wrap my brain around all this stuff sometimes, so getting to hear other people's experiences helps me with perspective.
Dischord
I moved to New York this week from the UK and haven't quite had this happen to me yet. In the UK I got bipped (horn-honking as they drive past) now and again but here in the USA guys have tended to just make quite sincere compliments and then go about their day. Since I'm not very good at taking compliments it flusters me a little but it makes both of us smile and I do thank them.
In light of this comic and the hollaback website someone linked to above is that wrong do you think?
PooBerry
I live in DC and it happens all the time, no matter the season, what you're wearing, whether you're with another man, etc. And, yes, I have had guys get aggressive when I ignored them or politely asked them to leave me be. I've been cussed and yelled at, grabbed, insulted, threatened, and followed on more than one occasion. I don't like going out anymore, but it's not like I can sit at home all day. It sucks for the guy who actually gives a nice compliment because by the time you get to him, you've been harassed about 3 or 4 times that day and shoot him down. I've actually apologized to people when that happens. The bad ones just mess it up for the good ones.
And some may think that it's the way someone's dressed or whatever, but like in the comic, in the winter, the women are bundled messes just like the men. Even when it's warmer, it's common to be harassed even when wearing baggy jeans, a huge t-shirt, and old tennis shoes with no make up on. There doesn't seem to be a way out of it sometimes.
Krimson
Well, there IS one way out of it, and it's to look as surly as possible all the time. It works for me! (Then again, having a build like a linebacker is a pretty good deterrent anyway, so maybe it's the combination of being miserable and looking too much like somebody's that works for me.)
Annie
Looking surly does not help at all. I used to dress like a poster child for the Man-hating Bull-dyke Militia when going grocery shopping to try and deter the harassment. Didn't help at all. I'm pretty sure this isn't a real organization, but I have short hair, am not what most people would consider attractive, and I played up the stereotype as much as humanely possible with flannel, wife beaters, combat boots, etc. when running errands because I got sick of the drive-by catcalling. My attempts at looking like I was capable of castrating the first guy who dared annoy me did not deter anything.
Krimson
Really?! Geez. Then I guess the only way out is to look too much like somebody's brother (which is what I meant to write that first time but apparently never typed out).
ashish
i've been the good guy who got shot down after the bad ones outside the main event arena for the last two college fests. haha .. now i can laugh it up.
back then it was so embarassing and totally crushing to be spoken to that way when i actually said something positive and meaningful. But now i understand. haha totally funny
depends, i guess! do the compliments make you uncomfortable in any way, or do you thank them for the compliment only because you feel obligated to be kind? if the answer for either of those is 'yes', then it may be worth re-evaluating how you treat these guys. if you really like the compliments, then go ahead and take 'em! nothing wrong so long as you actually like what you hear.
Meghan
This is constant in LA, too. Koreatown is especially wolf-whistle/pucker-up/cat-cally. When you're on a bike, though, the cat calls are way more creative than "ride that bike." It's more like, "Blanca, you can hop off that bike and ride me ANYWHERE."
On average, a couple of times a month, but it really depends. Sometimes it's excessive, sometimes it's sporadic.
DaveO
As a guy, I've witnessed (but never participated in) the opposite reaction: when the trolls moan about how ugly or fat some anonymous girl is, how "there ought to be a law," etc. I don't like catcalling, but at least it's a back-handed compliment.
AlmostLiterally
Agreed. Both are rude and shows a douchebag-level of entitlement, but at least one is slightly positive.
Mel
I think maybe I've gotten the creepy nice things 5 times in my life and the creepy insults 40 times 😛 I didn't look terribly different either so I guess it's a matter of taste? I've lost weight now and get neither.
114 thoughts on “#428 – white winter catcall”
Sarah
Check dat bus schedule… maaaaan, they're reachin'.
emiteg
i cant understand catcallers/wolfwhistlers/horn honkers and the like. what is the girl gonna do, drop what shes doing and have sex with you?!!
JeffreyATW
Pretty simple: they're getting off on humiliating women.
foxtail
concisely put, sir.
Midarc
I've always thought of it as the equivalent of "pulling the hair of a girl you like" in a quasi verbal form.
Unable to articulate anything other than an offensive, grunted encouragement, occasinally accompanied by a surprisingly skillful and equally offensive mime, I'm not so much surprised that this sort of thing still goes on, as I am that the people who do it have managed to stay in the genepool.
Whatever the answer, it always intrigues me to hear that the breeding call of the hooting moron still exists.
Bryy
Well, if this was The Witcher universe….
Did'ya Witch�
So many Poles around Prospect and Greenpoint it practically is.
Laura
nothing more than an assertion of male dominance and the persistence of the patriarchy… keep women in their place… etc. etc.
Yu
Happens occassionally in Boston, but I know the type. They're just dudes who think that they're funny/being fresh. However, I can't explain the middle-aged ones..
Annie
As a former Bostonian and current New Yorker, I have to say I have never been catcalled or creepily hit on in NYC (yet anyway). Boston however, the catcalling is one of the things I certainly don't miss about Boston ::shudders at the memories:: It was way worse up north. Waaaaay worse.
Also people always talk about the crazies in the NYC subway…none of the weird shit I've seen here comes close to some of the crap that regularly went on on the T.
lily
I'm a former bostonian and current new yorker too, actually, and I've had the opposite results. We must be living in different areas of town.
Cri
I've lived and worked in various areas of NYC and I cannot count the amount of times I've been hit on since I hit puberty. It's awful.
SJC
I remember jogging around Boston Common with a female friend of mine — it was as if the men there had never seen a woman before (the whistles, cat calls, the multiple calls of "hey babe")! Then again, she was wearing dolphin shorts at the time. The next time we jogged, she was in sweat pants, sweat shirt — didn't matter — same amount of cat calls.
Sarah
I'm a former Bostonian who went to New York quite a bit (and now lives on the other side of the world)… and I never got catcalled. Not once, not never. Maybe I just… looked too much like a LITTLE girl to be considered womanly?
Cri
I often get mistaken for being 15 or so, so I wonder if that's actually the reason why.
Lindsey
I'm a former New Yorker now living in Boston and I got hit on wayyyy worse in NYC than here in Boston. I had someone say to me while walking to the subway train in NYC: "Hey gorgeous. You're short, I'm short, let's make short babies."
Casey
Hahahaha. That's so ridiculously brusque that I can't help but think that the sentence he spoke to you was the longest one he's ever spoken to anyone. XD
Casey
Quick note: by "longest" I meant most complex, not highest word count. Just clarifying 🙂
Meglynn
Current Bostoner who used to frequent NYC- NY is way worse and much more creative with their catcalls. For the non-believers: http://www.ihollaback.org
chris
In my head, all of these dudes are the same one guy making slight costume changes and following Eve around.
Sebastian
I can agree with that. He kind of looks like the same greasy guy reinventing creepy in each panel.
Rowen Morland
OMG yes! When I was reading it I double checked halfway through to see if it was!
Carwin Young
haha this comic is hilarious, "aww yeah read dat book."
lil
….that line's most excellent and is gonna light up the rest of my day.
franktinsley
lol how creepy to say stuff like that to someone who's standing just over there. Do some people really enjoy awkward situations?
Jessie
This is hilarious but also very frustrating because it's true.
I always come up with earth shattering retorts about penis sizes and such but by then, the catcaller/s are long gone. Curses.
Rhythmic
Aw Yeah, write that comment!
lily
L'esprit de l'escalier!
Jesse
Ghost on the stairs?
J. Argyl Plath
If I recall correctly, that phrase describes that feeling of remembering what you wanted to say once you've left the situation and are on your way home. As soon as you head down the stairs it hits you. Or I could be completely wrong and then I'll feel like a moron.
jane
it means that you come up with a really good comeback after the conversation is already over. like when you're already up the stairs…
BSNYC/RTMS reader
Calling Eve out on the salmoning in panel 4.
Leslie
Ha, I had the same thought, but isn't she actually in a bike lane?
seann
Aww yeah, girl, draw that comic! Check out them alt-texts!
Gone
This is the rude way of doing it… you gotta fall on a pit, trip over something or drive your car on the sidewalk because of the sudden apearence of a beautiful sight. You can't help it, sometimes.
Rebecca
Long time reader, first time commenter. Just wanted to say I love this whole comic and today's especially with the Fleet Foxes ref in the title just made my day!
Fish
LOL
jiuotro
Panel 2 is totally Aaron Diaz.
Bright
I read the comic through thinking it was the same guy in different times of the year. I guess there is always snow though.
Have no idea why you would ever do that kind of thing.
Alain
Yet another proof that OGLAF does not have a monopoly on the fine art of the sex farce. (my first proof today was on Johnny Wander)
NextChamp
There always seems to be a common theme here where someone insults another while that other person has a weapon in their hand.
Blankus
You do know why this is, right? It must be from personal experience, miss artist :).
glaneuse
hollaback, won't you, eve?? http://www.ihollaback.com
cb
I'm a guy, and something similar happened to me once in the rural town I grew up in. A car full of girls about my age drove up, slowed down long enough for someone to yell out something that ended in "cute stuff," and then drove off again. Kind of flattering for an awkward teen, but I can see getting sick of it pretty quickly. I can't imagine having to put up with it on a regular basis, esp. if people acted like you should be thankful for their "compliments"… blegh.
I'm curious: for those of you who live in cities, how often does this happen? And does it go beyond what's in the comic? I've heard horror stories of creeps turning belligerent – even threatening – but I'm hoping that's a freak occurrence.
Leslie
Visit the site linked in glaneuse's comment (above yours) for answers to all your questions!
cb
Thanks for the tip! I swear that comment wasn't there when I posted…
Oh, and thanks to everyone else for all the informative comments. It's kind of hard to wrap my brain around all this stuff sometimes, so getting to hear other people's experiences helps me with perspective.
Dischord
I moved to New York this week from the UK and haven't quite had this happen to me yet. In the UK I got bipped (horn-honking as they drive past) now and again but here in the USA guys have tended to just make quite sincere compliments and then go about their day. Since I'm not very good at taking compliments it flusters me a little but it makes both of us smile and I do thank them.
In light of this comic and the hollaback website someone linked to above is that wrong do you think?
PooBerry
I live in DC and it happens all the time, no matter the season, what you're wearing, whether you're with another man, etc. And, yes, I have had guys get aggressive when I ignored them or politely asked them to leave me be. I've been cussed and yelled at, grabbed, insulted, threatened, and followed on more than one occasion. I don't like going out anymore, but it's not like I can sit at home all day. It sucks for the guy who actually gives a nice compliment because by the time you get to him, you've been harassed about 3 or 4 times that day and shoot him down. I've actually apologized to people when that happens. The bad ones just mess it up for the good ones.
And some may think that it's the way someone's dressed or whatever, but like in the comic, in the winter, the women are bundled messes just like the men. Even when it's warmer, it's common to be harassed even when wearing baggy jeans, a huge t-shirt, and old tennis shoes with no make up on. There doesn't seem to be a way out of it sometimes.
Krimson
Well, there IS one way out of it, and it's to look as surly as possible all the time. It works for me! (Then again, having a build like a linebacker is a pretty good deterrent anyway, so maybe it's the combination of being miserable and looking too much like somebody's that works for me.)
Annie
Looking surly does not help at all. I used to dress like a poster child for the Man-hating Bull-dyke Militia when going grocery shopping to try and deter the harassment. Didn't help at all. I'm pretty sure this isn't a real organization, but I have short hair, am not what most people would consider attractive, and I played up the stereotype as much as humanely possible with flannel, wife beaters, combat boots, etc. when running errands because I got sick of the drive-by catcalling. My attempts at looking like I was capable of castrating the first guy who dared annoy me did not deter anything.
Krimson
Really?! Geez. Then I guess the only way out is to look too much like somebody's brother (which is what I meant to write that first time but apparently never typed out).
ashish
i've been the good guy who got shot down after the bad ones outside the main event arena for the last two college fests. haha .. now i can laugh it up.
back then it was so embarassing and totally crushing to be spoken to that way when i actually said something positive and meaningful. But now i understand. haha totally funny
glaneuse
depends, i guess! do the compliments make you uncomfortable in any way, or do you thank them for the compliment only because you feel obligated to be kind? if the answer for either of those is 'yes', then it may be worth re-evaluating how you treat these guys. if you really like the compliments, then go ahead and take 'em! nothing wrong so long as you actually like what you hear.
Meghan
This is constant in LA, too. Koreatown is especially wolf-whistle/pucker-up/cat-cally. When you're on a bike, though, the cat calls are way more creative than "ride that bike." It's more like, "Blanca, you can hop off that bike and ride me ANYWHERE."
Cri
On average, a couple of times a month, but it really depends. Sometimes it's excessive, sometimes it's sporadic.
DaveO
As a guy, I've witnessed (but never participated in) the opposite reaction: when the trolls moan about how ugly or fat some anonymous girl is, how "there ought to be a law," etc. I don't like catcalling, but at least it's a back-handed compliment.
AlmostLiterally
Agreed. Both are rude and shows a douchebag-level of entitlement, but at least one is slightly positive.
Mel
I think maybe I've gotten the creepy nice things 5 times in my life and the creepy insults 40 times 😛 I didn't look terribly different either so I guess it's a matter of taste? I've lost weight now and get neither.
Leith
Read dat book… I'mma use that one!
Sean
Well, reading books IS hot, c'mon.
MerchManDan
Better still: Reading is FREAKING AMAZING.
http://www.octopuspie.com/2007-11-30/078-its-cool… (panel 2)
nalem
Bursted out laughing at this page. Man, this comic series makes me super homesick. Even though this page shows something I hated about NYC! Hh
mwg
at least in Atlanta you'll get actual money offers. I've had guys chase me on bicycles shouting, "My uncle needs a date! I'll give you $25!"
Professional Mole
"Check dat bus schedule" is so full of LOL! XD
CLR
Is it just me, or is the lettering different?
Rhythmic
How observant! I would have never noticed THAT.
In other comics, the letters are … "neater". Here they are rather scribbled.
This gives the comic a different feel.
Was that intentional?
Jeff
Handlettering rules, fonts drool!
C
I was about to comment on the new lettering! I really love it, it adds a lot of personality to the strip. Are you handlettering now, Mer?
Daniel
Love the text in the fourth panel 😀
Rbstimers
(I am not supporting shouting dumb comments, just explaining why guys do that)
It's similar to why you tap on fish tanks, or yell at the zoo pandas. You know it makes them hate you but they are pretty and you want attention.
Rbstimers
P.S. it also indicates that you have a real problem with respecting pandas
Rhythmic
Lol dude. I mean, LOL!
This was the funniest comment so far.