Imagine a woman is walking down the street, minding her own business. Suddenly, a man she has never met in her life bellows, “hey girl, nice butt!” The woman is frustrated, but she eventually brushes it off. What is more difficult for the common woman to brush off is that many people argue that she has no right to be upset about the situation. Many women today are frequently faced with this, or something like this situation.

One of the arguments that is being made is that men cannot help the impulses sent to their manly brains to degrade women because the way women dress is just too irresistible.

As Nicholas Frankovich of the National Review put it, “male brains and female brains are different. I say this not to justify the behavior, but to try to explain it.”

It is 2015. Women no longer wear billowy dresses that cover their entire neck and fall down to their ankles. It is not uncommon to see a woman’s cleavage or most of her legs in any given modern outfit. That being said, I do not care how different men and women’s brains are, men have no right to derogatorily comment on a woman’s body, especially a woman they do not even know.

Even if catcalling is programmed into the male brain by default, and men’s brains are as different from women’s as men claim they are, there is something called self control. I know for a fact that men have some sort of self control because I have seen, on so many occasions, a man or group of men shut themselves up at their favorite sports game after their removal is threatened or when a player is making a free throw, even though they are excited, perhaps even more excited than when they see an attractive woman.

Alas, when a woman walks by the same group of men from the sports game, they do not hesitate to cry out derogatory remarks. This reaction to simply seeing another human being of the opposite sex is baffling. It cannot just be a difference in the male brain that makes them think this kind of behaviour is complimentary, or even proper at all.

This problem, like so many other gender-related problems, is linked to societal normalization. The male resistance to filtering their cat calls is fueled by what they see in society, especially pop culture.

I recently watched a film called “Top Five,” during which, my theory was confirmed. The main character’s body guard, a tall, muscular man, gets extremely close to a passing woman and all but shouts, “I love me a big girl.” I couldn’t help but think to myself, why was this a necessary addition to the movie?

Men everywhere will see the film, notice the man casually cat calling and having no negative retaliations afterward, and think that must be okay for them to objectify women in such a way. I mean sure, he did get a little close to her, but he didn’t touch her so it can’t be assault.

Now let’s think about the situation from a woman’s point of view. The woman is walking home from her shift and all she wants to do is go home and sleep. Suddenly, her path home from work becomes the location of a possible assault. A large, strong-looking man is getting uncomfortably close to her and she’s thinking, “How far will this man go?” and “I don’t think I’ll be able to escape if he grabs me.” She does not care about the “compliment” she is receiving, at this point she is wishing she were not a big girl, so she could have avoided this situation.

This particular exchange is over in a matter of seconds. The bodyguard does not take things any further than telling her he likes his girls big. But this woman was still put in a situation in which she feared for her life, all because the bodyguard felt entitled to her body, and therefore free to comment on it without remorse.

Women live in this world of feeling like our bodies are a public affair. Every time we step outside we are at risk of being objectified, or worse. The act of cat calling condemns us to being seen as inanimate objects, not unlike a luxury car, rather than a human being. A cat call shows that a man has analyzed a woman’s body and that he has decided he likes it, but has neglected to actually get to know the woman he is calling to and will never know if he actually likes her for who she is as a person.

Women are never going to perceive cat calling as a compliment as long as it only refers to our bodies, so why cat call? Why cause a calm woman to lash out in annoyance all because she has a nice butt? She probably knows she has a nice butt, and if not, someone she trusts will probably eventually mention it to her without making her feel objectified. I implore that all the men reading this article think about a woman’s perspective before uttering a derogatory remark or daring to argue that the remark should be taken as a compliment.