This little boy takes a stand against woman’s catcaller, makes us endlessly proud

If you’re a human woman, and you’ve been shouted at, harassed, and catcalled on your way to work, or school, or the grocery store, just know that you’re not alone. Many women (and men, too!) have experienced this kind of harassment —according to this recent study, 84 percent of women are catcalled before they even turn seventeen years old.  Catcallers take it upon themselves to yell objectifying and frightening things at women about their body, and often, when ignored, their comments sometimes morph into aggressive, demeaning threats.

This happened to a woman named Julia Price when she was out on a run. But little did she know, she had a little boy on her side who was prepared to stand up to her —without even knowing who she was.

Recently, Julia shared her story on Facebook. She was on a run, she wrote, when an older man started shouting comments like “hey, sexy lady!” at her — so loudly that she could hear it through her headphones. At first, she decided to ignore it and keep on running.

“This ignoring seemed to piss him off so he lashed out and said ‘eff you, dumb B****!’” she wrote. “Now let’s keep in mind he was well-dressed and appeared to be on his lunch break from an office job. That was my trigger point. The B word.”

So Julia took out her headphones and prepared to face this man who was calling her such cruel names — but then, something amazing happened. “. . . this little boy who was walking alongside his mother and little sister in a stroller looked at the guy and said, ‘Hey. That is not nice to say to her and she didn’t like you yelling at her. You shouldn’t do that because she is a nice girl and I don’t let anyone say mean things to people. She’s a girl like my sister and I will protect her,’” Julia wrote.

That’s right: This catcalling jerk was put in his place by a little boy who is prepared to stand up for girls and women everywhere.

And it totally worked. “The man was immediately embarrassed and started gathering his lunch to leave,” Julia continued. I asked the mother if I could hug the little boy (his name is James) and I told him how grateful I was for him. He just shrugged and said ‘Well I just wanted to make sure your heart was okay.’ According to his mother, this is a typical day in the life of James.”