Catcalling should stop being explained away as a compliment or some type of innocuous flirtation. It's a serious problem that makes women and members of the LGBT community feel unsafe in public spaces.
Catcalling can also lead to more dangerous street harassment such as inappropriate touching or sexual assault.
Actor-comedian Sklyer Stone is getting love on social media for how he responded to a disgusting YouTuber catcalling his 15-year-old daughter on the street in Los Angeles.
Stone is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "2 Broke Girls", and starred in his own Comedy Central series, "Con" in 2005.
YouTuber King Aladdin was live-streaming himself with a selfie stick on Cahuenga Boulevard when Stone and his daughter, Kylie, walked past. "Come here, come here. Where you going? Come here little Blondie. Little Taylor Swift-looking ass bitch," Aladdin called out to the teenager.
Stone turned around and confronted Aladdin.
"She's 15 dude," Stone said.
"Hey bro, then why she out this late, bro? Why she out this late? This isn't Hollywood, bro," Aladdin responded.
"Why is she out this late? Because we just went on a father-daughter date, had dinner," Stone said.
Then, Aladdin started to drop his tough guy act and apologized.
"That's great," Aladdin said. "I apologize bro, I'm not trying to disrespect you in any way possible. I totally apologize."
"If I were you I would just shut the fuck up," Stone replied.
"No problem, sir. No problem. I didn't know she was 15," Aladdin said, as if it was okay to cat call women over the age of 15.
"Stop catcalling after women. Grow the fuck up," Stone responded.
After Stone walked away, Aladdin put on his tough guy persona again, trashing Stone for hanging out with his daughter and implying it was inappropriate. "She 15. Why's he hanging out with a 15-year-old girl. What a weirdo," Aladdin said.
Aladdin later deleted the video, but it was flagged and posted to Twitter.
Stone's reaction received praise on Twitter from people who respected the way he handled the interaction and stood up to catcalling.
After the video went viral, Aladdin posted an apology on YouTube.
"In the video I want to apologize to Skyler Stone," said Aladdin.
"I'm sorry for what I did to you the other night. It was embarrassing watching on my side. I'm sorry if I had ruined the night out with your daughter, I do apologize. More than likely I would have reacted the same way, whether it was my sister, daughter, whatever, I would have reacted the same way," he added.
But Stone hasn't accepted the apology because it was directed at him, not his daughter.
"It's super fake. He doesn't even address my daughter. It's directed at me...Make sure you talk to my daughter at some point. Because that's who you offended," Stone told Newsweek.
"Now my daughter's been really upset today because she saw the apology and she was crying earlier...she said 'I feel like as a woman I'm never going to be treated the same as a man,' he added.
If more people like Stone stand up to catcalling then one day women like Kylie could feel equal to men because they can walk down a public street without being harassed.
Photo courtesy of Capital One
Photo courtesy of Capital One