Frankie Goodway is feminist and proud!

Catcalls. They’re a compliment, right? Women should feel great about the fact that sometimes a man can’t help himself, has to shout across a street or in her face about her arse or her breasts, about how much he would enjoy sexual intercourse with her, about how much she would enjoy it with him, the slut.

Well, no. Funnily enough, in a world where women can be blamed for their rapes based on the length of their skirt, being reduced to less than the sum of your body parts is less than appealing. No woman goes out to be harassed on the street – they’re just walking where they need to, like anyone else.

I can pinpoint the moment I first felt threatened by a catcall. I was 15 or 16. I’d just been to a party to celebrate the end of my GCSEs. It had been lovely – an outdoor barbecue, with some teenage bands covering the latest hits, at the start of the three weeks we Brits call summer. The venue was a little patch of reclaimed community garden called the Dell, about three roads away from my house.

As I walked home, at about four in the afternoon on this bright, sunny day, a man in a car hollered and honked at me as he drove past. Nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps, for some people. For me, it was a shock.

And then, when he was halfway up the road, he stopped. Reversed. And slowly drove past me again, leering.

At 15 or 16, more naïve than most, that was one of the most frightening moments of my life. All I could think about was that Valentine’s joke so popular with the blokes my age: ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue, I have a gun, Now get in the van.’ Nothing else actually happened. He turned off in the opposite direction at the end of the road and I walked home. Shaking. Since then, I’ve heard other stories. A friend had a man she’d never met stop his car, get out and tell her to get in.

Another was followed the entire way home when she was in her school uniform. It’s not all builders looking at bums – although sometimes the stereotype sticks.

So it’s fantastic that women are finding ways to respond to men with humour – and anger. Hollaback, a non-profit organisation, campaigns to end street harassment, as well as sharing stories of women receiving and responding to catcalls. Under each post is a bright green button with the words ‘I’ve got your back’.

A click, and you can send reassurance to women and girls shaken by their experiences.

Another way to fight back might be to buy a ‘Honk if you Love Feminism’ T-shirt. It was designed by feminist and comedian Nadia Kamil as an ironic take on the drivers who honked her on jogs. At £15, they’re a steal for self-confidence. There may always be women who can take catcalls on the chin, or enjoy the attention, but for those of us who don’t, it’s wonderful to find women who’ve got your back.