Women Are Sharing The Times They Experiences Sexism At School And Even In 2021, All I Can Say Is "Disappointed But Not Surprised"
We recently shared a post where we asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the infuriating times they experienced sexism at school. Unfortunately, there were even more jaw-dropping stories to add to keep the conversation going. Here are 24 more aggravating stories that'll make your blood pressure rise:
Some responses are also from this Reddit thread started by u/Black_EternalFlame.
Warning: Some submissions mention rape/sexual harassment.
1."I competed in speech tournaments in high school. In regionals, you have to do so well to be allowed to compete at a state level. You don't receive your comments until the end of the speech meet, so I didn't question anything when I didn't make it to state. However, my female speech teacher handed my score sheet back and told me the only reason I didn't have a chance to compete at state was because I didn't wear flesh-colored tights."
"Sure enough, that was the only dock on my speech score, and the judge said she was disappointed I wasn't wearing women's tights. I was wearing a full dress suit which happened to have a knee-length or a little longer skirt with a matching long-sleeved jacket, so apparently, the three inches of my calf were too distracting to be able to move forward in the competition."
2."Flowy shorts were a trend when I was a freshman in high school, especially in Southern California, where it's hotter than hell at times. I purposefully bought flowy shorts to wear at school to match the rules. Our rule book says, 'Shorts are allowed but must be below the fingertips,' meaning when you put your arms to your sides, your shorts should be longer than the tips of your fingers. I wore them to school the next day, and someone came up to me telling me to go to the office. The principal gave me detention and told me that my shorts were a distraction to my male peers and teachers."
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"She also said, 'She wouldn't feel comfortable if everyone was staring at her like that.' I told her that my shorts were longer than my fingertips and even showed her, she didn't care. Fun times. She made me wear gym shorts the rest of the day, and even the teacher in charge of detention was confused about why I was there."
3."When I was in high school, I went to pay for a dance ticket with tip money from my job at an ice cream parlor, and the teacher said 'Wow, you must be doing really well at the strip club' while looking at my boobs."
4."My sixth-grade band teacher wouldn't let me be one of the drummers because 'only the boys play the drums.' I played the clarinet with great disdain instead."
5."In secondary school, we had swimming lessons with mixed genders, which was okay. But I started wearing board shorts over my one-piece swimming suit because I didn't feel comfortable with my bare hips on display. The PE teachers told me to stop doing that because 'only boys wear shorts.'"
"I kept wearing the shorts because their only choice was to strip a teenage girl physically."
6."In my high school environmental science class, the female teacher decided to spend two weeks on self-defense and passed out handouts to all the girls in the class about how to not get raped. It included not wearing a ponytail, not wearing skirts, carry keys, etc."
7."In a dance program we had at school, the girls weren't allowed to do backflips or cartwheels, and the boys were. When we asked the teacher why her reply was, 'Boys can handle it, and they can do it. Girls cannot.'"
8."My high school had a pool, so swimming was a gym option once a month. I opted out of swim for a week because of my period, but my male gym teacher was having none of it and told me to 'just wear a tampon' because that's what the girls on the swim team do."
9."One of my friends was on her period once in middle school, and we had PE that day. She was cramping pretty badly and asked our male teacher if she could sit out for the day. He told her that exercise helps and to participate anyway. Although that may be the case sometimes, this friend will sometimes get cramps so bad, she passes out or throws up."
"She was visibly in pain within ten minutes of class and had to leave early to recover. ALWAYS believe a girl when she says she has bad cramps. This teacher almost made her pass out from the pain because he didn’t take the time to listen."
10."I was in a science and math after-school program that had a yearly design contest with other high schools. One year, it was a group project where you had to create a machine that gets a ping pong ball through an obstacle course, and the machine had to have multiple on/off switches on the course. I was lead on the switches. During the build, the judges came over to look at our design, and I remember them laughing at my switches and saying they were 'pretty' because I made them out of pieces of copper."
"During the obstacle course, my team's switches were the only ones that worked per the requirements of the challenge. What award did we get? 'Prettiest Switches.' Felt like my team's accomplishment was made less than because a girl actually got it to work. Like why not 'Best Designed Switches' or some other word than PRETTY!?!"
11."Back in school, I used to like watching Ben 10, but I was bullied for it by my classmates, especially the girls, for liking a cartoon that mainly targets boys. Even the teachers told me that I should stop watching it and should watch Barbie movies or Disney princess films because I am a girl."
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"The girls only stopped bullying me when I finally snapped at them. Although I am no longer interested in watching Ben 10 (due to reboots), I am still glad that I never give in to the gender stereotypes. Everyone should be allowed to enjoy what they like regardless of their gender."
12."My old GAA coach once told me to 'strop trying out because girls can't play sports anyway' when I asked for help doing a hand pass. He would always split up the girls and boys, and the guys would get 25 minutes to play, and the girls would only get five."
"We had to report around four or five times for him to be fired, and the principal only did when one of the guys came with us to report him."
13."I was in the 'gifted' class at school, and on several occasions when the whole class misbehaved, our female head of the year would be called to reign us in. She would always say something along the lines of 'I am very disappointed in you all, especially you girls. You are young ladies. You should know better.'"
"As if it was OK for the boys to misbehave. 'Boys will be boys' and all that. But not the girls. It’s been 15 years, and it still infuriates me!"
14."I remember being told to go to the front office for sweatpants because my jeans were 'too tight' and everyone could see my camel toe. Luckily, I was already 18 and was able to sign myself out of school and did just that."
"I'll never forget how humiliated I felt. That was 10 years ago."
15."My gym teacher told the boys to 'take it easy on the girls because they aren't as capable as you.'"
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"Also, the same teacher made all the girls in my class line up in front of the boys, and then he told the boys to go choose the one they wanted for a partner... what the fuck."
16."A few years ago, some of the boys in my class would throw food and wrappers at my friends and me, and when we told the female teacher, she said, 'boys will be boys. Their brains aren’t as developed as yours, so just leave them, and they will leave you alone.'"
17."My current American History teacher makes sexist 'jokes' all the time. He says things like 'Why am I wiping down these desks? That's a woman's job!'"
18."When I was a senior in high school, my history teacher was incredibly sexist and inappropriate. He organized our camp as our year advisor. The camp was a sports camp, but he divided the camp by gender because he 'didn't want the girls to feel self-conscious when we couldn't do half the things that the boys could do.'"
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"Even when doing the activities (abseiling, high ropes, rock climbing, etc.), he kept insisting that the camp leaders give us advantages or put us on a little kids course to give us a 'fighting chance.' Thankfully the camp leaders refused, and we continued on as normal. Only two people completed the advanced rock climbing wall that year; both of us were girls, and when I completed, I yelled down at the ground for him to suck it. Well worth the detention."
19."When I was in sixth grade, we did the running test, and I got a 64, which was the highest score of our grade by far. Our male gym teacher asked me who taught me to run, and when I said no one, he told me that my brother must-have."
"My friend got a 54, though she thought she got 56 because he didn't STOP her until 56, he gave her a lower score so she wouldn't tie with a boy. We all saw it. When she pointed this out, he said, 'Well, you still did really well...for a girl.' I was so mad."
20."My senior year of high school, I had this English teacher who was a total nightmare, and it was literally ignored by administrators and staff all the time. On our first day of class, he had all the girls stand up. He took that opportunity to let the class know that these were the people who would be lucky to get a B in his class, and the people sitting would not have to try hard to pass because he already had planned on giving out a lot of A's to them."
21."In elementary school, my friends and I would always want to play soccer with the boys at recess, but whenever we went over, the male teacher would tell us to go start our own game because we were not good enough to play soccer."
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22."Certainly not the only time I've heard this, but it was the first. During my sophomore year of high school, my gym teacher said, 'Are you really a Jets fan, or are you just wearing that sweatshirt because it's your boyfriend's team?'"
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"Ten years later, this still pisses me off. Back then, I just stuttered bc I was so shocked, but now I always respond, 'would you ask me that if I were a man?'"
23."One time in 8th grade, I was only 14-years-old, and it was 80° towards the end of the year. I was wearing a crop top and shorts because it's what I was comfortable in. While walking in the hallway with my friends, we came across the headmaster who stopped me, crossed his arms, and said, 'What am I gonna tell you?' He literally would not let me keep walking until he saw me pull down my shirt to cover my stomach that was barely showing in the first place."
24.And finally, "In Kindergarten, I was building with the blocks, and the teacher pulled me away and said they were just for the boys. She dragged me over to the kitchen and baby doll area instead."
Have you ever had to deal with sexism in school before? Feel free to leave your stories in the comments below.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
