Men Looking at Women

by Simone Westfall — June 5, 2007

It's suddenly full-blown summer here in greater Gotham--sunny days and sultry nights--and that means the ladies of all ages are out in force in their scanty hot-weather finery. Tank tops, tube tops, plunging necklines, short hemlines, bare calves and knees and arms and shoulders. And, of course, the guys are going nuts. They look, and they look again, and they sprint ahead when they sight a comely butt and turn to look around to see what she looks like from the front.

And sometimes they feel free to drop a comment ("Hey, baby, shake it for me!") or emit a low appreciative whistle.

Now, I'm sure there's not a woman alive of any shape, height, or color who hasn't walked past a construction site at some point in her life and been the subject of catcalls and whistles. It's a fact of female life against which you can inveigh with all your feminist might, but a certain kind of heckling just goes with the territory. And the weird thing is that when you're not getting it anymore, you might start to miss it.

I was talking about street compliments with Sam one night a couple of months ago (and, damn, I do miss the man) when we were in bed watching one of the talk shows at the height of the Imus scandal. Some pundit pointed out that black men often feel free to call black women "ho's" and that it was meant as a form of jokey endearment, like one brother calling another "nigger." Well I don't know about that. But I do know, from my very limited experience, that African-American men come up with some of the wittiest and most memorable accolades I've ever heard, and I recounted a couple of these for Sam:

I was about 25 and waiting for the uptown Broadway bus on a chilly winter night. Dressed in tight jeans, a short fake-fur jacket, and high-heeled boots. The bus stop was in front of what used to be a Woolworth's, and above that was a bar and pool hall. A young dude came reeling out of the downstairs door of the of the bar, took one look at me, and loudly opined: "Hey, girl, you standin' so tall and lookin' so good, you must be the cause of the crime rate going up!"

Flash forward about ten years, and the miniskirt is back in vogue. Possessed of a rather nice set of gams, I was having fun wearing the short-short look. On a lunch break with a friend, we walked past a guy who appeared to be homeless and seriously inebriated. He started clapping enthusiastically: "Thank you, Lord, thank you, thank you for bringing these legs my way!"

Down through the years, of course, boyfriends and male friends have paid nice compliments along the lines of "Gee, you look good!" or "I love your hair that way" or "Great fishnets!" or whatever. But not a single line from a white boy sticks in memory with the force of those tributes. Now if only the construction workers would demonstrate a little more wit and originality....go ahead, guys, make my day.

Simone Westfall is the pen name of a novelist and critic in New York City. To read all of Simone's posts in "The Dating Life," click here.