Brooke McIntosh is over being catcalled while jogging — and she’s calling out the bullshit behaviour.
The Mandurah businesswoman gets herself in the right headspace by jogging six days a week, covering an average 10km.
“It is my time to zone out and make sense of the world,” she said. “When I finish my run, I’ll be so calm, centred and grounded. I’m just way less stressed.”
But Ms McIntosh’s afternoon clearing-the-head exercise ritual is increasingly being ruined by sexist men.
“Every single time I go for a run, I get catcalled,” she said.
“It’s typically middle-aged or elderly men, typical smoke hanging out their mouth, in a group of mates, trash-talking types.”
Just recently the 28-year-old was on a run when a man yelled out to her: “Oi, darling, you have a stunning figure and tight arse.”
Like most catcalls, it gave Ms McIntosh an instant sinking feeling.
“I can calm myself down but you feel so safe and then someone makes a comment and it sends you into a spiral,” she said.
“Imagine if it was your daughter, sister or mother on the receiving end — you would be fast to jump in and stand up.”
It is not only lewd remarks that can make Ms McIntosh anxious — tooting horns and wolf whistles also give her the jitters, turning a mind-clearing jog into a scary run back home.
“This one time and I was running at about 6pm and I felt like someone was following me,” she said.
“I ended up running close to the highway, making my way back home and cutting my run short.”
It is one of the reasons Ms McIntosh — who is a huge advocate for mental health, running marathons to promote the cause — never jogs wearing headphones “because you never know”.
“How safe you feel depends on the situation, where you are running and how light it actually is in the area,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the Mandurah foreshore is pretty bad and one spot I would not recommend running late arvo into the evening.
“For me, personally, it is now mostly very annoying. However, previously I have feared for my own safety, which is why I now run with either no headphones or very low volume to have more situational awareness.”
Ms McIntosh also never reacts to catcalls, preferring to stay safe and not give an excuse to escalate the situation.
“It’s hard for anyone to have the immediate confidence or courage to call out the BS behaviour and inappropriate comments from a mate in a group or overhearing a stranger say something — but it needs to happen,” she said.
“If the receiver of the comment has no confidence to say something for different reasons, this is where it is our duty to call people forward if we ever want this to change in our society.”
Ms McIntosh says she is not alone in being catcalled and feeling threatened, swapping stories with other female runners who are fed-up with the sexism.
“They’re disgusted in it too,” she said. “It’s a ‘laugh it off’ type moment but with all the ick feels … it’s something that affects everyone differently, especially if you have ever been a victim of sexual assault.”
Despite the uncomfortable moments that can evolve while on a run, Ms McIntosh has no plans to confine herself to the gym.
“I enjoy the outdoors best and want to encourage more and more people to run outdoors,” she said.
“But I see this affecting many females, so they either don’t run, head to the gym or simply ‘deal with it’.”
Ms McIntosh is determined the catcalling won’t put her off her bigger mission — to run around Australia in 2025 and raise awareness for mental health.
She did a 1600km run from Karratha to Perth in 2023 to raise money for mental health education charity 20Talk and the Blue Tree Project.
The 2025 Run Down Under event takes in a mindboggling 14,000km and passes through 98 towns and every State and Territory.
Ms McIntosh aims to take on the challenge by doing 80km a day over 180 days.
“The catcalling is a small snippet of calling of the shit that happens behind the scenes,” she said.
“It’s why I wanted to call it out and the mission to inspire other females to get amongst the run, to live life to their full potential — get out there, run, push themselves, do cool things, be authentic and make an impact.”
Oh, and every now and again Ms McIntosh admits to having a giggle at the odd callout while jogging.
“I once got shouted at, ‘You look like you’re on steroids’. I did find that funny,” she said.