Telteesh

I happened to catch a program "Red Line" (الخط الاحمر) on the Syrian channel yesterday, when the topic under discussion was catcalling and harrassment التلطيش والتحرش. There was a group of young people and three experts all discussing the problem and if it was a problem and its reasons. I missed the beginning, but did manage to catch a young person asking if girls hold any of the responsibility for catcalling, with their dress and cause, you know, a lot of them like it anyway. Or if it's all the dude's fault. The psych expert rattled off a list of reasons why dudes might be hassling, including economic pressures, family pressures, and sexual repression. But despite all this, he is still a human not an animal and responsible for his actions. The girl is not.

I'm glad the expert said the girl is not responsible, but he still didn't refute that girls like telteesh. I am so sick of this. Everytime this topic comes up with my (male) friends, I'm told that Syrian girls like telteesh, it makes them feel good. Why else would they dress up like that, wear makeup like that? When I tell them, actually some girls don't, like me, I'm told I'm just a weird American. Syrian girls are different. That's strange, as actually I've chilled with Syrians who've told me telteesh annoys the hell out of them too.

The end of the show had some interviews with men, shot outside of the literature college in Mezzeh. "If you a pretty girl, do you catcall her?"
"Well if she's really pretty.."
"Of course"
One said that it's obvious she wants people to comment on her looks by the way she walks, or what she wears, or puts makeup on.

Because of course, if a woman takes the time to look nice she's doing it for the men on the street. She's not wearing makeup because in the workforce looking nice is required for women. She didn't put herself together for a husband or a boyfriend. She's not trying to look nice to show up other women because of the insane competition women are supposed to have with one another over looks. She's not dressing up cause, hell, she wants to. She's doing it for you, man standing near the SANA building.

The last guy interviewed said he never catcalls as it's disrepectful. That's some one's sister or niece, and he wouldn't want people saying that to his sister. While it's nice that he actually thinks of respect, it's strange that it's not disrepecting her he's worried about, but the nearest attached male. But even he agreed that girls dress up looking for comments.

While I don't doubt there exist some girls who live for the thrill of a random man sucking his teeth in appreciation, it doesn't apply to all of us. So shut the fuck up.