Like many women, Kathryn Thomas has experienced the uncomfortable feeling of being cat called in the street – but she has declared today that enough is enough.
The RTE star has questioned why chauvinistic men get away with shouting inappropriate comments at women passing by them, and is calling for more to be done on the matter.
Writing in her Irish Daily Star column today, she says: “It is not okay and it is not right. But we put up with it. Why?”
“Because society says it’s only a bit of harmless fun and boys will be boys after all. The unwanted attention generally happens when women are on their own and men are in packs, making us feel even more vulnerable.”
The Voice of Ireland host recalled a recent incident when she confronted cat callers who were making her feel uneasy, and had abuse hurled at her as a result.
“A pack of men were shouting sexual obscenities and I walked up to the main player, right to his face and asked him he thought his behaviour was acceptable. If he had a daughter would he like her to be subjected to that sort of abuse?” she wrote. “I was laughed at, told to relax and take a compliment when it was given.”
She added that after she turned to walk away, “I was called a ‘b****’, told I was ‘full of myself’, and that he ‘wouldn’t touch me with a 10 foot barge pole.’”
“If we can impose fines for dog poo on the streets, surely we can do the same for this sort of s***,” she fumed.
