Honestly, it might sound weird but I’ve hit my thirties and I’ve never felt more anxious about being a woman in the world (and this is despite picking myself up after a sexual assault at university).

I teach and I’ve encountered manosphere attitudes in my classroom. Boys quoting Rollo Tomasi etc in completely unrelated essays. We’ve seen here in the UK an outpouring of testimony of how prevalent harassment and assaults are amongst our teenagers. I’ve sat through sessions in which I’ve seen male students giggle and make fun when rape and consent is discussed.

I’m a history teacher who specialises in social history in particular the roles of men and women in the past. I tweeted about the historic context of the word cuckold and got piled on by bad faith men who had no interest in the history/archival evidence but instead wanted to accuse me of placing modern feminist values on the past being pro-trans.

How is stating the historic reality of the policing of women’s sexuality some feminist conspiracy, it’s just the truth. When I talk about my concerns about the manosphere/MRA/incel culture and what it might mean for women I get laughed off by my male partner.

What with the recent incel attack in Plymouth I sometimes (oftentimes) feel either our society is regressing or the internet is just allowing what some groups of men would say about women in private to become public.

Either way I feel often at once like I’m either going mad or am about to have a massive panic attack. How do you all stay sane?!