Emma
I was on holiday in Italy. I was cat-called a harassed by the same group of men in broad-daylight three days in a row. They were in large groups and I was on my own, it was terrifying. They shouted at me and get very close.
Sexism
Mandy
One workplace was really toxic. I gave my boss (the CEO) a presentation about my job on his very first day in the office. Afterwards, he stared at my breasts and said, “I’ll remember you” – no comment about my work at all. In another incident, he called me at 7:30 am and said, “I was hoping to catch you as you stepped out of the shower.” He was utterly incompetent, racist and homophobic, as well as sexist. I occasionally stood up to him. On one occasion, he brought us into his office to share a video of his niece marrying a black man where he mocked the marriage and the black man – I was the only board member who called him out and said he was racist. I was horrified that everyone else remained quiet. After turning the organisation around and winning awards, he came after me and denied me the pay rise I deserved. HR had to step in. However, HR also told me she was batting off daily complaints about him, e.g. smacking his assistant’s bottom after he got them to go under tables to plug in stuff. On my last day, we had a run-in, and he refused to write a reference. I wrote it myself, and then he made personal remarks about me, and I ran out of the room in tears, tripped over a large doorstop and broke my wrist. His response was to get that doorstop painted over quickly. At the same time as this, I had another director saying things to me like, “I’m going to have to smack your bottom” and “If you come to me with your knickers around your ankles”,… he also drunkenly raged at me at an event about something he did wrong… projecting. I complained to HR, and HR told him he made my life worse – coming into my office, picking up The Sun and flicking to page 3. The same director threw a chair at another female director for refusing to give him a budget…. None of these men were punished. For a long time, I thought it was me and that I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to them… but for four years before these men came into the office… I was fine, happy and doing a great job – my work did not suffer during their two-year tenure, but my mental health did. And if I knew then what I know now, I would have left within six months instead of sticking it out.
alexia
I don’t know if this really counts, but boys in my school class always wink at girls, and lick their lips and stare at us. It makes me feel sick, and when I tell them to stop they say “I know you like it.” It’s so unfair that girls go through this, sometimes alone. I hate boys sometimes.
alex
When a boy buys cond*ms, it is mature, and safe, and smart. But when a girl buys cond*ms, it is considered dirty, and she is thought to be a slu*. How is this fair, and how can we change this?
Lisa
I was attempting to compete in high school swimming competition, when 3 boys came up to me and were treating me really horrible, saying that girls can’t swim, and that I would fail and never be happy. I don’t know why, and I never will. I beat them in races and they didn’t say anything to me. After the race, in the changerooms, I heard some wolf whistling when I walked in. It was the boys. I told my mum and sister. They tried to find out who the boys were, but never could.
A
‘Hello Girls’ in a meeting when 2 women and a white man are present.
Ashika
My dad is a priest and my mom has done theology, they raised me and my brother the same way no partiality lol but there definitely was sexism which was extremely normalized especially in india My family used to only tell me to do the chores and say things like “you’re a girl, you should know how to cook” “you should learn to clean the household or your in- laws won’t be happy” i was SEVEN And say things like don’t cry like a girl when my brother was sobbing or “act like a girl” if i raised my voice a bit I didn’t think much of it at the time and I actually loved doing chores at that age but by the time i became 10, I understood the meaning behind them and it pissed me off and i swore tht i wont ever enter the kitchen to cook if my brother doesn’t and guess wht I still haven’t since my brother never entered the kitchen to even make himself an omelette and at school people used terms like “dont be a pussy” “do you have balls” “grow a dick” and when they called a guy a “playboy” when he was flirting with multiple girls but called a girl “attention whore” “slut” when she did the same thing, and I noticed that there equivalent word for a slut or a cunt for men and these slurs pissed me off and when i called them out they told me that i was overreacting and tht it is what it is and for a moment I actually believed that im the one who’s overreacting since women use these terms so y am i angry But then my parents started telling me that I shouldnt wear crop tops and “short shorts” since it will attract men I was extremely angry and baffled cause how tf am i the problem Why can’t this world treat women as individuals rather than objects Y should we be their mother or sister for them to respect us instead of objectifying us We are human beings with the same feelings and we are no less than them in any way EVERYONE SHOULD BE A FEMINIST IF YOU RESPECT WOMEN
Kylie
I have recently found this site after reading Laura Bates’ book. I used to have YouTube channel where I posted movie and music reviews, normal stuff. A few months after starting my channel I was shocked at the amount of sexist comments on my videos. I hated it but I didn’t see it as something extraordinary… until members of MGTOW (the sexist online group) started harassing me, they somehow found my instagram account and real name (I assume they used some reverse image search program) and started sending all kinds of disgusting and threatening messages on facebook to me and my facebook friends (including relatives). They claim they want to ”go their own way” but in reality many people who are brainwashed by MGTOW (including incels) really enjoy harassing women. This situation became extremely annoying. I recomend all young girls and parents to watch out for the comments and messages they get on social media because there’s a lot of extremist sexists online. Ever since this happened I started to do more research on this group. I thank Laura Bates for raising on this. Kylie
Piper
My story is about my school . My school like every other school has a very sexist dress code . but they also have teachers that tend to say things like ‘I need a strong boy to help me out’ ‘I need a strong boy to help me come with these books’. The dress code also says that girls cannot show their shoulders, their shorts must pass fingertip, and their shoulders must be covered. There’s many more such as bras cannot be showing but boys can sag their pants to their underwear show.There’s been multiple times where Can’t talk about our menstrual periods because it disgusts the boys and the male teachers. We have also been told, but all of the boys and girls, that are rights go away as soon as we enter the classroom. the teahcers say when we enter the classroom we are the responsibility of the school and all our rights go away. This is something that is disgusting. ALSO BOYS WILL BE BOYS. THEY WILL BE RESPECTFUL
CC
I was hobbling down the corridor at work on my crutches after hurting my knee at football, and a male colleague asked “What have you done?”. I said that I had torn my ligament playing football to which he replied “What are you doing playing that? That’s a boys’ sport!”. I really couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but seeing as I didn’t really know him, I thought probably not. I was so astonished by the outdated cliché remark, all I could say back was “It is 2020 you know”, but I wish I’d have been able to think quickly enough to say something a bit more thought-provoking.