I notice one guy in the picture blatantly grabbing his dick. Yeah, that’s classy. I’d sure like that to happen to me.
I’ve certainly never catcalled, but I don’t think the “positively” or “playfully” are required. An angry response is still a response. Getting cussed out by an angry, attractive woman sounds like a big win from their perspective.
I’ve never catcalled a woman and completely understand why the vast majority of women don’t want to be on the receiving end of such boorishness.
I’ve told this story on the Dope before: my sister was once walking down an airport concourse and noticed a man walking towards her from the other direction, looking at her oddly. She thought it might be someone who knew her, but she didn’t recognize him. As they drew even and passed each other, he said cheerily, without breaking his stride, “Nice tits!”
She was taken aback at first but then laughed - as she has in telling the story since. But my sister is not like most women.
Ha! Perfect - thanks.
I first saw that photo years ago (there’s an Italian restaurant not far from here which displays it), and was glad to learn the story behind it. Thanks.
OK. I’m seeing that we need to clarify terms.
“You play guitar beautifully.” “That was a really good point you made during the discussion.” “Your casserole was very nice-- it seems to be the only thing at the potluck with no leftovers.” “Would you study with me? You are doing so well in class, and I’m struggling.” “Your advice on selecting a good auto mechanic was spot-on.”
Those are all compliments.
“That dress looks lovely on you” is also a compliment, especially if it is followed by something like “you have exquisite taste.”
“Hey baby! I’ll bet you swallow!” is not a compliment. Neither is “Nice ass-- can I have a ride?” nor “I get off at six! Meet me behind Chipotle’s!”
Wolf whistles are not compliments.
“You look like you could go all night!” is not a compliment.
If you can see the difference, you have no excuse for ever crossing the line. If you cannot see the difference, then stop “complimenting” women right now. The next thing you should say to a woman should be "Please help me to understand what things I do that are hurtful so I can stop doing them. She should probably have some letters after her name, like MSW, or PhD.
I’ll add to that that while there certainly are social contexts in which “that dress looks lovely on you” is an acceptable compliment, there are others in which it’s not.
At a high school dance, or a family wedding, or a party with friends? Almost certainly OK.
In a work meeting, or a professional presentation, or to the grocery clerk? Almost certainly not OK. You’re supposed to be noticing the work being done (or not being done), not the appearance of the person doing it. – if the professional context is modeling the dress in question, of course, that would be a different matter.
To a random stranger on the subway? Don’t. Just don’t.
There is also a huge difference between “That shirt looks good on you” and “I like that shirt” when the shirt has a design on it you like.
Oh, and re: where in OC - the kid lives in Rancho San Margaritaville - or some similar silly SoCal name! 
Impresses me as a reasonably upscale area.
Which might play into my ignorant bias. I think I imagined catcalls as of a certain “culture.” The apocryphal construction worker, or working class guy alone a city street. Not among suburbia. But I guess low class gents can drive anywhere.
Low class gents live everywhere.
I’ve been waiting for another time someone calls me fat or a fat bitch (hasn’t happened in awhile, but it’s happened multiple times) so I can pause, look down at myself, and say, “HOLY SHIT! I am! Man, who knew???”
I know a woman who said, “When you insult me, I know I have no reason to listen to you anymore.”
Rancho Santa Margarita. It’s a planned community, and, yeah, on the upscale side. It’s actually named after an old rancho that was in San Diego county. So, the name is somewhat historically accurate. A bit geographically inaccurate.
It’s not really about how aggressive you are; it’s that you have now made our friendship weird, and I have to put my guard up with you because once you have made a personal comment, my mind immediately goes to, “What is this guy wanting from me?” You want to compliment me on my funny t-shirt, and that’s it; other guys use it as an opening to start hitting on me, so I have to go into guarded mode with you now.
Nope, catcalls are not compliments. Regardless of the actual words used, when guys catcall women, what they are saying is, “I want to stick my dick in you!”
In a guy’s mind that is a compliment.
A couple of years ago, my old neighbour down the block told me, “I don’t mean to be rude, but you have a nice bottom.” I think about this and get uncomfortable every single time I walk past that house now. 
I and every woman in this thread and every woman in your life don’t give a shit what the men think; we want you to understand how we feel about this and stop doing it to us.
You don’t speak for all women.
Cat_Whisperer can speak for this one.
I’ve never understood the mentality of the guys doing it. They can’t be living under a rock large enough to blind themselves to the cultural fact that far more women than men are assessed visually by the (conventionally defined) opposite sex and, if found attractive, informed of it.
Even if you assume for the sake of argument that the women in question aren’t offended by it, threatened by it, annoyed by it, etc, and even extending that so far as to claim (without support) that the women feel good when it happens, it still remains true that for any given woman that any given man feels visual attraction towards, it doesn’t make him unique, special, unusual, or, therefore, remotely interesting as an individual when he expresses this. And that’s the absolute best case scenario I can conjure up for him. That he isn’t being an asshole and is merely failing to distinguish himself in any meaningful manner.
Meanwhile, a notion you also can’t easily miss without having been under that same rock all your life, women (girls even) find it invasive and annoying. Even if they want to be found attractive, that doesn’t translate into they want to be found attractive by you.
I get maybe 2% of what female-presenting people get and even the quantity that I get is offputting more often than not. A huge portion of the public attention that I get is hostile putdown expressed as sexual appreciation, but that’s also true for the ordinary cis female folks getting those reactions. It’s not warm. It’s hostile, it has the feel of being put in one’s place. I can relate, and I can’t imagine how awful it’d be to get the amount I’m exposed to magnified by a factor of 50. Ugh!!!
I’d wager a good number of both men and women on this very board would not have ever been born if it had not been for if not catcalling per se, then unwanted flirtation. I’ve heard tons of stories of how older couples met and very often it’s really not that charming, and the woman was hesitant for quite a while but the man was persistent. It’s the nature of the beast so to speak, if men were not a little overbearing and aggressive then it would be the end of the human race.