IN ARGENTINE cities, piropos, or catcalls, are as common a sound as honks and sirens. They can be as subtle as the pop of a kiss from a lorry driver or as menacing as a shout of, “Oh God, if I got my hands on you…” Some men think these are compliments. Mauricio Macri, Buenos Aires’s mayor (and probable candidate in this year’s presidential election), said not long ago that “secretly, all women like it when you catcall them.”
Most emphatically disagree. In a survey of Argentine women conducted by Interamerican Open University last year, 72% said they had recently been catcalled. Nearly two-thirds said the advances made them feel uncomfortable or worse. It took the case of Aixa Rizzo, a college student, to make this a political issue. She posted a video recounting that electricity workers near her house repeatedly intimidated her. One asked his companion, “Where should we take her?” As he approached, she shot him with pepper spray. At first, the police refused to take her complaint. The video has been viewed more than 500,000 times since she posted it in April.
Now, lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills to outlaw catcalling in three legislatures, those of the city and province of Buenos Aires and the national Congress. While their details differ, all would punish street harassment, defined as unwanted verbal or non-verbal...
from The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1Aht3EM
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