Third of girls harassed in school uniform

I'm 22, so I've not been out of school that long and this is something I experienced every day walking home from school. Groups of men in cars and vans shouting at me to get my vagina out (obviously in more disgusting terms), cat calling, constant beeping from cars and vans and lorries. It was absolutely vile and it made me feel extremely intimated, especially when waking alone.
The affects from this still haven't left me as I hate walking by roads now. Doesn't help that men still beep even when pushing a pram now

It's boys in school we also need to be educating around this, in my school boys would stand at the sides of the corridor and purposely make it obvious they were staring at your bum and then shout things at you. They used to have competitions to see who could smack girls bums the hardest, this is something I experienced every day and it was quite painful if they did it hard. They would pull on your bra and see if they could undo it. Etc..

I wish I had the voice and the knowledge I do now to challenge them over it rather than just accepting it was a part of school life. I'm very very angry and resentful over this period of my life due to boys and men doing this and various other things.

I mean she's 11 I shouldn't have to do this.

How many men have a sensible chat with their DDs about this? It's "womens work" and a "womens problem" on us to deal with quietly and maybe not deal with and keep secret and so on.

I'm sick of it.

I've had a chat about this with DD who has just started taking herself to and from secondary, without trying to scare her.

It's a tricky line and hopefully it won't happen.

I also told her that if any men say rude things to her they are dickheads and it's nothing to do with her - how she looks or what she's wearing, they just do it to any girls.

"It's a valid point though Sitting A brownie uniform or a girl guides uniform would not protect a girl or young woman from sexual assault."

Didn't a trans activist visitor claim that "sturdy underwear" would prevent sexual assaults?

I was telling DH yesterday about what used to happen to me on my daily walk from the bus stop to home after school. Not a day would go by without at least a horn beeping or something obscene being shouted from a passing car and that was the ‘minor’ end of it. This was also 1980’s but I see posts daily on local FB about women and girls being harassed by men, often 3 or 4 all in a car seemingly cruising the streets for just this purpose. Nothing has changed in all that time, which is unspeakably grim and depressing.

As a child in the 80s, I had a 2 mile walk to and from school. Usually on my own as there wasn't a bus service and my parents didn't have a car.
I never wore a skirt and tried to go through smaller roads.
Every time I had to use the main road, there would be men shouting things out of their windows and one time they stopped,
Pretended that they were lost and were trying to get me closer to the car.
I kept my distance, but you could see a man in the back getting ready to pounce!
I ran so fast!
After that, I changed my route and carried lots of stones in my pockets. But the biggest change was walking towards traffic.
They had less chance to have a go and I'd have a good target for my ammunition.

Schoolgirls beaten in India for standing up to sexual harrassment from boys.

But at least they got some 'distracting movies' to take their minds off it.

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/08/indian-schoolgirls-beaten-for-resisting-boys-sexual-advances

Not to distract from the distress and horror of that young girl and her family from your link.

It's a valid point though Sitting A brownie uniform or a girl guides uniform would not protect a girl or young woman from sexual assault.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/08/boy-16-charged-with-attempted-and-of-girl-10-in-devon

there is also this article in the Guardian.

I know this isn't the subject of the thread but how can the girl guides be completely confident with allowing male bodied teenagers to sleep, change and go to the toilet in the same spaces as girls.

Surprised it's a low as that.

I replied by email at the bottom of the article. Said well at least you're reporting this issue, unlike the failure (Question Time, Woman's Hour) at the beeb to address the biggest roll back of women's rights in 100 years, impacting the boundaries of leered at schoolgirls.

Not holding my breath for any reply. Haven't had one from M&S, Woman's Hour or GGuides....

placemats and the Guardian can't seem to see how self-id would pose a problem.

Because none of those 80 000 would ever dream of pretending to be a woman in order to get closer to women and children. Nope, it would never happen...

italics and bold my own.

From The Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/08/british-paedophiles-target-children-poor-countries-online-abuse-national-crime-agency

“We estimated that 80,000 UK nationals pose a sexual threat to children online – and this is a conservative estimate. What we know about offending pathways leads us to conclude that there are significant risks that many of these individuals will be taking advantage of the ready availability of free end-to-end encrypted technologies and inciting abuse through live streaming.”

It's endemic. It's males. It should be called out for what it is.

Men, sort yourselves out!

It's not just kids that get harassed. I reported a security guard in one of our local supermarkets, because he followed my every move and just stared at me. Believe me I do not shop lift and this pissed me off with a capital P.
I've since heard he has done it to other women and I've reported it.

This doesn't surprise me at all although I'm surprised that fewer girls get harassed in uniform than in everyday clothes. When I was getting public transport to school, it appeared the uniform was a signal to pervy men that you were fair game.

If I'd had an after school club and was getting a bus on my own, I could almost guarantee there'd be a guy getting too close on a bus seat so I couldn't get away, or if it was standing only, then standing close enough to be breathing down my neck and "accidentally" bumping into me constantly.

I remember in sixth form suddenly realising that it hadn't happened for months and thinking there was a link. Now I'm older I believe it's because young girls in uniform are easier prey, less likely to make a fuss and probably more likely to get upset which these men enjoy. And it is ALWAYS men - find me one woman who has harassed a boy in school uniform, just one for the tens that I alone experienced as a teenager.

Over in a flash and even the charity representatives were using ‘someone’ and ‘everyone else’ instead of MEN although they did at least make the point that it's not girls who need to change their behaviour, just a shame they said ‘everyone else’ instead of naming the problem.

It is extremely prevalent.

It needs addressing at root cause - male behaviour.

Even stuff where technically they aren't doing anything wrong e.g. slowly running eyes up and down you, when you're 14 or whatever this is really disconcerting and all adds up to this discomfort in general in public spaces as it happpens so much.

Men say "oh we can't help it we don't realise we're doing it are you saying we can't look at a femlae ever???????" which is disingenous. I am sure they manage not to look at their daughters / mums / sisters like that. And as adult humans are capable of self control. Do they do it to their female colleagues / bosses at work? Like fuck they do. Of course they can control all this behaviour.

And why do so many of them take NO interest in or concern for the effect on tehe girl on the receiving end? I mean som enjoy the reaction. But many just ogle and move on. They don't really see us as people at all. Is the answer. Sex objects / ornamentation for their visual pleasure. This is where "smile love" comes from & why so many react badly if they are pulled up on it >> ornamnets aren't supposed to object to being viewed, are they.

I'm another who is astounded it's as low as a third. I can't think of any woman I know who didn't experience this as a girl. Disgusting perverted men seem to start this shit on girls at earlier and earlier ages, and the whole thing is driven by the pornification of children.

ITV lunchtime news now.

Yy nothing

Trouble is admitting that means admitting your husband father son uncle is as disgusting as all the other sex offenders.

Far easier to blame the girls for having breasts

It's nothing to do with clothes.

Nothing to do AT ALL.

It's to do with the bodies underneath, to do with these children being identifiable as A female and B over about 12 (usually, could be younger).

And they have to have an investigation to work out why binders and wanting to be read as male are on the massive rise among girls? Join the dots and get a fucking clue, dimwits. When I was young girls starved themselves and wore baggy clothes to try and escape the male gaze, now they bind their breasts and "present" as male. Same difference (although I'm sure some have sex dysphoria, this is a much smaller number). GENDER dysphoria >> is a perfectly rational reaction in the face of this. Who wants to be a girl when you have to navigate this shit? It's scary, it always was, and it reduces you every daty drip drip drip that you're not a person you're a piece of flesh with fuckholes as far as men are concerned.

Multiple things here but the main problem is that many men register / see a female body any time after puberty has phsically strarted (curves / breasts) as "fair game" or even when they are just over a certain height ("old enough").

Plus the intense sexualisation of school age girls in our society including a general sociatal view of any girl over about 12 who is being accosted / groomed / flashed at / raped even as "asking for it". Girls from this age are presented in many situations as adult, manipulative, asking for it, sexually "knowing" or experienced, while the men abusing them are painted as innocents, or victims, how could they be expected to resist?

Massive problems to do with male entitlement, men thinking girls are "fair game" from WAY too young... And TBH they shouldn't be doing this stuff to older women either as it's shit, they often target younger girls as they will be more likely to give a satisfactory reaction (if the man even waits for one) > confusion, embarrassment, fear, and less likely to tell them to fuck off and call the police.

Although lots of people in the UK also thing that e.g. a schoolgirl aged 12 getting men shouting obscenities at her or following her is not and should not be criminal, it's for girls and women to somehow "manage" ie "society" that amorphous mass of generalised opinion, does not care really what happens to girls this age unless they are actually murdered. And sometimes not even then, if they are the "wrong" sort of girls.

And this is on men. It was common when I was young, seems hasn't changed. Society needs to stop seeing this as AOK and fine and girls shouldn't make a fuss about nothing and maybe it's banter or fun or can't they take a compliment etc.

I've just been reading the comments in The Times. There're truly some horrid trollish comments there. So depressing.

It's also sad that thousands of women are going to bed each night with perverted men

It is.

So many people so sure they can prevent this. My dd wears a knee length skirt. My dd will be wearing trousers.

No wonder it's so common cos men are always excused from their behaviour . It's the girls fault. Except now schools have anti roll skirts, and don't allow skinny trousers has it stopped? No!

In fact head teachers are now fucking joining in instead of teaching the boys to behave.

They really are going to find out the hard way that even when you dress in what others perceive as conservatively you get it. Hell I was offered money in a coat done up from shins to neck

Don't put this on your girls it's not their fault. It's men.ajd they will do it whether they are walking in their underwear or whether you send them to school in a sleeping bag with holes cut out for feet.