“If you want me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” – Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not (1944)
Two possible contributors. Whistling is something boys learn to do from each other, as part of the boyhood ritual. Girls are under no such peer pressure. So many girls (like my wife) simply don’t know how. Second, a woman’s voice has a certain musicality to its tone, so a more pleasing sound comes from a woman’s tum-te-dah than from a man’s so that is all they need.
I didn’t know what Funiculi Funicula was. So I googled Funiculi Funicula. And now I too am whistling Funiculi Funicula 
ETA I just listened to the Pavarotti version of Funiculi Funicula. Now I am bellowing Funiculi Funicula!
My Aunt Lizzie [more correctly my great aunt who made it to the age of 104] had a saying;
“Women who whistle and hens that crow were no good”
This, I don’t know anyone who whistle.
It was The Man with the Golden Gun, and it was M, not Bond, who was reading the dossier on the bad guy and who checked to see if he could still whistle.
Shit, I read that when I was 14 and I still remember that scene. But I can’t remember where I put my keys.
Presumably Bond defeated the villain because he could hail a taxicab, and couldn’t be followed. But the only thing I remember from the book is the whistling.
Maybe everyone you know is like me: I whistle pretty softly so as not to offend people. Some don’t like noise of any kind and I try not to be noisy. As for someone who said above that some women don’t know how to whistle, I find that amazing if true. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know how to whistle!
Yet Another Female Whistling Anecdote:
As a kid, the girl next door could whistle very loudly using a two fingers in the mouth technique. Loud and shrill.
I can whistle a lot* of ways, but I never figured out that method despite lessons. Very envious.
She learned it from her father so a gender-parent thing might be a factor in some cases. Men might teach sons more than daughters, etc.
- With cupped hands, two different ways (*2 for left/right), through my teeth, through my curled tongue and in and out through my lips. So I can whistle sort of non-stop for quite a while.
Seconded. I remember reading recently that whistling is also considered an older person’s trait; that younger people don’t whistle nearly as often. I hope this is true. It will make the world a much better place.
Obviously, people are free to do whatever they want, but just know that, no matter how great a whistler you think you are, if you whistle out in public, I absolutely, positively, 100% guarantee you that you are annoying the ever-loving fuck out of someone. Please stop whistling around other people.
I can’t really whistle a tune, (nor can I sing one) but I do have a loud enough whistle that I use to call my dogs. I could never figure out the two finger whistle. For me, growing up, whistling wasn’t something anyone taught me, or encouraged, or that I had much need for.
I’m a lady and I whistle. I dunno how much, I never think about it.
Whistling in public is annoying. So maybe women aren’t as annoying as men?
My little nieces are both trying to learn how to whistle (they’re doing quite well) and they are the girliest of girly girls. They like to sing too - their enjoyment of singing does not preclude their want to whistle.
One of those “This is odd.” things.
The last couple of mornings Mrs. FtG has been whistling. Don’t recall her generally doing that. I blame this thread.
I whistle, I hum, I sing. I just happen to love music.