15 yr old dd wants to learn more about feminism.

[CloudPerson]

We've just come home from a holiday at center parcs, it was lovely, but slightly overshadowed as dd felt so uncomfortable whenever we were at the pool, which we were at least twice a day.
Wherever she went she had boys and men watching her, and groups of boys waiting for her and other girls to follow down the slides, or to swim nearby with goggles on. She overheard comments made about her and other girls, about their bottoms and boobs etc, she was wolf whistled, and started to dread swimming and stuck with her brothers to do things as she felt very vulnerable on her own, which in turn made her angry about it. She wanted to swim and use the slides, and wasn't going to let them stop her, but was very pissed off about it.

We also saw a boy drag his little sister (he looked about 12, she was slightly younger) into the pool when the waves were on, she was terrified and shouting no, crying and trying to get away from him as he kept dragging her deeper and pushing her under the water, as the family watched on laughing. I made my way to the boy and girl to try to say something, but she got away and went back to her family sobbing. It was horrible to watch, and made me wonder why some parents allow this (although this kind of thing was standard behaviour when I was growing up, and it was a "boys will be boys" thing), the girl was clearly upset, but the boy was allowed to overpower her and was rewarded for it (by the family thinking it was hilarious), so is it any wonder we live in a society where rape is so common?
So many boys must grow up thinking that this is ok, which, to be fair to them, must be confusing, as they suddenly go from overpowering and making girls feel upset and powerless being funny and ok to do to the same being a crime when it involves sex (I know that's not a brilliant comparison). Are some parents just stupid?

Anyway, sorry that's quite garbled (in my defence I'm knackered and can barely string a sentence together!).
Dd is quite keen to learn more about feminism, and to learn some effective responses when boys make crude and creepy comments.

OP, It's great that she's reacted like this to such an unpleasant experience. I remember when my DD started noticing the unwanted male gaze / leering/ unwanted comments (at about 14 / 15) and - even though I'd been a feminist for a long time I found it quite hard to 'intelligently' support her. Your feminist Mum is often to be rebelled against and definitely not cool.
And yes, I'm afraid there's lots of people who enable awful behaviour from their teenagers.
How about the vagenda magazine?:
vagendamagazine.com
And everyday sexism?
twitter.com/EverydaySexism

They're good online starting points

That's brilliant, thank you, I'll send her the links.

Last time we went, she was still very much a little girl so had no attention at all, I think she's shocked in the difference a year makes.

I am going to quietly lurk if that's ok.

I am mother to 4 boys, the older 2 now teenagers (13 and 14).
The indoctrination against feminism that goes on within their peer group is just shocking and, like you CloudPerson, I find it really difficult to not respond by blowing my top to some of the stuff they come out with.
And FeministMum is most definitely somebody to not take seriously....

I am sorry your DD had such a bad experience - it's crap.
Sorry I have no suggestions to make either
I am a very Badly Read Feminist because I always fear that reading will make me just more angry...

It's horrible seeing them experience harassment isn't it? For what it's worth, I reckon key skills that help are resilience and assertiveness. DD was bullied as a child and I KNOW that all the work we did on assertiveness and standing up for herself without being aggressive stood her in good stead.
DD is now grown up and as assertive and confident a young woman as I could wish for. Doesn't shout about feminism but behaves as one and has a great feminist political outlook (but still eyerolls at my feminism at times ).

We have some interesting chats, and for some reason we manage to bypass the uncool mum stuff and she does seem to value my opinions and vice versa, whether this lasts or not I have no idea! I am a feminist, but more the type that doesn't know enough but rants anyway.

I suppose one good thing to come out of it is that her brothers (16 and 12) can see how creepy and threatening this behaviour is, and can see how disgusted dd is by it, so hopefully it will teach them how not to treat women/girls.

She is assertive and confident (no idea how, the rest of us are autistic and have very little resilience at all - perhaps she got the relevant genetics from someone else!).

I am a very Badly Read Feminist because I always fear that reading will make me just more angry...

Same here.

But I do own one book by Germaine Greer, and if memory serves, her style is concise and clear and would be well understood by a 15 year old, if that 15 year old hasn't had her attention span damaged by the internet.

So, I'd say, read one book by Germaine Greer, to have a solid basis, and then do some reading on the internet.

www.feministcurrent.com is a good online source.

Germaine Greer books are a good idea, will go and have a look.
She has the attention span of a gnat, but I can always read it and then chat to her about it if she won't.

Thankyou for this post OP. I have to admit that I hadn't thought about how a brother overpowering their sister and not condemning it could be seen.
I have a DS4 who is extremely chunky, and a very slight DS11, he can actually overpower her as he is stronger(or more aggressive...) and I had always thought it was just due to her being weak. But actually, they need to learn at their age that overpowering is wrong regardless of age etc.
Thankyou.