ON the way to a friend’s house this week, I experienced the unnerving and uncomfortable sensation that is being beeped at by a group of men as I walked along the road. What seems to many as just a bit of fun in reality reveals how misogynistic, sexist and frankly rude our society still is towards women.

This week was a hot one, so inevitably I was wearing a skirt and a vest, but does what I wearing give someone the right to cat-call me, making me feel objectified and intimidated?

Having experienced this problem frequently when walking the streets of Dorchester, I asked my friends if any of them had encountered anything of this sort too. The reaction I received was overwhelming: all of my friends had been beeped and shouted at, at some point in the last week – and when they didn’t respond, were called all the names under the sun. Some girls I know view this type of cat-calling as flattering – they argue that these men are merely expressing their appreciation of your beauty and attractiveness.

Frankly, people who believe this is the case are inherently wrong, these men are objectifying girls on a daily basis and getting away with it. I am 17 years-old, and have experienced being beeped at by men for years now.

This points to an even more worrying problem behind this issue – the sexualisation of girls (I was 13 when I was first cat-called) at an increasingly young age.

Girls this young should not have to experience this, they should not be subjected to this form of sexism when they are young enough to still be playing with dolls!

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the extent to which men get away with sexualizing and objectifying women on a daily basis.

On a website called ‘Upworthy’ I recently watched a very enlightening video, which highlighted what society would look like if the roles were reversed – women were cat calling men, beeping at them frantically and hurling torrents of abuse because they were seen as ‘frigid’.

This really made me realise the unequal gender dynamic which still permeates society, one which supposedly champions equality. As I have mentioned, this is only the beginning of a much wider issue that needs to be tackled immediately. I don’t want any more girls experiencing what I, my friends and the majority of the female population have experienced.

If this can be achieved, we are one step closer to a more equal society.