Woman shares ‘simple’ response to catcalling and people are calling it a ‘power move’

People are flooding to social media in support of a TikToker after they revealed how they responded to a catcall.

Catcalling isn't something anyone should have to put up with or experience, yet unfortunately it's a common feature of most women's everyday lives.

Most harassments are considered misdemeanors in the US, but street harassment - including intrusive staring as well as catcalling - has been made a criminal offence in the UK, punishable by up to two years in prison. Despite this, unwanted comments are still thrown about.

And it happens no matter where you are in the globe, with a TikToker from Australia recently revealing what she did when she was catcalled.

Plan International's Sexism in the City report asked 500 young women in Sydney aged 18-25 about the street harassment they've experienced. It found that 83 percent of people surveyed have experienced catcalling.

In the US, nonprofit Stop Street Harassment found 99 percent of people surveyed online in 2007 had experienced street harassment and around 65 percent said it happened on a monthly basis.

The UK government had a consultation on public sexual harassment in 2022 which discovered one in two women between 16 and 34 years old experienced one form of harassment in the previous 12 months.

"38 percent of women aged between 16 and 34 having experienced catcalls, whistles, unwanted sexual comments or jokes, and 25 percent having felt that they were being followed," it adds.

The statistics proving just how dire, dangerous and affecting catcalling still is for women across the globe.

TikToker Daphne Berry - who goes by @berridaph on the platform - posted a video on Friday (30 September) explaining she'd just been catcalled by a man at the front of a construction site.

She says: "So I yelled back at him, 'Sorry, I don't have any change'.

"And the way that all the men on the construction site started laughing at him and pointing at him and made him feel so s**t.

"It's that simple. 'Sorry, don't have any change.'"

Daphne's genius catcall response video has amassed over three million views, hundreds of thousands of likes and hoards of people heading to the comments to weigh in on her experience.

One TikTok user said: "Ohhhh maaate! That's the funniest. I haven't laughed so hard in so long. Thanks for sharing."

Another added: "I love this definitely trying."

A third commented: "Absolute gold."

While a fourth wrote: "Brilliant old school banter."

However, another noted: "I'd do this but I'm not ready to die."

And a final resolved: "Sigh. One day men will stop other men from catcalling. Someday."

The National Street Harassment Hotline is available to contact for free, 24/7 support, advice and information. Available in English and Spanish, you can contact its hotline, available between 12:00pm and 12:00am on (855) 897-5910 or chat online.

Topics: TikTok, Social Media, Mental Health, Health, World News

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.