Patriot cross country, track runners face ‘catcalling’
Varsity cross country runners take a selfie on a discarded couch while on a run.
“Cat·call”: making a whistle, shout, or comment of a sexual nature to a woman passing by.
To the girls on the cross country and track teams catcalling is a common occurrence while they run through the neighborhoods surrounding Parkway South.
“It is usually random men and boys from our school who drive by multiple times and whistle or say derogatory things,” said Emily Davis, senior runner.
According to Davis, it can happen up to 10 times a practice.
“It makes us feel uncomfortable because we are all so sweaty and feel so gross,” — Senior Emily Davis
Senior runner Hannah Esker said most of the time the cat-callers are fellow South students, but sometimes they are adult men.
On top of feeling uncomfortable, the girls are thrown off focus when men shout at them,
“A lot of times we are so focused that when people scream at us we get thrown off guard and get scared,” Esker said. “We tend to feel objectified when we see boys from our school and even older men shout things or even whistle at us.”
Cat calling is a form of sexual harassment and should not be tolerated by the team or any woman. According to an article written by Independence, a newspaper company in the UK, catcalling negatively impacts how women think about themselves.
The article states, “being personally targeted or witnessing others being objectified was associated with a ‘substantial increase’ in ‘self-objectification’, proving that these instances of sexual harassment can have a negative impact on the way women think about themselves,”.
“It hasn’t personally happened to me, but I have seen people say things to my teammates and I know how uncomfortable it makes them and the whole team feel,” said Linnea Johnson, a sophomore on the team.
Cross Country coach, Matt Roach says, “obviously this is a serious issue, and I hope that the students and runners of Parkway South can handle it maturely.”
