Last year I was walking to my car after going to hear a friend’s band play at a show.  I was parked in a well-lit, well populated area less than 2 blocks away – not even a 3 minute walk.  A car slowed down next to me with 3 young men inside, they rolled down their windows and started cat-calling.  When I ignored them they threw money at me.  At this point I had reached my car and was getting out my keys when the boy in the passenger side started to open his door.  There were a group of bar patrons having a smoke across the street.  One of them saw what was happening and started to approach their car yelling, “Leave her the fuck alone, I will call the cops!”  The boy quickly got back in the car and they drove away.  I was wearing jeans and a tank-top.  Just for those who think clothing has something to do with this.  The only skin I was baring was my arms. It wasn’t even low-cut.

I hate talking about these incidents because in each one I felt like I had to be saved by someone else.  I’m five foot tall and a hundred pounds.  I know I am an easy target.  But I still wish I had yelled, fought, and held people accountable.  I carry a taser now, I take jiu-jitsu now because there won’t always be someone there to intervene.  And I hate hate hate the fact that while I have been so incredibly lucky there are hundreds of others who weren’t.  Thank you for letting me share.

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It’s been almost 7 years now and I never reported the incident to anyone of authority. It took me 3 years to tell my mother because of the pure shame and guilt I felt. I was 17 and on vacation with my two best friends in Chicago, staying with my aunt. We met some guys, exchanged numbers, even spent a day hanging out with them in the city. At the end of that day I started to get an uneasy feeling about them. It was nothing but pure gut instinct but I knew I needed to listen to it. These guys wanted to hang out that night and I told my friends no, we shouldn’t go. We had snuck out the night before and I just knew we shouldn’t do it again. After being called several explicit names by one of my “Friends”, I gave in. We met up with them and they had the biggest jug of vodka I had ever seen at that point in my life. Long story short, they got us all drunk. Really drunk. Three of them, three of us. I wondered off to clear my head and one of them followed. At that point I couldn’t feel my body anymore and collapsed in his arms. He laid me on the ground and started kissing me. My whole body was numb, but I could fully comprehend what was going on. When he started to pull on the button of my pants I asked him to stop. He didn’t respond, so the next time I told him. I repeated myself maybe five times and finally he said “why”. I gave up and asked if he would at least use a condom. He said “No”.

I have no idea how long it went on. How long he assaulted my lifeless body as I moved in and out of consciousness. How long he used me to fulfill his needs. Every time I opened my eyes my body was jerked into a different position. I remember him grabbing my arms, pulling me up and shoving himself inside of my mouth. It finally all stopped when he heard my friend coming towards us. He jumped up, grabbed my clothes, tossed them at me and told me to get dressed. My Jean shorts had grass stains as well as my brand new Chicago Cubs shirt that I would never wear again after that night.

When my friend got over to me, she said that our other friend was having sex with one of the guys and the other had tried to touch her. At this point after practically having alcohol poured down my throat and being raped, I pieced together that this was planned. They planned to get us drunk. Hoping we wouldn’t know what was going on or be able to tell them no. I put my clothes on and went to find our other friend. Turns out, she was totally cool with that was going on and wouldn’t pull herself away from this guy. After what seemed like an eternity, we all headed back to my aunt’s house and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and was really disoriented. I sat up in bed and everything came to me in one big wave and I just started sobbing. The friend who unknowingly stopped my assault sat next to me and held on to me, comforting me as I wept. The other friend… well she told me I wanted it. That there was no way in hell I was raped. Convinced me of this even.

It took me a really long time to accept that it wasn’t my fault. And it’s taken even longer than that to push aside the guilt of not making us all stay in that night. It’s been almost seven years and I’m finally dealing with my PTSD, anxiety and depression properly with medication and therapy. I see more and more of these stories coming out and it’s so disgusting to me what these people get away with. That the victims are blamed if they drank too much, but the predator gets away with it because they drank too much. I educate people around me on these situations, and when the time is right I will educate my younger sister as well.

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I’m not the most eloquent speaker. Or writer. I will just try to explain the best I can. I was a junior in college at the time, the night of graduation. There was multiple parties. Which for me meant multiple drinks. I feel the need to share that I was not In a good place (emotionally) at the time. Feb-September of 2006 was hands down the worst months of my life. Anyways. I had been to multiple graduation parties and had multiple drinks. A bunch of us ended up out in the middle of nowhere around a bonfire. There were drinks. Laughter. Loud music. And typical Kansas heat and humidity. It started by innocent flirtation (or so I thought). He basically suggested going somewhere to talk. (Which was hard to do with so many people and such loud music). I was under the influence. I knew him (not well, but we went to the same small college). I thought he was attractive. And a welcome distraction from my recent heartbreak who was also at the party. Anyways. He lead me far enough away for privacy. Things seemed much more quiet. From there on he got very aggressive and started kissing me. I ignored some weird vibes and red flags and feelings of trouble ahead that seemed to be going off in my head. If I have learned anything from MY experiences with drinking. It’s that I still am aware of trouble, bad decisions, promiscuity, etc. . .i just care a whole lot less. Anyways. Things progressed. Some how it ended up that we were on the ground, but it still wasn’t registering that I am getting deeper and deeper. I don’t think it really clicked until at one point he pretty forcefully rolled me over so he was on top of me. This maybe wouldn’t have seemed so troublesome had he not done it with such force. I can specifically still remember the look in his eyes in that moment. I cannot quite describe it. It felt bad. It didn’t feel like a man looking at me lustfuly. It felt scary. It felt threatening. It made me feel powerless and scared. I knew at that point I was in trouble. I feel like that sobered me up, but by this point there was a lot of alcohol in my system and things were fuzzy. From there things proceeded. I can’t tell the exact order of events and remember each detail but what followed was a tornado of things. Hand around my throat. A forceful shake and slamming of my head into the ground. Throating words in my ear and breath on my neck. A snicker and some sort of comment about a whore like me being on the pill. I know that he did not use a condom but seemed to have blacked out on when it was actually happening. At some point I regained my thoughts and whatever control of my body I could muster. I felt paralyzed. My head hurt. My body felt weird. I was confused. And angry. He was no where to be seen. After what seemed like an eternity I made my way back to the bonfire. To my friends. I remember immediately finding a chair and setting down. I remember feeling cold even though it was so very hot. One of my dear friends came over to me to talk. She looked at my face and knew something was wrong. I can’t remember what she said to me but I remember pulling her on to my lap. I was shaking. Eventually we made it to our friends house. I was exhausted but couldn’t fall asleep. eventually I did. the next morning I was taking a shower and I went to wash my hair. That’s when I felt something weird. I was picking little branches and leaves out of my hair. It took me only a matter of days to end up telling someone. But a matter of months before telling my parents. Honestly. I think it would’ve taken me even longer to tell my parents had I not gotten a phone call from my doc saying that my pap had came back irregular. I had contracted a STD. One that was high risk for cancer. Then I was forced to tell my parents. Years later. I regret the fact that I didn’t turn it in. That I didn’t go to the cops. That I didn’t potentially stop him from doing it to someone else. It’s such a strange thing. Anyone who knows me will tell you how blunt and honest I am. But that time was a confusing time. I felt a mixture of fear. And anger. And shame. Oh the shame. And even guilt. After all. I had been drinking. I had been flirty. I had been blah blah blah. I didn’t want to deal with it. If I could do I things over. I would have reported it. But I was scared. I didn’t want the finger pointed at me because I had been drinking and i shared some of the responsibility. Even though at the time. Even when feeling guilty. My heart and gut still knew that no means no. I may not have said NO. but he took away that option. It’s been 10 years and a few weeks since that happened. It’s something that happened to me. It took a lot of time. A lot of tears. A lot of anger. A lot
Of prayers. A lot of love and support from family and friends. Just. A lot of me. Things were very dark for a good chunk of time after that happened. But at some point I told myself. Okay. This happened. And it is fucking terrible. And I have options. I can let this define me. I can let it swallow me whole. I can let it take more than just a piece of me. I can let it take all of me. I can let it literally take over my life and consume me. I can let this take my happiness. And take my future. And take my hope. . . Or. I can fight. I can fight to get my life back. I can fight to get my happiness back. Yes it happened and yes it’s horrible. But I do not have to let it take over the rest of my life. I want to fight. I want to heal. And slowly but surely…..that is what I did. **thanks for taking the time to read this. There is such power in knowledge. And sharing.Age: 31

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In middle school the first guy who noticed me was a freshman in high school and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. What wasn’t that cool, however, was the fact that he convinced me to do things that made me uncomfortable. Lie to my friends, lie to my family, stop eating to get skinnier, go a little farther in the sexual parts of our relationship. He said things that were mean. Would talk about how he could get any girl he wanted but thought I would be so much prettier if I just did this, or that. One day I got a call while at school and it was someone at my father’s work and when I picked up, worried something happened, they said he passed away. But it was him. Joking. But I was at that point depressed and smitten because I was convinced no one else would like me except for him. One day it happened. He got me with my clothes off to ‘give me a massage’ because I would love it. He promised. He didn’t just violate me. He did something that at that age I didn’t even know people did. Anally violated me. With his parents downstairs. They would drive us to the house with him making out with me and they wouldn’t even say a word. I thought my parents were wraps prudish (he convinced me) but at that point right there. The pain and humiliation made everything click that something happened that wasn’t supposed to. I went into my shell even more after that and he eventually dumped me for another girl that was slightly overweight that I wonder if he did the same thing to. Eventually I found out he was kicked out of a school for harassing a girl who later became a friend- while we were dating.

A few years later, he actually FB messaged me asking how was life. When I asked him why he thought it would be OK to message me, he acted confused. I honestly wonder if he even remembers what he did to me. I never even told my parents and only a couple of people know what happened to me.

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I was 17, I was leaving for college in a month, and I was a virgin. I had gone to meet a guy that I had met once before. I went to his house. It was just me, him, and his roommate. I was very drunk. The guy I originally came to see decided he wasn’t interested, so he left and the roommate made a move. I went with it, but then he started to go farther than I was feeling comfortable with. The guy came out, took some pictures of us as it was happening, and disappeared again. That’s all I remember. Everything else is black. I don’t remember anything more than the fact that it definitely happened.
I’m pretty sure I said no, but that detail is fuzzy, so I blamed myself. It wasn’t violent and I felt like I set myself up for it, so I blamed myself. He didn’t ask, he took, and I blamed myself. It is uncomfortable, embarrassing, and he took something I wasn’t ready to give.
This is my gray area.Age: 33

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I was dating someone super controlling and he constantly was pushing me farther than I wanted to go. I was a virgin at the time, and didn’t even know what some of the terms were that be was using. One day he pressured me to let him “just get some head” – except he couldn’t control himself. I was terrified of saying anything and felt frozen inside of my body. I felt so gross and terrible but didn’t think I could tell anyone about it. 2 years later I was introduced to the term “date rape” and I had the shocking realization of what had happened and why I always felt so violated even thinking about him. It took me years to come to terms with the fact that no one had ever told me I was allowed to simply say no. No one seemed to talk about he instances where they froze and then blamed themselves.

Age: 25

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 I’m a woman. And although I have never been sexually assaulted, I’ve been made to feel like I was merely an object for sex by a number of men.

In more than one incident I have made it clearer someone that I no longer want to have sex with them. And in these incidents I have explained myself, my reasons why (something I realize I shouldn’t even have to do) because they keep asking.

I was recently called rude when I told a man for the second time that I did not want to have sex with him anymore. He was absolutely livid at the fact that I would say “no” to him.

Even after he expressed his feelings of how rude I am, he has still texted asking me to come over (aka sex). I’ve learned to stop responding, but it scares me the way men have made me feel like I owe them something even though I know I don’t.

I know not all men are like this, but because of the world we live in and these attitudes, sometimes it’s hard for me to allow new men, even just friends, into my life because I am always afraid of being seen as someone who is only good for sex.

Age: 22

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