Aged 10
1996
I used to go for private music lessons at a teachers house. He was an elderly man and he used to flirt with me. He used to call me ‘baby’ and stroke the back of my leg (always wearing my school skirt) with a golf club with no club on which he used as a stick to point at music. I had a couple of friends who also went to him for lessons and they said he used to do the same. We all used to giggle about how gross it was – we knew it was wrong. This was probably the first example of a pattern that followed me throughout my youth – men in positions of authority “taking a shine to me” and being just a bit too cosy and flirtatious. I particularly remember this with a couple of college teachers and uni lecturers. It was so subtle though that I don’t think I could even name it. As a girl, you just know.