Thread by @sturdyAlex

THREAD By DM, wishes to remain anonymous:

"This is a story about how boys behave at school- in my case it was a private boarding school that I only attended for two years between the ages of 16-19." 1/ #STFUSaturday

"The boys there would routinely come up behind girls when going to class or chapel service, and try to pinch their bums. They would sit and watch them walk past and openly rate them: 'I’d do her, I wouldn’t do her.'" 2/ #STFUSaturday

"Final year towards exam season they got into the habit of coming up behind us and pulling our trousers down in front of everyone. Two different boys did it to me in one day, I was 18." 3/ #STFUSaturday

"The first boy did it to me in the afternoon in a corridor and I reacted really badly, he soon realised I didn’t take it as banter and he started apologising for fear of being reported. What’s worse is another boy saw the incident, saw my reaction." 4/ #STFUSaturday

"So that night after 'prep time' when I went down to the common room he came up behind me and pulled my trousers down in front of the whole year group. He could have dragged my knickers down too by mistake. I could have been on my period." 5/ #STFUSaturday

"None of that mattered because what he had done had garnered the desired reaction, it was 'banter'; it was funny; he was one of the 'cool' guys. I went up to my room and cried myself to sleep and didn’t leave that room for a week except for class and meals." 6/ #STFUSaturday

"I told a couple friends including girls. While they were sympathetic they told me I was overreacting. I never reported the boys for fear of retribution- I looked one of them up recently. He’s a PE teacher at a school believe it or not." 7/ #STFUSaturday

"This happened when I was 18 - now I’m 32 and still haven’t forgotten it, though I’m sure they don’t remember what they did. I shared this story because misogyny in privileged environments is just as commonplace and is in some ways more glorified and tolerated." 8/ #STFUSaturday

"It was clear that it didn’t cross these boys’ minds for a second that they had no right to put their hands on me without my consent, and that they didn’t see what they did as a violation of me and my rights over my own body. They were both 17 years old." 9/ #STFUSaturday

"When men think of the sexism we complain about they think of poor or working class men doing extreme things, often strangers. But most us are harassed by men we know, and a lot more subtly." 10/ #STFUSaturday

"The male behaviour I experienced during those two years was far more jarring to me than anything I experienced in any state school. Even the girls reacted differently in private school. I was to be flattered that I was considered 'hot enough' to be targeted." 11/11 #STFUSaturday