It’s difficult to talk about the experience of being bullied, picked on, vilified. Sometimes it feels easier to stay silent, to quietly move on. There’s a shame that comes with being attacked, it somehow taps into the darker voices of your own psyche that whisper to you from time to time that you are bad or unworthy. It’s also scary to think you might invite further attacks, and just perpetuate an already horrendous situation. And I think as women we are often encouraged to keep our heads down and keep walking, rather than ‘fight back’. Not to be angry, not to be aggressive, not to draw attention to ourselves. Instead to hold our distress in our quietly clenched fists, in the tightness of our jaw, in the knots of our shoulders. And be silent.