What’s the worst thing a guy has said to you on a night out?

Like the many other men and women of this world, I enjoy going out – whether it’s to let go off a horrendous week at work, or just because you wanna roll around in vodka without judgment. Unfortunately, going out as a woman is not always plain sailing. Just last week when I was out with friends, a guy approached me – completely uninvitedly – and told me “I was lucky he wasn’t trying to shag me before taking me out on a date, otherwise we wouldn’t even be in this club”. What does it even mean? I asked some other girls about their experiences with ill-advised, drunken and frankly downright nasty comments from boys on nights out. This is what they had to say:

Sophie, London

“When I refused to entertain a group of men catcalling me on a night out in Mayfair, I was told I looked ‘fucking cheap” anyway and one said he would ‘shove a Rolex up my cunt’.”

Vala, Bristol

“A few months back at a gay club in Bristol, my now-girlfriend and I were being followed round by a much older straight man, trying to ‘join in’. Unfortunately this experience is not isolated. Phrases of ‘can I join in?’ and ‘you need a man between you!’ are all too often received. And they’re usually accompanied with unwanted and overly close physical contact.

I think this is indicative of how queer women are often approached by straight men on nights out, with many men thinking it is OK to ask a couple for a ‘threesome’ (for some, completely unknown reason).”

Naomi, Bristol

I was approached on a night out by a guy who told me ‘I heard black girls are really good at dancing. Let’s test that theory now’. I’ve also been asked ‘can you twerk for me’ by another man. Another time, when discussing sexism and the need for feminism to an acquaintance in the pub, he replied with”I think you just feel a bit sorry for yourself”

Charlotte, Oxford

“I was stood in a queue for a club and a bunch of rugby guys were pushing and shoving, I turned around and asked them to stop pushing as we were all going to get in the club eventually, he stood over me and spat on my nose and said ‘drink that, you cunt’.”

Jess, Croydon

“I told a guy to keep his greasy ass hands off my friend who he kept touching up in a club, and I was having a proper argument with him on the dancefloor and after I made some very fair reminders about consent, he went ‘this girl needs some dick’ (about me) to his nearby mates. I know it wasn’t meant as an obvious, direct insult, more as a joke to his friends, but it was said so aggressively. Far too often, there is an association with girls rejected a guy’s advances (because we are all entitled to say no, and for that no to be respected) and a girl being ‘prudish’ or in ‘need’ of sexual contact.”

Sarah, Bristol

My ex-boyfriend saw me on a night out and told me he ‘hoped I would get raped again’, referencing something which happened with another guy in the past.