Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry

by Arlene Hutton

Warning: contains references to sexual harassment and assault 

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According to a 2021 article in The Guardian:
“Girls suffer disproportionately, complaining of sexist name-calling, online abuse, up-skirting, unwanted touching in school corridors and rape jokes on the school bus. Boys share nude pictures on WhatsApp and Snapchat “like a collection game”, inspectors were told. A review by the schools’ inspectorate concluded that sexual harassment has become “normalised” for young people, in school, online and in other unsupervised spaces including parks and house parties.”

What has caused this “normalisation” of sexual harassment in schools – and why don’t more people speak out against it? This is a play which asks “why”?

Following a group of high school students, this collage of scenes looks at harassment in school, assault, date rape, shaming, mascara & video games.