Today I was told, once again, "You'd look prettier if you smiled, sexy!"

And while that is certainly the most mild catcall I've gotten in a while...No. Just No. I am tired of the leering and staring and clicking and groping and "HEY GIRL" and "sweetie" and all of this. NO. STOP.
For one thing, I didn't ask if you thought I was pretty. I am not here to be 'pretty' for you. I am not here for your opinion. I'm getting coffee. Black. Because if I don't get some sort of caffeine soon, I am liable to turn back and give you a piece of my mind.
I am not here, walking down a public street, to provide aesthetic pleasure. Go to a damn museum.
I am MOST CERTAINLY not here for you to touch. And I am not an animal that will come with a click or a whistle or a call.
This is not about having a conversation. If that were it you'd ASK me about something you can't SEE and you'd wait for an answer.
This is not about giving a compliment. A compliment is respectful and meant to make the other person feel better without expecting gratitude or favors. A compliment is respectful. NOT proclamations of what you'd like to do to me, not yells out of cars. You CANNOT claim a walk-by or drive-by call as a compliment. You saw me for .5 seconds from a distance! How would you even know what I look like?? That has nothing to do with "complimenting", it's a way to do something to me that you know I can't respond to because you're off at 40 MPH or I'm in a rush. It's a public place and then look bad for making a scene (because you know, that's what overly emotional, weak, sensitive WOMEN do, right? Must have PMS or something, right?)
If you were TRULY interested in me or wanted to get to know me, you wouldn't be a coward and say something that you know I could never or would never respond positively to. No, you're too afraid of being rejected by a woman, of not looking 'like a man' or being 'friendzoned'. YOU'RE AFRAID. So instead, you make me helpless. And if you're a real jerk, you follow me or leer or breathe down my neck on the bus and make ME afraid to make yourself feel better.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
THERE ARE NO EXCUSES OR EXCEPTIONS TO STREET HARASSMENT. The way I walk, the way I dress, how I look, or my gender do not give you permission.
There will NEVER, EVER be a situation where street harassment is okay. I don't care what excuse you have. In American culture, a Misogynist culture, a rape culture, it is not okay. Those are the conditions women in America are living in, and you HAVE to respect that.
You don't know if the woman you are calling at is lesbian or asexual, or a victim of sexual abuse or stalking or suffering from PTSD that will be triggered. You don't think about her as a person or her life or her past. If you're a white man saying this to a Woman of Colour, it's worse. You don't realize that she is a victim of exotification and oppression and made to fear for herself daily and you don't care that you're making it worse. That's just it. You don't care about anything but what YOU want to do in that moment; feel powerful.
The good news is? It's never too late to stop and change your ways. And you'd better. Because I'm done. Because I'm calling you out. You can call me cold or call me a bitch or whatever you want, but I am not taking this anymore, because if I can stop you from doing it to ONE other women because I bite back, it'll be worth it.