Alex

I work in an environment where people are very highly educated. A fellow woman colleague and I were talking in the corridor and i said to her that i was quite tired, and she said, ‘yes we are all on our knees by this time of the year’. My boss (male, white, making at least 80,000 pounds per year) happened to walk past and overheard us, to which he retorted by saying, ‘I like having people on their knees’. Both my colleague and I just looked at each other in utter shock.

Emma

So, I just moved from Britain to America and I’m starting to get the deal about dress code. I was wearing black skinny jeans and my All Time Low shirt that exposes a sliver of my back when I stretch. I didn’t have many other clothes because they were still in the process of being moved. The teacher tried to dress code me because my back was distracting and I had a small rant at him that went something along the lines of, “You know what’s distracting? Having to avoid certain people and places because they’ll touch you and wolf-whistle and call you names. Having to pick out your outfits according to how boy’s should be taught. Having to explain to your teacher why you won’t go home because he is distracting you from finishing the work he assigned.” I got detention for three months for talking back to the teacher, refusing to see the principal and refusing to get changed. It’s worth it though. Third day here and people already refer to me as “Distracta-Girl”

Julie

My co worker and friend, beautiful lovely funny mate, who is also studying social work at uni!! he has/had a crude sense of humour.. ok dirty infact. To begin with i could laugh and i could see the funny side of it. sex after all is funny. but then he would insert my name or my body part.. it was just wrong, and he thought it was hilarious. i mentioned to him that if he continued to do this and did it with someone without a sense of humour he may just end up on “current affair”( tv program commonly airing litigious type civil cases ) for sexual harassment. in effort to deter him further i would make disparaging noises whence the ‘joke’ ensued… i wish i could have said more, done more, been more assertive and told him how it made me feel. Which is that i do not like feeling like a walking vagina every day. i do not like to feel like you are thinking about me sexually, it is not flattery. i wish he could “GET” how messed up his behaviour was. I am not a freaking walking vagina for you to do this to me!! makes me soooo angry… was he getting his kicks somehow? i don’t get it. i even told my supervisor about this ( a friend apparently, and she made me feel although i was overeacting). she eventually had words to him, when a 20 something girl made the same complaint…and yes he has been very very professional with me now. but cooled and distanced, hope he has learnt something, he’s a nice guy really just an example of how ignorant boys are to our plight.. … which is don’t make me feel like a sex object….oh god makes me so mad still!! and sad

Joan

Today I heard a ten year old boy call his friend (also a boy) a “lady” as a derogatory term and all the kids laughed including the six year old girl who was there. Their dad didn’t say anything so I asked, “What’s wrong with being a lady?” Everyone just looked at me like stunned fish. This is where the sexism starts…

D

When I had to work at Xmas time we gave each other secret santa gifts, one year I was given a large cardboard box, and when I opened it I lifted out a noose and got told that this was to go hang myself! This was in front of my boss who said nothing. During that year I’d pissed off one of the supervisors as he’d been working on a project which was unsafe and I’d had to pull him up on it numerous times, eventually reporting him to my boss, who had to speak at some length to him to correct his behaviour. Unfortunately for me I became a target of bullying by the supervisor and cronies, which, increased throughout the year culminating in this despicable act at Xmas.. unfortunately the company had nothing relating to bullying and harassment policies and I was forced out of the workplace

Ellen

I had to tell my boss and my work mates to stop using cunt as an insult and derogatory term. I told them to use their own genitalia as an insult or derogatory term instead of mine. In return I stopped using dick/cock as a derogartory term.

Em

Travelling Europe, I bought a fake engagement ring to wear, hoping it would reduce the advances from men and harassment in the streets that I was getting. I’ve felt sad explaining to other female backpackers that I’d read that men would respect another mans right to his property more than the woman’s own right to respect. I’ve also felt sad telling them just how well it has worked.

anon

I had a kind of friends with benefits situation and the guy asked me to take his virginity (we were in college). I said no I wasn’t comfortable with going that far and he acted fine with it and said he respected my decicion. Turns out he spread sexualised rumours about me around the school and I had guys coming up to me saying explicit things they heard about me which weren’t at all true. No one believed me as he was really popular and I was known as a giant slut though I’d only had sex twice in my life.

Anonymous

Just quit my first job because every time I saw the chef he would say something to me that made me uncomfortable. One time I didn’t realise he was so close behind me and I turned around and he was right there. “Watch that behind little lady” he said to me. I wanted to cry. I can’t tell people about why I quit because it’s embarrassing and I still feel like I’m over reacting so everyone just thinks I quit because It was too hard or stressful for me Just needed to get that off my chest haha

Can I just walk to work alone please?

I’ve already posted on here before but felt like I should share again to show that sexism happens soooo often! I was walking to work (no make-up, baggy shirt) and a guy starts walking beside me saying how beautiful I looked. I said thank you, and I was flattered because honestly I felt like shit that day. When he asked for my number I said sorry no I had a boyfriend. “But are you happy?” He asked, I’ve been with my boyfriend for 3 years but this guy did not give up. He then walks in from of me, grabs me hand and starts twirling me randomly like we’re in some stupid rom-com. The whole interaction took about 15 minutes for me to actually get away from him, and then I was late to work. I mean really, take no for an answer, this is why some women hate getting compliments in the street because even if they are innocent, how will we know it won’t end up into someone harrassing you!?