Ignorance is bliss?

My musing of the day:  is it better or worse to not understand the heckling, teasing, and catcalls that you get from passerby?  By not understanding, I can sometimes pretend that the comments are more benign and encouraging than stupid and insulting.  But on the other hand, you do understand it, because a certain kind of man (usually, though not always, it's men) makes certain kinds of comments to women, and language doesn't really matter.   I find an icy stare and blowing by them in superstar running fashion to be the best response, though I often wish I had a choice profane Mongolian response instead....  Perhaps a task for language class this week.