The context in which an individual act or behavior occurs can change the meaning, both implicit and explicit, of that individual action.

Surely we can agree that a home run hit in the first inning can have a vastly different meaning/impact than a home run in the ninth inning where the score is tied?

OK, so maybe I'm not great at metaphors.

Moving on then, in a society in which men hold more power than women (we can argue this later), where men physically and sexually harm women far more often then women do the same to men, the context that we are living in a male-dominated society cannot be ignored.

And if that's not specific enough for you, here are several reasons why a woman catcalling a man is not the same as a man catcalling a woman:

-When a woman catcalls a man, it does not occur in a larger context wherein privileged females feel a sense of entitlement to men's bodies, to look at them any way they please, to speak to them any way they please, or to treat them any way they please. (We can argue about how historical vs. current this is later)

-When a woman catcalls a man, the man does not have to fear that the woman may come after him and do violence to him because he did not respond the way she expected or desired that he respond.

-When a woman catcalls a man, the man doesn't have to worry that the woman might follow him, forcibly restrain him, and shove body parts and/or objects into his orifices.

I am not saying that women never physically harm men or sexually violate them. I agree that this happens, but it absolutely does not occur anywhere near as often as men harming women.

Being catcalled is a sign of disrespect. It is a sign that that person thinks they can say anything they want to you, and maybe they also think they can do anything they want to you. Therefore, I agree that women should not do this to men, but I disagree that a woman doing it to a man is the equivalent action to or has the equivalent meaning as a man doing it to a woman, for all of the very logical reasons cited above.

Who is condoning revenge? Are you saying this is implied in my comment, or in the original post, or what? Maybe this was in the other comments and I missed it, but I didn't know anyone was suggesting that women catcalling men as revenge is OK - this would be a patently absurd claim.

Attention: Evil Women Everywhere Society

Brightstar is on to us. Agent #42, request you implement Emergency Plan ASAP. Be sure to poke extra holes in his aluminum hat or else it may be too late to regain control of his thoughts.

"The more people read my prior posts, the more they realize I have a comprehensive and integrated worldview that is grounded in core principles of respect and decency for ALL people"

Like your post that said little girls were like cockroaches?

Too bad your actual behavior doesn't reflect your noble worldview.

I know, I'm sorry, I'll stop feeding the trolls now

@Patrick Morgan: yes, of course women are just as susceptible as men to perceiving themselves according to what the stereotypical gender role says they are supposed to be. So since women are taught that they are supposed to be all nice and empathetic then it makes sense that they would perceive that of course it must be true, and then self-report this.

@Jeff K: it is my understanding that the nature vs. nurture debate was abandoned years ago, at least in academic circles, as being far too simplistic. So of course people can be both social and biological animals, and necessarily so, and of course there are intelligent feminists who think so. Some feminists don't buy that whole "women are nicer and more empathetic and more ethical because they have to nurture children/have estrogen" crap. All people are capable of empathy, in fact the most current research shows we are hard wired for it. I think maybe you misunderstand some of the articles posted here; many of them are objecting to the whole idea that "all women/men are X" and especially if the "all women/men are X" argument conforms to stereotypical gender roles.

Bigguns, if you haven't forgotten thrift what makes you think the rest of us have? Or are you talking about the teenage children of yuppies and rich people? Yeah, maybe those people will have to resurrect it, but the rest of us have always just barely gotten by and thrift is a daily survival requirement.