A woman has called out the behaviour of a “group of boys” who wolf whistled her as she walked to her car after a night out.
Jeannine Baird had finished watching a band play at the Brass Monkey and was walking to her car, which was parked in Cronulla Mall, when she came across a group of boys hanging out at the closed Woolworths Metro.
In an open letter she wrote on Facebook, Ms Baird said: “I saw your wolf-whistling for what it was; a deliberate attempt to intimidate a lone female.
“I am under no illusions that it was my dress or my physical attributes that caused you to behave that way.
“I was completely covered, wearing a hat and scarf over how I appear below. I had on jeans and low block heeled shoes. I weighed in at 113kg this morning. I have greying frizzy hair.
“So there will be nobody blaming me or attempting to imply I was somehow enticing you to behave that way.”
She said all she was daring to do was walk to her car at night while being a woman. Ms Baird said she realised once she got to her car how deliberate their actions were in trying to intimidate a woman on her own, adding they likely only did it because they were in a group.
“But when I got to my car, I thought about your mothers and sisters and future female partners and future female children, and wondered if you gave a thought to how they would feel if they experienced what I had.
“I also wondered how you would feel, to know they had been harassed by a group of boys for being a lone female,” she said.
“So I drove around to find you to have a motherly conversation with you, having already pointed out in response to your repeated whistles that I was old enough to parent you, but alas, you had fled.”
She said the group had likely run away because the band she had watched play, with whom she is friends, had seen what had happened and had come over to see if she was OK. The band had apologised on the group’s behalf for their behaviour. She called the band “decent, honourable and talented young men”.
Ms Baird reported what happened to Sutherland Police Station.
“Deliberately attempting to intimidate people is not acceptable. Harassment is not acceptable. Making women fear for their safety is not acceptable,” she said.
“Because I care for your and your families’ welfare more than you cared for mine, I hope the police are able to have these little chats with you all, and that you learn to never behave like this again.
“I hope other women feel brave to make statements like these if they experience similar, because the more we call out their attempts to embarrass or frighten us, the more ridiculous and cowardly their behaviour will become.
“We women have a right to feel safe, in any context we find ourselves. On streets, in venues, in our homes and schools and churches and clubs.”