Pricktease

[DoubleYouOhEmAyEn]

I'm trying to reflect on how the culture of the time affected my behaviour and the development of my self esteem in my teens. Does anyone remember having the phrase 'she's a pricktease' bandied around in the 1980/90s? What are your thoughts about it?
I had an unexpected flashback to something that happened in my early teens. The details are hazy and most likely irrelevant. But this phrase stands out as one that really bothered me at the time. It was used by boys often, about me and other girls. It reeks of male entitlement. I had buried it but it has resurfaced and it's bothering me again. Basically males assuming you're there for the taking and if they fancy you but you don't comply with their wishes by jumping into bed it's somehow all your fault and you deserve to be called names.
Anyone recognise what I'm talking about?

I used to get called it quite a bit in my teens and 20s.

I was very chatty and friendly and I thought I was getting on with people as friends. I had a long term boyfriend, I wasn't interested in flirting. But having a great chat and a laugh with a male and not wanting to snog him made me a pricktease, apparently.

So many young men were utter pigs.

Lots of interesting perspectives on here. I had forgotten about Rizzo, that's so interesting how far it's embedded in the culture. I don't think things have shifted very much in reality. We're still expected to be up for it, but not so up for it we'd sleep with just anyone. Just the guy in front of us who wants it. Ffs.

Totally. My experience of it was lads called me it when they fancied me but I wasn't into them. See also : frigid. 😒

I sent on a date with a school mate. We kissed but I wouldn’t go any further in his car. Next day at 6th form I was called frigid.

My dad was always telling me that boys only wanted sex with me. As other posters have said this has ruined how I interact with men. I’ve always been afraid of leading them on so have never flirted and do have the look that says piss off so rarely been randomly chatted up or have male friends.

I remember it well. I suppose it was from the time girls were the gatekeeper to sex, and nice girls didn’t.

Its the patriarchy writ large. All boys wanted it and there was nothing wrong with them if they kept pushing the girls boundaries. If the female has sex or any intimacy (third base, heavy petting) then she’s a slag, a ride, easy. If she lets him go a little way then stops, that’s when she’s a prick teaser. No responsibility on the boy at all.

I was a teenager of the 70’s and there was no way you could win. The only hope was to have a nice steady boyfriend and just hope he didn’t brag to his mates.

Id like to think things have improved. But teenage boys don’t change and with the internet riddled porn, I don’t hold out much hope.

The first time I heard (or read) the phrase was in Lace by Shirley Conran. I believe she also had Jailbait and Frigid in there. It’s a story about girls, starting in the late 1940s up until the late 70s, so I understood them to be very old-fashioned phrases.

It has a paragraph, very early on, about how the teenaged girls are expected to act as gatekeepers to the out of control boys, and how it warps their own sexual feelings.