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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...
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...
April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

1
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...
March 20th, 2021

I said no – but he took...

1
14 years old, not even fully grown or developed, and someone I knew decided to take the opportunity to take advantage of me. It wasn’t one of those ‘being held down moments,’ but one where I said no multiple times over and over and over but he still did it...
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

1
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...
October 10th, 2021

Is this normal?

1
It all started in Febuary 17th 2020. My first boyfriend. At first he was sweet, he’d walk me to school, compliment me, ask me for consent every time he touhed me. But then the honeymoon phase wore off right after he took my virginity 3 months in. He started belittling...
May 19th, 2022

It started with you.

1
When I was 16, I was socially awkward, shy and kept to myself. I had a small group of friends and didn’t venture far from them. At home, I was funny, happy and played the annoying little sister act pretty well. I was known for being respectful, caring and well...
April 15th, 2019

Too Trusting

2
I was raped by a mutual friend. My night started off at a housewarming party for my best friend. She went to sleep, but I decided to go out with a couple girl friends and some guys they knew. I didn’t know the decision would change my life forever. We...
May 3rd, 2019

Nearly 50 years later

2
In an odd way, I am a “victim” of sexual abuse, even though I have never met the abuser. Her is my father, but he is also either my grandfather or my uncle. I was adopted as an infant, and my mom and dad always told me I was adopted....
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

4
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...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

3
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...
December 22nd, 2015

Is There Still Hope

6
I was 9 or 10 when it happen it’s pretty sad because I don’t remember much. I was at my best friend’s house and we were playing with her brother downstairs in his room. So we ended up sleeping down there and I woke up to him raping me. I...
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

1
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...
October 30th, 2020

Raped

1
I met this man online and after we went out to eat he took me back to his place and after me telling him no I didn’t want to perform any type of sex he proceeded to penetrate me until I started to bleed and he didn’t stop until I...
January 27th, 2024

Blamed myself …

1
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...
August 5th, 2022

Stuck

1
In 2018 I was sexually assaulted by two guys. One of them I was going to have sex with. But I wanted to do it vaginally. He wanted anal and I said no so he held me down and shoved it in. I was in so much pain. He pulled...
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...
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

2
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...
August 13th, 2022

Scammer

1
This is my story; Being a fan of a few Korean actors and follow them trough a fan page is a great way to be updated for all the in’s and out’s. Especially you can share these with more admires all over the world, we all admire these amazing actors....
May 4th, 2019

To my best friend who raped me

1
To my best friend who raped me, I am so torn between feeling love for you and feeling hate for what you have done; what you have taken away from me is irreplaceable. On the first of May, I lost hope for all living things to live and breathe and...
April 16th, 2020

3 years on

2
I don’t know why I’m writing this out. Maybe so I don’t feel alone, or maybe to just have it in writing, I don’t know. 3 years ago on the 19th I was raped. I can say that now, not that I’m proud of that but I can say it....
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
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...
October 24th, 2019

Molestation and Rape Survivor/Warrior

2
Hi, I’m not sure how long or short this is supposed to be so I’m just going to summarize what happened. I was molested by my pedophile father until we went to court when I was 12. Nothing happened because I didn’t have any physical evidence. Now I’m 34 and...
May 18th, 2021

I Don’t Know My Story

1
I don’t know my story.. of all of the pain that I’ve been through.. I couldn’t feel my pain at times.. but what I had to go through to get here.. I’ll never understand my praise.. I don’t try to figure it out.. because my worship my worship is for...
February 4th, 2021

Raped at the Air Force Academy

2
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,...
January 29th, 2022

My stepfather raped me

1
When I was 11 years old my parents were divorced and my mother moved myself and my brother to her hometown which was 18 miles away. It wasn’t long before my mom had a new boyfriend she moved in and married. He wasn’t a stranger, he and his wife had...
May 16th, 2021

My babysitter

1
My mom and dad used to work nights and would have my sisters friend’s parents watch us. They had three children…two sons and a daughter. My mom was always the one that would take us over there. The oldest son would put on horror movies and pin me down and...
July 29th, 2013

Why: A Poem About My Rape

0
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...
May 12th, 2020

What even happened

2
Last year in March my cousin was getting married say we were all at my uncle’s house, choreographing dances, planning and organising. I was going through a terrible time facing recently broken up with my boyfriend bcs of my parents and gave him go out with my bestfriend who didn’t...
September 6th, 2019

Molested used as a sex slave

2
Was molested and used by the one person who supposed to care for me. Bailey
April 29th, 2019

My boyfriend

2
We have been together for almost 5 years and we have a little girl together. I went to bed half dressed because I was so tired but I woke to him lifting my lower body and trying to penetrate me and instinctively I laid back down but he lifted me...
May 23rd, 2021

Rape in my locked home

1
I have been raped numerous times in homes that are locked. I am divorced and live alone. Obviously drugged as no memories. The first time in my locked home after my divorce when I broke up with someone who admitted after dating him for months that he used to do...
May 7th, 2019

Too much trauma

1
I applaud your mission and vision. Watching Brave Miss World was very cathartic. I had a very tough childhood, enduring physical abuse from a stepfather. When I was 11, I was molested by a male cousin. At 19, I was raped and sodomized by my boyfriend at the time who...
June 7th, 2016

Was It My Fault?

2
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...
August 18th, 2019

Abusée par un voisin de mes grands...

2
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...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

6
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...
October 22nd, 2022

weird brother

1
My brother has accidentally touched me the wrong way. One time we were playing in the pool (we had to be between 9 – 11) and we were pretending like we were drowning. We would grab on each other legs to pull the other down as well. However, he started...
July 27th, 2021

Stolen innocence

3
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...
August 10th, 2022

1
I was 15. I went to stay the weekend with a friend a town over. She bought me to a friends house and they were two older boys; not much older a few years. The place was a really old one bedroom trailer not very big at all. A small...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
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...
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...
July 1st, 2020

My First Boyfriend

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I started dating this boy when I was 15. He talked about sex a lot but since I was still a virgin it made me really nervous and I wasn’t sure if I was ready. One day after school he came to my house. Both my parents were not home...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

3
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...
March 20th, 2021

Molested by my brother as a child

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I was just 14 years old. He was 20. I did not know what to do when he touched me. I wanted him to stop but I was too afraid to say anything. I just froze. He continued to touch me inappropriately for a year. It became worse with each...
May 10th, 2019

I was raped for 3 years

3
My uncle raped me for three years saying if i told anyone id be sent away and my family would hate me. It was repeated. It started when i was 13 and ended when i told on him when i was 16. My aunt called a lying whore and half...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

2
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...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

1
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...
May 19th, 2019

I Wanted to See the Aquarium

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The first person that ever saw my bare chest was Jimmy. We were both 12 at the time. It started off as playful kissing and after saying no a few times, he forced my shirt up so he could see my chest. I laughed and ran away. Jimmy was the...
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😭😭...
October 29th, 2021

Former partner would berate me

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Super thankful to have this safe space to share my story. It’s been really tough dealing with the level of guilt I’ve felt because I feel I was betrayed by not only my former partner but the girl he left me for (good riddance). As someone who identifies as trans,...
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 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...
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

1
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 4th, 2019

To my best friend who raped me

1
To my best friend who raped me, I am so torn between feeling love for you and feeling hate for what you have done; what you have taken away from me is irreplaceable. On the first of May, I lost hope for all living things to live and breathe and...
April 15th, 2019

raped as a lone solidier in israeli...

2
Hi Linor I was raped by the חובש on my base in the army. Unitl today – almost daily I think about it. At the age of 18 I was a young naive virgin from Australia. I moved to Israel by myself. The guy that raped me, ALL the girls...
November 20th, 2023

When I Was 4

1
I don’t remember much about it. i don’t remember his face, his name, anything. when i was four my parents split. my mom got a new boyfriend we lived with for about a month or two, i don’t remember that well. he had a son, a couple years older than...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

1
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...
January 2nd, 2022

I am a Survivor

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I didn’t want to be a survivor once I realized what happened. Hell, I still don’t want to be a survivor. I was seven years old when I first got raped, when something first happened to me. I didn’t understand, I was so scared. It happened by my aunt’s husband....