Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,608
- 910
You might not have seen To Have and Have Not – a romantic thriller from 1944 in which Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall smoulder over each other for 90 minutes – but you’ll know its most famous scene. It starts with the pair trading barbs until Bacall suddenly leans in and kisses Bogart.
“What’d you do that for?” Bogart says, a dumb smile across his face. “I’ve been wondering whether I’d like it,” Bacall shoots back.
She then gets up to leave. “You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve,” she says. “You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing…. Oh, maybe just whistle.”
She opens the door, but turns as if remembering something. “You do know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow.”
The scene’s unforgettable – the chemistry overwhelming (the pair started an affair on set, and married shortly after the film came out). But it should also go down in history for one other thing: what Bogart does next. He does indeed put his lips together and blow – a wolf-whistle, in fact – two notes that in the 70 years since have gone from being the height of fashion to, arguably, the world’s most offensive sound.
In France, right now, lawmakers are considering fining people 90 euros (£78) if they’re caught wolf-whistling as part of efforts to combat sexual harassment (how the police would implement it hasn’t quite been worked out). One British politician is similarly calling for a crackdown on it and catcalling. While if you search for wolf-whistling on Twitter, you’ll quickly find women complaining about it being done at them, highlighting the intimidation and fear it creates, an obvious example of #everydaysexism. Wolf-whistling – once thought to be heard by every woman who passed a building site – looks set to be extinct.
How on earth did this two-note whistle – the first high in pitch, the second deep – come to be so charged with meaning? And how did it go from being an everyday occurrence to one that shocks? Its history has surprisingly never been told before.
The surprising history of the wolf-whistle
The rest of this article is actually pretty interesting.
“What’d you do that for?” Bogart says, a dumb smile across his face. “I’ve been wondering whether I’d like it,” Bacall shoots back.
She then gets up to leave. “You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve,” she says. “You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing…. Oh, maybe just whistle.”
She opens the door, but turns as if remembering something. “You do know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow.”
The scene’s unforgettable – the chemistry overwhelming (the pair started an affair on set, and married shortly after the film came out). But it should also go down in history for one other thing: what Bogart does next. He does indeed put his lips together and blow – a wolf-whistle, in fact – two notes that in the 70 years since have gone from being the height of fashion to, arguably, the world’s most offensive sound.
In France, right now, lawmakers are considering fining people 90 euros (£78) if they’re caught wolf-whistling as part of efforts to combat sexual harassment (how the police would implement it hasn’t quite been worked out). One British politician is similarly calling for a crackdown on it and catcalling. While if you search for wolf-whistling on Twitter, you’ll quickly find women complaining about it being done at them, highlighting the intimidation and fear it creates, an obvious example of #everydaysexism. Wolf-whistling – once thought to be heard by every woman who passed a building site – looks set to be extinct.
How on earth did this two-note whistle – the first high in pitch, the second deep – come to be so charged with meaning? And how did it go from being an everyday occurrence to one that shocks? Its history has surprisingly never been told before.
The surprising history of the wolf-whistle
The rest of this article is actually pretty interesting.
