Like Will, I don't entirely believe that the primary motive of most catcallers is to instill fear. I do think that some statement of a relative power heirarchy is inherent to the act, if for no reason other than that a reversal of roles -- a returned wolf whistle -- likely antagonizes the initiator less than it did the original recipient.

But recent research from Chicago suggests that gender equality correlates with sexual satisfaction. It would be premature to draw a connection between the results of this study and catcalling -- the study surveyed men and women aged 40 to 80 (who, if they're going to be annoying, tend more toward lechery than catcalling), and seems to compare responses against a general cultural measure of gender equality rather than against the individual survey participant's views of the same.

One the other hand, once the question of catcalling and the recent survey are juxtaposed, it's very hard not to jump to the tempting idea of karmic punishment: that those who behave like asses have disappointing sex lives.

Without having to traveled to any of countries outside the U.S. on the survey's summarized list (Canada in when I was 12 doesn't count), I have no innate sense of how the gender equality and levels of street harassment compare, or feel like they compare, among countries where overall sexual satisfaction is mid-level or low. Something to ponder, though, at any rate.

Older people reported less satisfaction with the physical and emotional quality of their sex lives in countries where men have a dominant status over women, such as nations in East Asia, and to a lesser extent, the Middle East, according to the results of the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. * * *
The study found that people reported the greatest sexual satisfaction in five countries led by Austria and followed by Spain, Canada, Belgium and the United States. At the low end of satisfaction were Japan and Taiwan. Countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Algeria were in the middle.

On at least two previous occasions, this blog has been packed with speculation about why men cat-call women who they do not know on the street. [See posts by Amy, me, and Amanda,
this interim post by co-blogger Beth, and then PG, Amanda, me, Amanda, me, Amanda, and PG.]

Now I see that Bitch, Ph.D. has a hypothesis of her own:

Whether or not they realize it, that's what they're doing. ... Of course they don't do it to pick up women. No women has ever responded to that, and men know this. They do it to instill fear.

One of my more interesting assignments last summer was to regularly monitor some doings in the New York State Assembly, which turns out to be a fascinating mess. Now it comes to my attention that the Brennan Center, which has been at the forefront of NY legislative reform, also has a blog for the reform project. I am pretty sure that the Brennan Center and I have very different substantive political beliefs, and that these substantive disagreements probably mean we have some procedural disagreements too, but nonetheless the work is quite important, and something that more people (including me) probably ought to pay attention to.