According to Hollaback! (ihollaback.org), 70 to 99  percent of women worldwide experience street harassment at some point in their lives. The long-term impacts of this type of humiliation include depression, anxiety and PTSD as well as a reduced sense of safety that can limit earnings, decrease mobility, and interrupt their ability to fully engage with others. Yet no one really seems to be doing anything about it.

After parking her car, a 17-year-old high school student is completely taken by surprise as a man driving by yells out his window, "You're so f*#%ing beautiful!" as she waits at a stop light to cross the street to get to school.

"It's a compliment."
“Just ignore him.”
"As long as he doesn't touch you, you'll be fine."
"People have freedom of speech so there's nothing you can do about it.”
"He's probably drunk."
“Maybe you should dress more modest.”
"It's the price you pay for being a woman."

A 16-year-old girl walks less than a mile to her high school from a nearby Starbucks and is humiliated by a car full of men who scream, "S***!" out their car window.

“It’s a compliment.”
"Just ignore them.”
"As long as they don't touch you, you'll be fine."
"People have freedom of speech so there's nothing you can do about it.”
"They're probably drunk."
"Maybe you should dress more modest."
"It's the price you pay for being a woman."

These assumptions just go to show how often catcalling is overlooked and people who agree with them need to do a major reality check.

If you want to give someone a compliment, go up to them and politely let them know they look beautiful; do not shout some crude comment as you drive by. All that does is degrade and embarass that person which completely defeats the purpose of a compliment. If that's how you prefer to give 'compliments' then just keep them to yourself because we don't start our mornings  thinking about how many ‘compliments’ we are going to recieve from random men along the street. 
How can you ignore someone who’s calling you a s***? How do you ignore someone who is objectifying you? How do you ignore someone who is using you simply for their pleasure? Do you expect us to just let them degrade and humiliate us?
What do you think comes after their 'harmless' words?
They may have a right to freedom of speech, but they have no right to disrespect us and our bodies.
Immodesty is not a reason to disrespect or harass someone no matter how much you think they're "asking for it".
And as for it being "the price we pay", do you realize how absurd it is to claim that because we are of a certain gender, we are indebted to harassment? 

Why does my heart start beating ten times faster when I hear a car drive past me as I’m walking home from school? Why do I hate crossing the road at traffic lights? Why do I hate walking anywhere? I’m not too afraid of many things but the thought of being catcalled scares me to death.