--- title: Steve Santagati Defends Catcalling on CNN, Street Harassment Video description: "I want to start a coalition against women who don't compliment men." canonical: https://time.com/3554551/defend-catcalling-steve-santagati-cnn/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-03T17:44:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:14.748Z og:title: Watch This Guy Try to Defend Catcalling and Totally Fail og:description: "I want to start a coalition against women who don't compliment men." og:url: https://time.com/3554551/defend-catcalling-steve-santagati-cnn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0ce0636f4484b0/698763eaf887dc0dabe87dc7/screen-shot-2014-11-03-at-12-44-16-pm.png?branch=production&width=715&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 715 og:image:height: 402 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-11-03 at 12.44.16 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Guy Try to Defend Catcalling and Totally Fail twitter:description: "I want to start a coalition against women who don't compliment men." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a0ce0636f4484b0/698763eaf887dc0dabe87dc7/screen-shot-2014-11-03-at-12-44-16-pm.png?branch=production&width=715&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch This Guy Try to Defend Catcalling and Totally Fail > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 3, 2014 5:44 PM UTC  CNN  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 3, 2014 5:44 PM UTC Over the weekend, author Steve Santagati appeared on [CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HI4DC18wCg) to defend the men in the [street harassment video ](https://time.com/3543632/street-harassment-hollaback-video/)that went viral last week. “If you _don’t_ compliment me when I walk by, that’s abuse,” he said. “You didn’t bolster my self-esteem.” Santagati is the author of _The MANual_ and _Code of Honor._ “I want to start a coalition against women who don’t compliment men,” he added. Comedian Amanda Seales, who appeared on the segment with Santgati, was appalled by his comments. “The reality is, a lot of women, when we leave the house, we are not looking for compliments,” she said. “If we say we don’t like it, and we are demonstrating that, then you should actually, as a man who is a man of honor and wrote a book about this, should be saying ‘well let’s discuss how to make you feel more comfortable.'” But Santagati couldn’t avoid hitting all the nerves in what has now become a hot-button issue. “The type of guys who made those comments speak for itself,” he said. “That’s part of maybe their culture, part of how they were brought up.” The street-harassment video, made by Hollaback, has recently been under [scrutiny](http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/11/01/360422087/hollaback-video-calls-out-catcallers-but-cuts-out-white-men) for racial bias, for editing out white catcallers and only showing black and Latino ones. Watch the full segment here: Santagati had some advice for women who don’t like being catcalled. “If you don’t like it as a woman, turn around and tell them to shut up,” he said. 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