When women walk by, men whistle? Compliment or insult?

dilettante said:
I'm not sure how it could be interpreted as an insult. It's pretty hard to whistle sarcastically.
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Seriously? Okay, assuming you're serious, I'll tell you. I worked with a sweet girl who weighed about 250. When she arrived to work, left work, or tried to walk to the park to read at lunchtime and men were in the parking lot, they mocked her by wolf whistling and then saying things like "we're not whistling at your incredible beauty, we're doing the pig call... sooooie!" Linda took it for a year... and then killed herself.

Yeah, a whistle can be an insult.
 
chic said:
I used to enjoy the compliment. I even got insincere marriage proposals. We both enjoyed the moment. All was fine.

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The woman in this photo doesn't seem at all comfortable having to walk the gauntlet of leering men. She looks afraid to look any of them in the eye. Not good. This is probably the reason why young women used to be chaperoned by a male relative when outside the home.
 
Jules said:
Do men even do that anymore?
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I sure wouldn't know about that now that I am a dumpy old woman. However I was a teen in the 50's and got a lot of whistles. One day I was walking with my cousin who while older than I ,was (I know it is disliked now) retarded to about aged 12, also fat, and homely. She was so delighted that those boys were whistling at her. I never told her the truth. I thought I was ugly, but I knew my figure was so much better than hers. As I got older and DH thought I was so good looking and had the figure that his friends thought was so great , so I kind of thought maybe I wasn't so terribly ugly. I did have to laugh after we were married and I was pregnant it was obvious, walking home from a drs appointment and some silly man whistled at me----from my backside,I doubt he felt like whistling at me when he got a look at me from the front! Years later I looked at the pictures of me in my teens, well heck I wasn't ugly in fact I was rather pretty.
 
Warrigal said:
The woman in this photo doesn't seem at all comfortable having to walk the gauntlet of leering men. She looks afraid to look any of them in the eye. Not good. This is probably the reason why young women used to be chaperoned by a male relative when outside the home.
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It looks like it could be another staged photo. I wonder how many times she walked up and down the same street, to get the attention, and then for the photographer to get the ever so perfect shot?
 
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Brookswood said:
The lady in the photo reminds me of my predictament. We both walk a path surrounded on all sides by the opposite sex. Her in her neighborhood and me at the senior center. :oops:
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I think the beauty of this photo is that the photographer allows the viewer to interpret it in any way they like. A photo that means many different things to different people has a huge appeal, both for the viewer and for the photographer.
 
January said:
No she might not look offended or uncomfortable or embarrassed - because women weren't allowed t o complain about such behaviour then and had to smile and pretend the y were ok with it, whether they were or not.

I can imagine how I would feel in her shoes as a young woman, walking past a dozen whistling, ogling and making lewd remarks - and that would be very uncomfortable.
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Really? My friends and I were all brought up to ignore it and pretend you don't see or hear men on the street. My mother was very good looking and I can remember men turning their heads to look at her when we would be out shopping. She never flinched.
 
Della, yes really.

Women were not allowed to complain so they either had to ignore it or smile and pretend it was OK.

So a photo of a woman smiling as she walks past a group of men ogling her doesn't prove she was not embarrassed or uncomfortable just because she isn't showing it. That was my point.
 
January said:
Della, yes really.

Women were not allowed to complain so they either had to ignore it or smile and pretend it was OK.

So a photo of a woman smiling as she walks past a group of men ogling her doesn't prove she was not embarrassed or uncomfortable just because she isn't showing it. That was my point.
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I'm just saying I never heard anyone tell a woman she should smile about it, all I heard was, "Pretend you don't hear it. Ignore it." Smiling and pretending to like it would have been considered rather shocking, tramp-like behavior.

Also, "women were not allowed to complain?" What country were you raised in? The women I knew complained about everything.
 
I was raised in Australia. Western culture of the times similar to other places.

Women were not allowed to complain about sexual behaviour - take my comment in context. I didn't mean they couldn't complain about anything.
To a large degree women were blamed for sexual behaviour of men - she must have led him on, she asked for it by wearing xyz, and women complaining about wolf whistling and ogling were told just ignore it ( as you said) smile and keep walking ,can't you take a joke etc..

So, my original point - because the woman in photo didn't complain or look offended, doesn't mean she wasn't.
 
LadyEmeraude said:
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I guess we'll never know what she's thinking, but I don't see an uncomfortable woman with a strained smile. I would expect such a woman to be looking straight ahead. Instead I see someone who seems to be laughing, looking back at the men as though she knew they were just teasing her. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a staged photo, using a woman from the office and any of the men willing to take their shirts off for the picture. They aren't wearing construction workers' shoes.
 
timoc said:
I think I'd be 'chuffed' to high heaven, if I walked down a street with hundreds of women whistling after me.
I think I'd walk that route 50 times a day. šŸ˜Š
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It isn't about us as senior people feeling that way - I don't think a young teenage boy would really feel chuffed at a gang of older women whistling and making lewd suggestions at him.
 
Don't us ladies appreciate a good-looking man, especially on building sites? Their muscles are acquired naturally, not in the gym which suggests vanity. Most women can't whistle but I'm sure we would if we could.

I enjoy watching men playing football. I have no interest in the game but like to admire the fit bodies.
 
I saw a t.v. show here once and they reversed the situation of a man walking past a group of women and they all started whistling and giving cat calls to him, you should have seen the look on his face, totally embarrassed, although some did smile. I would never walk past a hotel in the evening after work because the men, in those days, used to drink on the footpath and call out things like," G'day darling and want to go on a date with me". You'd just ignore them.
 
Lavinia said:
Don't us ladies appreciate a good-looking man, especially on building sites? Their muscles are acquired naturally, not in the gym which suggests vanity. Most women can't whistle but I'm sure we would if we could.

I enjoy watching men playing football. I have no interest in the game but like to admire the fit bodies.
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Lavinia: I enjoyed watching those beautiful muscley men in the swimming pool, the athletics and Diving. All the men on to building sites around here look so healthy and toned. My son is very muscley and you can see the girls eyeing him off.
 

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