MPS bemoan end of compliments to women in streets as catcalling outlawed in Spain

SPAIN’S Congress has outlawed catcalling as part of a raft of legislation aimed at boosting women’s sexual rights.

The Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom bill, also known as the “only yes means yes” bill, also reforms Spain’s controversial rape law so that any non-consensual penetration will count as rape, regardless of whether violence or intimidation was used.

Under the bill, comments, propositions or behaviour of a sexual nature that cause “humiliation, hostility or intimidation” for the victim will be punishable with a fine, community service or up to a month of house arrest. Spain’s Left-wing government celebrated parliament’s approval of the bill, which now must be passed by the Senate.

However, Right-wing parties opposed the legislation, which they said reduced men’s right to the presumption of innocence and was at odds with traditional behaviour between the sexes. Carla Toscano, an MP for the far-right Vox party, said she was sad the tradition of complimenting women would be banished from streets.

Ms Toscano – who cited the popular Spanish catcall “Tell me what your name is and I’ll ask for you for Christmas” as an example of masculine “admiration and popular ingenuity” – was applauded by her fellow Vox MPS as she accused the Government of promoting “hatred of beauty and of men”.

Irene Montero, Spain’s minister for equality, defended the reform as “a decisive step towards changing the sexual culture of this country”.

Ms Montero celebrated that “finally, ‘only yes means yes’ and ‘I believe you, sister’ have become law”, in reference to slogans popularised by the wave of demonstrations in the wake of a 2016 case in which five men were acquitted of rape and convicted of a lesser charge of sexual assault despite forcing an 18-year-old woman to have sex with them at the Pamplona bull-running festival. The men were convicted of rape by Spain’s Supreme Court after an appeal.