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June 24th, 2022

My story

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It all started at 11 after my father died . I went in my village out of a job every day.I got a lot of dirty looks from old men they were talking laughing and probably took pictures of me and my sister .One day one of them cornered me...
April 20th, 2019

“raped” by my long time bf

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One night we were out to bars with friends to get drinks, including my bf of 7 years. After drinking we went to a hostel room. Everything started as usual, then he wanted to have anal sex, which I refused cause it hurts, he answered with “I don’t care” and...
December 11th, 2020

Letter to…

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To all the boys who watched porn and grew up thinking that’s how women deserve to be treated To the parents, teachers, adults who should know better, who never taught us about consent or that women are equal partners in sex To the society that made me feel like sex...
January 20th, 2020

School Bathroom

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I was sexually harassed for a period of two years by a group of eleven boys. The ringleader was stalking me both on and off campus as well as online. One day he followed me into a bathroom and pushed me against a wall when I turned to confront him....
February 4th, 2021

Raped at the Air Force Academy

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In 2002 I was appointed to the Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs, CO. The prep school was a sort of booster school for people who wanted to be at the Academy but fell short of their appointment. It could have been due to grades, SAT/ACT scores, athletics,...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

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I am the only girl at a job of 4 men. I am also 20 while these men are 40+. One worker would grab me from behind when I would walk in the back to the bathroom. This would happen often. One day all my coworkers had to go outside...
August 18th, 2019

Abusée par un voisin de mes grands...

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Bonjour chère Linor, Je suis en train de regarder Brave Miss World. Merci! Je témoigne car j’en ai peu parlé dans ma vie. J’avais 4 ou 5 ans. Je vivais avec mes grands-parents et ils me posaient parfois le samedi chez la voisine qui me gardait pour aller à un...
March 17th, 2023

Indigo

I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on our weekly journey across the Bay Bridge to the Campus. The other student was an accomplished Quilter named Linda MacDonald. Linda lived in Willits near the famous Mendocino Art Center, but traveled to Berkeley to attend this class once a week. The Indigo vat was made in a 32-gallon garbage can and had to be kept covered between dyeing sessions. Indigo is a unique rich blue dye that develops with an oxidization process when exposed to air. Dipping the fabric several times, and allowing the natural fiber to oxidize before dipping it again, creates darker shades of blue. The dye in the vat is created from a mixture of indigo pigment, various chemicals and a reducing agent to remove oxygen from the dye. It is a rich green color while in the vat, which shows up on the fabric before it is fully exposed to the air. The smell emitted from the dye is unusual, a musky odor in my mind. I like to think that it smells like the color blue. The vat needs to be carefully stirred and maintained between dyeing sessions. There is a “bloom” on the top of the vat created by oxidized indigo, making a bubbly and shiny ball of material reminiscent of a flower. The “bloom” gets moved to the side before entry of the pre-wetted fabric. The process reminds me of baking bread or making yogurt where the steps need to be carefully followed to achieve the desired results. In the process of bread and yogurt making, there are living cultures involved in order to create the product, and with the creation and dyeing process of indigo, it has that same feeling of being alive. In order to create interesting patterns, my classmates and I would use resist techniques on the fabric like pastes, stitching and clamping. Simple household items like clothespins could be used to create patterns by folding and then placing the pins at intervals along the fold lines. Beautiful and surprising results were achieved using these methods. Image of Indigo dye on fabric during the oxidization process. My dream of being a professional artist, all started in early childhood, and the first memories of my creations go back to Nursery School. I loved playing with all kinds of materials, like paint, clay, and crayons, just to name a few examples. Mel (Melanie), painting at Jack and Jill Nursery School, Walnut Creek, California, 1960. In 1974, a neighbor in Marin where I was living at the time and studying art at College of Marin told me about an Art School in Mexico. I ended up sending off slides of my work with an application to the Instituto Allende, and was delighted to hear that I was accepted. I began my journey to study there in San Miguel de Allende by flying to Mexico City in January of 1975. A bus ride completed that journey. When I first arrived, I moved in with a family who had two small children, including a newborn. It seemed like a safe living situation for a 19-year-old woman, but that shortly proved to not be true when the husband started coming on to me. I ended up finding my own place on the other side of town. It was a spacious abode with a wall that was shared with a weaving factory next door. There were 2 adjoined bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living/kitchen area and a small concrete patio out the back door. There was no hot water, refrigerator or a telephone. When I needed hot water for dishes, I would boil some on the stove. For showers, I had to build a fire in a box below a water tank outside to get hot water. I felt much more secure living there and walking a further distance to the Instituto on the other side of town than living with the husband who had made me feel so unsafe. There was the Central Plaza, which was called the “Jardin” that was in the middle of town, and I would pass through it on my walk quite frequently. This was the site of fireworks and festivals, like the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The streets were cobblestone and many charming shops and galleries were located downtown. The School itself was on a beautiful campus with large ornate doors in front that were closed when school was not in session. Photo of the closed front doors of the Instituto Allende I had heard about you and what you had done to other women before you appeared in my main living space one sunny spring afternoon pointing a gun at me. You had a bandana wrapped around your face and tied behind your head. I had heard you first, in the bathroom. Dressed in a long polyester dress with colorful psychedelic patterns. I wasn’t wearing any underwear or shoes. I walked through the 2 bedrooms and turned left when I saw you standing there. I screamed and shouted, “help me,” thinking that workers at the Weaving Factory would hear me and come rescue me. Nobody came. You said to me “Coyote” which I later learned meant to be quiet or to shut up. You grabbed my shoulders and dragged me out the unlocked back door onto the concrete patio. The tops of my feet got scraped. I gave up. I knew you were going to rape me. I just wanted you to finish as quickly as possible. You took off your belt and put down your gun. Somehow I managed to pick up your gun and threw it over the wall embedded with glass on the top, into the alleyway. The same wall you had climbed over to get into my place through the unlocked back door. Towards the end of this ordeal, I heard a knock on my door. You left, climbing back over the wall. I answered the door. My friend Rhonda had come by to visit me. I told her what had happened and we walked to the Police Station nearby. I had your belt with me. The one you left behind. I went to the front counter, telling the officers behind the counter what had happened to me. They were laughing and playing cards at the time. I showed them your belt. They told me to bring you in if I saw you again. I left with Rhonda and took a bath at the where place she lived. We didn’t talk about what happened. We moved in together shortly after that. I sent a telegram to my father and stepmother about what had happened to me. Nobody came to help me. Rhonda helped me when I got hepatitis A and could no longer go to school. I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to return to the Bay Area. I moved in with my father and stepmother. They didn’t talk to me about what happened to me. They sent me to a doctor who diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. He showed me how to give myself insulin injections. He told me to practice by injecting oranges with empty syringes. My mother told me years later that “You were never the same again” after what you did to me. I survived. I gave up art for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to go back to art school. In those years, I became so disturbed that I had panic attacks, deep depression and needed to move in with my mother at age 30. I started therapy after becoming self destructive in my 20’s. Depression also called “the blues” has been my long time companion. It has taken me a lifetime to heal. My iPhone predicts the words, depression, PTSD and C-PTSD for my text messages. After my Indigo dyeing class at San Francisco State, I enrolled in the Textiles Fine Art program at California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts) in Oakland. I was married at the time and had become pregnant with our daughter Emily right before classes started in September. Emily was born on May 13, 1991. By the Fall of 1992, I was a single mom and an art student. An inheritance from my mother who died in 1995, allowed me to graduate and to buy my first home. I continued to work with indigo dyeing and created a large textile piece about my experience in Mexico. After many years of therapy and other healing modalities, I recently started painting on canvas. Part of that process has been a Soul Retrieval session to bring back my 4 year old self who loved to paint. I am feeling uplifted and encouraged after many years of recurring periods of severe emotional pain. Stay tuned for more details about my new work. One of my final pieces was a textile called “Out of the Blues.”
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I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on...
November 15th, 2020

J’avais 13 ans

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J’avais 13 ans j’étais allé avec mon amie chez un gars pour la soirée ils étaient trois gars et c’etait la première fois que je buvais de l’alcool et ce gars qui s’appelle pascal m’a agressé. Je ne l’ai dis a personne et j’ai fait comme si rien ne s’était...
December 20th, 2019

To the men who hurt me

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Things can change all in an instant and you will never know until it is too late. I’m 22 now and I will try to keep this short and sweet. At 5-6 it all began with someone 4 years older than me showing me his privates. Within the next few...
November 4th, 2019

I don’t know anymore

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My high school ends at 10th grade. So you basically start college at 16. As for me, I decided to go abroad and come to the US for college so definitely the rest of the college students were all older than me. I didn’t really fit in. Then one day,...
August 19th, 2019

I lost all the important people in...

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I lost everyone. My parent divorced me. Only living family member because I was too angry. I do have anger, but not the screaming kind my mom does to me. Lost all my friends. I fast for all holidays and my birthday. Usually not more than 1 day. A significant...
August 29th, 2020

Why you should talk to your daughters...

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At 16 I began dating my first serious boyfriend. I kept it a secret from my mom since she made it feel like I couldn’t talk to her about anything, love, sex, school, nothing. I had recently turned 16 and he was 17 at the time. We went to the...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

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I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
January 11th, 2016

Dad and Uncle Raped Me

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I was 12 years old. Christmas Eve 1995 when I was home with my dad and his brother who my uncle. They were drinking, I was in my room sleeping when my uncle came in and took my pants off. He was kissing and touching me. He said he wanted...
June 20th, 2021

Your truth will change someones’ life.

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Brave Miss World is the first time I knew someone understands the gravity and the depth of what sexual violence does to the souls of the victims but their families. The battle to reclaim my soul’s back is the hardest work I will ever face. The internal growth is where...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

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2 sexual assaults and 1 rape… the statistics of my story. I can’t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
January 3rd, 2024

lucky

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this is my second post and i’m retelling my story better. i’m 15 and i’ve been struggling with substance abuse since 13, including hard drugs. my anxiety and jealousy in my new relationship has caused me to struggle a lot recently and i ended up going to my guy friends...
November 29th, 2011

Hard pregnency and delivery process after being...

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I had always wanted children…. I had always been afraid … I was afraid they will be hurt … I was afraid I would hurt them… I was afraid I will Not protect them …or ill protect them too much … I was always afraid … And then it happened…....
April 9th, 2019

A Message from the Director

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October 5th, 2023

my toxic relationship

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on september 9th 2023. last month i was raped by a man i was in a relationship with at the time. i met him from facebook dating. at some point we exchanged numbers. we hung out together numerous times. during the relationship with him. he would buy me cigarettes and...
July 8th, 2021

Dad Raped Me

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1) this man “casually” crossed my boundaries. When I told him to stop, he did, but throughout the encounter he continued to ask me if I would like it if he did the thing that I told him explicitly he could not do. I never mentioned this interaction being poor...
April 16th, 2009

Thank you

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I am a survivor of sexual abuse and rape. As a child my father repeatedly raped both my sister and I until we were adopted by my step-father. I suffered from selective amnesia and didn’t remember much of my youth until I was a freshman in college and began having...
September 1st, 2019

My fiancé is my rapist but I...

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I have a past of sexual abuse but for the most part I’ve put it behind me though I get flashbacks every so often when watching a triggering show or something. My problem currently is my fiancé. This isn’t a new development in our relationship this started since we started...
May 27th, 2025

We were both 10.

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It was me and him alone in class. I was already terrified of him. I used to have a crush on him and he used to have a crush on me. I walked in. He pushed the door behind me and tried to kiss me by stalling me in a...
July 19th, 2021

Child sexual abuse

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My child’s father has been sexually abusing her since she was 3 months old.
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

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I had never been to a bar before. Sure, I’d gone out to Applebees with other coworkers where they’d serve me drinks. But I was 19, and had to drive home. I had never been drunk before, and didn’t push my limits. I went to the bar to see him...
September 9th, 2020

Multiple Sexual Assaults

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I told my story of how I was raped on here. I decided that I would share my story of the times i’ve been molested. The first time I was about 5. My brother had a tournament out of town and so my family and I went. I wanted to...
July 7th, 2019

@ years of rape and being drugged

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I was repeatedly raped by someone I will call D.C. He was my 2nd boyfriend at the time who lied to me about his age. He was in his 20s I was 16. Within the 1st year the so called relationship became something vicious like a nightmare that I could...
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

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I was raped by a co-worker when I was in my mid-20’s. We were at a work function, we were all drinking, then about 10 of us went to his place to continue the party. He grabbed me on my way out of the washroom and dragged me into his...
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

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I’m a black South African, I’m 40 years old now, and my son it 20 years old… loved, taught but I still can never live him alone with my nieces as I was left alone and violeted💔💔😭😭 I have spoken about this, but I hate putting this down in writting😭😭...
June 7th, 2016

Was It My Fault?

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My experience has left me confused so I would really appreciate it if someone could help me understand this. First off I was 19 when this happened & I’m 20 now. This happened back in September of 2015. I was in a sexual relationship with a Marine & I had...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

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I got my first job working at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant/cafe one summer because my teacher said she knew the man who ran the place and put in a reference for me. I was 15. He was in his 60s. Two days after I started, the groping began. Only he...
April 10th, 2025

She was never the same…

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She grew up in Philadelphia in a working class area and found her first love living a few blocks from her. Denise loved him very much and went on a Jersey Shore vacation but came home a shell of herself. Her first love took her life and made her mother...
June 19th, 2022

I didn’t even know I was pregnant

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When I was thirteen I had one friend. I had a selective mutism and non-white in a very unsafe households, with a single absent mother who was debting, and I was bullied in school. I was already sexually abused every night by my biological father, and was constantly dissociated from...
June 11th, 2025

Just Words

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Just words. You have trouble talking about these things. You realize you have trouble talking about a lot of things. You remember being excited about your first job at Dairy Queen. One of your friends works there and you know a lot of people work there as a summer job....
November 19th, 2023

I was very dumb.

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I doubt many people have gone through this, but I wanted to share. I was 9 years old when it was my first time visiting Omegle. Immature and stupid of me, I know. I just wanted to meet new friends. I had already learned about sex and peoples bodies from...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

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After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
December 23rd, 2022

When school isn’t safe. (Australia)

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I was in year 9. I endured over 6 months of sexual harassment, intimidation and violence every day during school times. The teachers were aware of this, but their only concern was the length of my skirt. Whether I was “asking for it”. Being “overdramatic”. The boys who did it...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
July 18th, 2024

I was just 9.

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All I wanted was a father figure, and you were there for me. I always thought it was weird how you would accuse me or now shower and ask to smell my privates just to know if I did, but I was just a child and I didn’t know better....
September 25th, 2022

College Professor

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This is the first time I’m sharing this story. It happened in 2015 during my senior year of college. After having a couple of beers with friends at the bar I started walking home. While walking one of my professors happens to be driving by and offers to bring me...
April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

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The next day I walked down the stairs to the hotel, aware that he was sitting at the table having breakfast. Some things you think would never happen to you, you think that working externally with a colleague (married and with children) is not dangerous. But then in a moment...
June 12th, 2022

How to handle it

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My grandpa is always very judgmental and he always comes and kisses my shoulders and my knees. Note I am 22. I tell him to stop and he acts sad. he says he loves me. I feel uncomfortable because I have been abused as a kid by a stranger. Today...
May 21st, 2019

raped by my own brother

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I was maybe 11 or 12 when i got raped by my brother. He would put me in his room and take off his pants and tell me to touch his penis and I was so scared i did. then he would take off my pants and touck my private...
May 20th, 2019

Lied to left brain damged

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I was completely lied to and mislead . Can you can you believe a hospital would keep the fact that you were raped because of a negligence they caused my arm by putting a catheter in me. You see back in 2014 A co-worker male asked me to go out...
May 28th, 2019

You were supposed to be my friend

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This is letter is to you. You were my friend… my best friend. You knew what your dad did to me, yet you looked the other way and pretended like nothing had happened, like nothing was wrong. I was just a little girl, in my eyes, I was. I mean,...
October 9th, 2020

There are a lot of assholes on...

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I downloaded tinder to experience dating, I never dated before, always had long term relationships with guys I knew for a longer period of time and friendships turned into relationships. This time i wanted to experience the whole dating part. Meeting a stranger, getting to know them and see where...
November 27th, 2024

I know when I see a rapist...

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The stalking, gaslighting, victimizing, and of course sexual abuse, were never okay with me. But you just don’t get that because you’re a predator.
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

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Hello my Name is Tj. This happen about 4 years ago I was 19 years old at very young age I always tried to see the good in people. I was always happy and felt nothing could break me down went threw cancer as a baby lost my brother and...
May 6th, 2022

My Ongoing Journey

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When I finally decided to switch my major to psychology and now pursue my career as a therapist, I got a lot of questions. Things like, why do you want to be a therapist? I got this from family, friends, and even strangers back in the time I served tables....
October 4th, 2020

Pastor’s Son

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He was a pastor’s son named after an important figure in the bible. A regular church attendee who made his love for Jesus well known. But now he is a painful memory. It was my first semester at Angelo State University. I was lonely. Luckily I met great people who...
April 23rd, 2021

10 years later I realised

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I went out with my best friend around 10-12 years ago. We got drunk, had fun, flirted, met some guys and agreed to go back to their flat for drinks. I remember us feeling a bit uncomfortable but going with it. We were about 19. We hadn’t kissed either guy,...
July 18th, 2019

His name was Kenneth

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I was 13. He was 25. I had just came out the closet. I had met him on MySpace, back when that was popular and it seemed like we clicked. I thought I was ready to be in a relationship with a grown men, but like most teenagers I didnt...
December 10th, 2019

Raped by stranger x2

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In my 2nd rape when I was 20 yrs old, I went into shock during and after the assault. Afterwards, my body shook for hours, but I tried to act normal in front of people. I felt like I was dreaming – everything and everyone seemed unreal. But, I also...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

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I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
July 27th, 2021

Stolen innocence

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So I was with my friend I thought I could trust and one day she asked me if she wanted to go meet her boyfriend (which I did not know was 20yrs old) and smoke and I wanted to get high so I said yeah then my friend told me...
September 1st, 2019

My fiancé is my rapist but I...

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I have a past of sexual abuse but for the most part I’ve put it behind me though I get flashbacks every so often when watching a triggering show or something. My problem currently is my fiancé. This isn’t a new development in our relationship this started since we started...
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

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My first duty stationed 28 years ago, i was sexually assaulted by my first supervisor and violently raped by an officer in my unit. The violence of that raped, ruined me for a long time. Suffer from severe PTSD and after 31 years i am being forced out of the...
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

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Last year my partner and I worked for the same business. It was a small business near a small town and it had no management or HR of any sort – only one man owned and ran it, even though it served thousands of people each year. I hit it...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
March 5th, 2024

My step dad raped me

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I would have never imagined the person who I praised and idolised could have ever hurt me this much. An individual who I adored more than I could have anyone. A parent is a person whose sole purpose is to provide, care for and show love to their child. A...
July 18th, 2024

I was just 9.

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All I wanted was a father figure, and you were there for me. I always thought it was weird how you would accuse me or now shower and ask to smell my privates just to know if I did, but I was just a child and I didn’t know better....
January 27th, 2024

Blamed myself …

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I got raped multiple times. I got sexually assaulted multiple times. I blamed myself. I saved a lot of women from being raped even men and when I was being sa and raped. no one saved me till today. I go outside and see the people who did it to...
July 29th, 2013

Why: A Poem About My Rape

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Soothe my whys with soft whispers Wipe my tears with your love Make me whole again No more, I beg No more No more Unwanted touch Unwelcomed Stiff, rough caresses No man to hold me down, Give me forbidden kisses Legs forced apart Like rusty hinges Hinges to a door...
December 23rd, 2014

Blaming Myself

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I am 20 years old and it happened when I was 17. I was at a party, the kind with drugs and alcohol. I got too drunk and passed out in the basement. When I came to the boy I had been flirting with all night was on top of...
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

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As I write this story to you, please note that this sexual harassment case is still in progress. It began in December of 2022 when I worked as a contractor for a company named TEKsystems. I do IT work for Nutrien Ag Solutions. The first week I was there, I...
September 28th, 2019

Sexual abuse by step father

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My step father and his friend had been repeatedly raping my elder sister and her friend for years. From primary school age into secondary school age. This fact was unknown to the entire family. Finally, somehow her friends family found out and the authorities became involved. Both men went to...
January 29th, 2021

Raped by my Step Brother

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I have never told anyone about this & now it is coming back to haunt me. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t focus. So that is why I am sharing my story on here, maybe to give myself some closure. I was 17 at the time (18 now)...
November 23rd, 2014

Still Unable to Tell People

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What I remember from that night is feeling flattered that someone older was paying attention. I was underage in a bar. I don’t remember much after that except three men carrying me into a motel room, all at least ten years older. One was the owner of the bar, who...