Grace

We are just going back to school after Coronavirus lockdown and it’s the first PE lesson of second year. S2, so everyone is 12 or 13. I myself am thirteen. We’re playing rounders and the boys keep on cutting in front of girls to bat next saying that we ‘wouldn’t be able to hit the ball anyway’. Me and my friend( female) start calling them out on this and they say “oh my god, are you feminists?” Like it was a bad thing. We tell them that we are because it’s a necessary part of society these days and they( very condescendingly) tell us that it’s dumb and we should just “ take a joke”. So I just turn around and try to go on with my lesson, but then they say to me “ ohhhhh someone’s on her period” ( for the record I am currently pre-menstrual) but just to try to get the upper hand on them I say ‘yeah, you wanna see?’ It works and they don’t speak to me again but continue talking amongst themselves about how I’m going to “kill all men” and I’m stupid if I think that ( I don’t). Then they begin chanting “ REAL MEN DON’T RAPE, OH SHIT, MUST HAVE BEEN A GHOST. WE ALL KNOW BITCHES BE CRAZY ANYWAYS”. By this time the lesson was ending and we were going home but my attitude to “kill all men” had changed slightly. I wanted to show them( in physical terms) the emotional pain that caused most of the girls in my class, who all heard them.

On my way home I was talking to my friend who had originally stood up with me and was one of the few girls who had managed to get a shot. We had both noticed that whenever we had been running these boys who thought we were dumb and stupid could not take their eyes off of our boobs, it had been uncomfortable seeing as we had also both been told that they had crushes on us. We didn’t understand why they could be so mean but also still apparently “like” us. They just saw us as objects and I don’t know if PE class will ever be the same knowing that they might just be watching us. I used to really enjoy it.