Catcalling Is a Daily Misery. New York Can Fix That.

Since I was 14 years old, I have experienced harassment and violence by men on the street. But is this an inevitable reality of being a woman, or something we can fix?

Photo by Karissa Song/The Barnard Bulletin

By Camille Pirtle

June 6, 2026

Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of sexual harassment and violence.

I have lost count of how many times I have been catcalled. There are just too many to remember. I recall some of the worst, though. During my first visit to New York at 15, a man in Central Park: his cold eyes and chilling reference to my nubile vagina scared me for years. The day in high school where I was followed in front of my own home, expletives hurled as I scrambled for my keys. Last week, a harasser chasing me through the streets of Bushwick, vowing to kill me once he caught up. I remember all of those instances, yet somehow, I don’t remember the first. 

That is because for me, and for most women, it starts when we are girls. 

A study at Cornell University found that more than half of women and girls experience street harassment before their 14th birthday, with the majority of catcalling incidence occurring before they reach the age of 18. A friend told me that she received the most attention from men when she attended a Catholic middle school: while walking to school in a pleated skirt and braces, adults would leer at her from their car windows. Street harassment targets the most defenseless among our society: children.

Thinking broadly, this issue takes on a graver significance. When women are pursued and hassled on the street by predators, they are taught that their bodies are a commodifiable and desirable object, separated from their internal “essence.” As Vanderbilt University Professor Hortense Spillers notes in her 1987 essay “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe,” in which she writes on dehumanizing effects of the slave trade, the focus on the physical in determining one’s value leads to the “body” being turned into dehumanized “flesh.” I would contend that catcalling has a similar, if lesser, effect of teaching women that they are flesh instead of people. What seems like casual flirting or “boys being boys” is a fundamental problem of dehumanizing and demeaning women.

Wide-ranging efforts to prevent catcalling have been undertaken in the United Kingdom, where in April, street harassment was decreed a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. Jess Phillips, the former Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, declared that “instead of forcing women and girls to change their behavior, we are going after those who chose to target and intimidate them.” This is an example of action New York could follow, following the United Kingdom and setting a bold precedent for the rest of the country to consider.

In comparison, American endeavors, especially in New York City, have been lacking. In New York City, businesses and landlords can apply for “Certificates of Non-Harassment,” which prevents customers and tenants from being harassed within a defined radius of their building. This not only puts the burden on owners to protect their establishments, but also makes street harassment a financial issue, where safety is a part of good customer service, not a basic right. Frankly, the United States’ inability to adopt a law similar to the United Kingdom — or, for that matter, any concrete effort to prevent catcalling — is a shame. We are the richest country in the world, and we are letting young girls get harassed, raped, and told that their bodies are all they are worth.

New York City has the opportunity to change that. As the most populous city in America, as well as a municipality with a highly liberal local government, the city could present a case study for why such a law could work nationwide. Additionally, Mayor Zohran Mamdani just announced a complete eradication of the budget deficit, proving that there is money to use for such a program. If New York managed to eradicate the issue by criminalizing it, it would become politically viable for Congress to do the same for all 50 states. By introducing this ordinance, the government could take an active role in ensuring women that they are people worthy of and entitled to safety. Simply put, New York City could become the first city in America with legislation that protects women from street harassment.

There are arguments against this plan, of course. Critics postulate that it would present First Amendment issues, as it restricts speech. To this, I would argue that the Constitution’s protections explicitly do not include “fighting words” or other threats of violence, which catcalling constitutes. Others may argue that catcalling does not present a large enough issue to legislate. Yet, the government spends countless hours debating everything from bike lanes to vape cartridges — they can take a few hours to save women from violence.

An ordinance addressing catcalling would allow us to make the men who commit this offense criminals, and safeguard our youngest and most vulnerable. This is an essential and urgent issue. Every day, young girls are raised in a world that covers their bodies and seeks to harass them. We must protect them.

Camille Pirtle is a writer based in New York City. She studies English Literature and Creative Writing at Columbia College. Her fiction and poetry are published or forthcoming in Peatsmoke Journal, The Blue Route, The Blue and White and The Battering Ram Review. She is the Editor-at-Large of Barnard College’s Hoot Magazine.