https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/03/19/the-stigmatisation-of-working-class-girls/

Working-class girls in particular learn at a very young age that they are not seen as worthy of respect or dignity. One woman told me she became pregnant at 14 and, when she sought out an abortion, healthcare professionals treated her with immense cruelty. They even referred to her as a ‘slag’ in a meeting with two senior professionals. Despite her age, no one asked about the man who had impregnated her.

This is the kind of narrative the BBC perpetuated in its documentary about Omar Badreddin, when reporters insinuated that a 14-year-old girl was sexually promiscuous. And it is the same horrid stereotype that allowed the many victims of grooming gangs across the country to go ignored for so long. These girls were dismissed as common, troubled and ‘asking for it’. Their exploitation was seen as almost inevitable and, in many ways, their own fault.