Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

Montell examines catcalling, claiming that this kind of verbal sexual harassment is not really about sex, but about men vying for power over women. She argues that by offering unwanted assessments of women’s bodies or by extending sexual invitations, men use language to assert their dominance and dehumanize the target of their harassment. 

Other common ways in which men try to overpower women include mansplaining, interrupting, and ignoring, all of which the author believes persist in modern society. She points to evidence that showed that female Supreme Court Justices were interrupted by their male counterparts at a much higher rate than the males interrupted each other. With more women added to the bench, the problem only became worse. Montell agrees with Robin Lakoff that all of these habits function as a way to silence women, making them voiceless and therefore diminishing their influence. This, in turn, perpetuates women’s political inequality with men.

Montell then returns to the subject of catcalling, explaining that, despite what some harassers say, it is not complimentary. Indeed, 97% of women who have been harassed on the street say that they felt frightened and degraded by it. While some people claim women should learn to say “no” or otherwise assert themselves, Montell is wary of policing victims’ reactions and potentially victim-blaming.