As you may have gathered from the collage above, this is not going to be a heavy article about catcalls. You don't commission a piece of digital art featuring a kitten and a cell phone (it's a little Miley, isn't it?) when you're planning on having a serious discussion about etiquette and gender politics. Here's the thing we all know about catcalls: They suck, they're threatening, they can be jarring and uncomfortable—and they happen to just about every woman I've ever met. They deserve serious conversations. But sometimes you've got to laugh to keep from crying, so let's get a little light today.

I often feel like I'm the exception to the rule—I don't get a lot of catcalls in my day-to-day. A friend of mine recently posited that it's because I'm a rather oblivious walker who's listening to headphones, not relevant real-life noise. She's probably right. Either way, I can't say I have much of a personal catalog of absurd instances in which someone has yelled at me on the street. One that does come to mind happened back in January. Strolling around D.C., in broad daylight on a not-too-busy but definitely not abandoned street, some guy yelled at me, “Hey, you in the glasses.” I turned, he smirked, and I kept walking. I can't say much about it beyond it being a pretty spot-on observation.

So let's open the floor to some anecdotes. And why be exclusive about it? Got a really terrible pick-up line story? Share it! Let's see where this takes us.

—Emily Ferber

Illustration by Beth Zimmerman.