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‘Sometimes it's fun to play with them first’: girls and boys talking about sexual harassment in Caribbean schools

This paper discusses findings from a qualitative study conducted in four government secondary schools in the Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda on students' experiences at school in relation to sexuality. Both girls and boys experienced a range of anxieties and confusions in relation to sexuality, whilst also seeing (hetero)sexual attraction as an exciting part of schooling. Sexual harassment of girls emerged as a widespread and serious (as well as ‘normalised’) occurrence in all the schools studied. However, the data also showed that girls were far from passive. Instead, girls demonstrated complex and contradictory responses to boys' behaviour due to their own investments in being desirable within discourses of hetero-femininity, as well as the pleasure they gained from their relationships. Both genders would clearly benefit from opportunities to discuss their needs, beliefs and desires regarding sexuality and relationships.