Earlier this month, 4fm’s Niall Boylan caused controversy when he posted a tweet declaring that reporter Robbie Kane would be catcalling women on the streets of Dublin to get a reaction. Naturally, most people weren’t impressed with Boylan’s so called ‘social experiment’, with one Twitter user saying she would “offer a fiver to the first woman to scream abuse at him.” The point of the experiment was to test the waters; is catcalling a form of sexual harassment, or merely a good-humoured form of flattery? Kane approached both men and women, with wolf whistles and other suggestive remarks including telling one woman, “You’ve got a lovely arse.” While he then apologised immediately afterwards, and most people took it in good spirits, it must be questioned, was the whole ‘experiment’ really appropriate?
Before the experiment commenced, whilst promoting the “exciting” event on Twitter, Boylan put an emphasis mainly on interaction with women, in tweets that he has since deleted. In later statements, he pointed out that both men and women had been targeted by Kane, likely in an attempt to justify an experiment gone wrong. When he began receiving negative backlash on Twitter, Boylan responded on air with anti-feminist remarks, suggesting that the reason that some of his female listeners were unhappy was because they themselves are not attractive enough to receive this kind of attention. Worryingly, comments on 4fm’s Facebook post echoed Boylan’s views, with many listeners, both male and female, declaring that they did not see a problem with the experiment and that it was “just a bit of crack(sic)” and that women should take it “as a compliment.”
Later that day, Boylan issued a statement on the whole ordeal from his official Twitter account, standing by his conduct and stating that his show would never give in to political correctness and that they will continue to produce “powerful” radio. Which begs the question: is commenting on a woman’s arse, or a man’s for that matter, really a powerful political statement?
This is not the first time the issue of catcalling has been the subject of controversy online. In October 2014, Rob Bliss posted a video to YouTube entitled “10 hours of walking in NYC as a woman.” The video has over 40 million views on YouTube and documents a young woman being filmed as she walks around New York City. The comments she received ranged from the pretty innocent such as “smile” and “good morning beautiful,” to the slightly more intimidating “hey, you sexy American eagle.” There was even a particular creepy incident in which one man, after complimenting the woman on her beautiful physique, continued to walk along side her silently for another two minutes.
Similarly, Cosmopolitan produced a video in July 2015 entitled “Men React To Their Girlfriends Getting Catcalled”, and it has since amassed 6.5 million views on YouTube. Once again this video focuses on women walking around the streets of New York, and documents the unwanted attention they receive from passersby. However, it is then played back to their boyfriends. While initially the women’s partners get jealous and get angry, they then begin to question why women are being subjected to this on a daily basis.
Although both of these videos are based in New York, they echo experiences faced regularly by women in cities all over the world. While catcalling may not be as prevalent a problem in Dublin, it is nonetheless an issue that causes fear and intimidation amongst Irish women, and as such should not be used as a form of entertainment for the purpose of radio ratings. Boylan’s show may have demonstrated that the majority of people are quick to call out potentially offensive actions, but it also indicates a wider issue that needs to be addressed: many people do not even realize how demeaning and frightening catcalling can be, and still regard it as acceptable behaviour in 2015.
Do you think Boylan was right to stand by the experiment even after the negative reaction? Have you ever experienced catcalling – whether in UCD, Dublin, or further afield? Let us know.
Advertisements