LOADING
June 28th, 2020

It was someone I knew and I...

1
I was 17 years old and it was New Year’s Eve. I had met a great guy through some friends we were at his parents farm for NYE. Although we were together, we did not want people to know just yet as we’d met when I was dating a friend...
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...
March 3rd, 2021

My protector, my father, my rapist all...

2
I remember the first time like it was yesterday. I was asked if I would like to “play a game”. Come to find out I didn’t like that game. I don’t think I’ll ever like THAT game. I was THREE the first time, and 13 the last. I was raped...
January 6th, 2019

Black Girl

1
As a black child she grew up with many black women An atmosphere of mostly females and children A plether of differences yet many the same someone points the finger but no one takes the blame Attenion seaking variances of competition with the appearance of being soft For the man...
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...
July 3rd, 2020

The pain that was never mine to...

1
I was a freshman in college. It was first semester and I was there for maybe about a month. One night my friends and I went to a party. As we were there, I started talking to a guy and eventually went back to his appt.  Once we were in...
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.”
1
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...
March 25th, 2022

Marital Rape

1
My husband raped me through the night of February 7th 2020. I was unconscious due to prescription medication taken after being in a car accident two months prior. Police arrested my husband. He posted 25k bail and got out the very next day. Bruises on my stomach and my hips....
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...
April 10th, 2023

My principal mom raped me

1
When I was just ten years old my mom would remove my clothes then sexually assault me. it didn’t matter how much I cried as she did it. She only cared about what turned her on. :’( I’ve been quiet about it because she’s a principal at a school, but...
November 4th, 2019

I don’t know anymore

3
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,...
November 12th, 2014

Finally Using My Voice

0
I just finished watching Brave Miss World and I wanted to thank you for making this movie. I was date raped when I was 16. This is how I lost my virginity. It took a long time to even understand what happened to me. I blamed myself for getting too...
January 18th, 2021

Finally Arrested

1
https://myfox8.com/news/lexington-man-charged-with-indecent-liberties-with-a-minor/ One if the men who molested me was finally arrested… I never told on him but one strong child did! Thank you child, I am sorry I didn’t report this when I should have. You are brave!
November 4th, 2019

I don’t know anymore

3
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,...
June 12th, 2019

A story of a not so perfect...

2
When I was growing up my grandfather molested me constantly. When I turned 9 my brother raped me for the first time and it continued until I was 12. My brother raped me 12 times over those 3 years. When I turned 12 I told my parents and they didn’t...
August 6th, 2020

I regret not telling

1
When I was in high school, I dated someone briefly. He never told anyone about me to his family or friends. I ended things after a month or two, because he was really into kissing and wanted to do more than that. I didn’t want that though as I was...
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

3
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😭😭...
July 7th, 2025

Pretty Girls

3
Was it my fault for being born pretty? Has it always been an invitation for men make me do things to get them off? Was it the reason my uncle taught me to look him in the eye while I choked myself on him and try my best to keep...
December 30th, 2020

Miss

1
I got raped nearly 14 years ago now, it never gets easier over time im constantly numb, painless and confused. I’ve never felt what it is to be normal I always feel unwanted, scared and betrayed. The police never did anything, didn’t arrest him, didn’t question him they said they...
January 10th, 2021

Michael B. raped me

1
When I was 17 years old I went to a job interview at Priority Records. Michael B. was there interviewing me. He took me out that night to a place called Boardners in Hollywood. He gave me a lethal dose of strong Ecstasy. I nearly overdosed as I struggled to...
June 23rd, 2014

I’ve Never Told Anyone Before

0
I was first raped at the age of 13 hanging out with my friends when I wasn’t supposed to be. It was one of my friends there who was the son of my best friend. To this day you are the first that I have told. I did not tell...
December 2nd, 2022

Sexual Coercion

1
I was sexually coerced this semester at college. It was one of my longtime friends. I thought I could trust him but I was wrong. He and I talked about hanging out and so we did. We talked for a while, was physical and was at first consensual. Then he...
December 16th, 2020

No one helped me !!!

1
The guy i trusted. The guy who i thought cared about me. Him and his friends forced me to drink alcohol. His friends left me in the car with him and they knew what was going to happen to me in those few minutes. My body wasn’t functioning correctly, he...
August 24th, 2020

Raped by my step father

1
I don’t know where to start or the right way to say this. All I remember is that i was primary doing grade 5 when i decided to tell my grandma of what was happening regarding my step father, he went under my blankets nearly every night, from grade 3...
December 23rd, 2022

When school isn’t safe. (Australia)

1
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...
March 5th, 2021

7 years and it still controls me

1
I seen him today. The exe who thought he had the right to just take what he wanted. It’s like you need you moved on. That your okay. Then ask if takes is to see him and can’t breathe. I froze. I just turned around and wanted to run. I...
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...
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...
March 28th, 2025

My abuse story victim to survivor

1
Abused by ex-family friend and started to be put into sex trafficking but i survived
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...
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...
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

2
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...
December 7th, 2019

Things do get better

2
I am a very happy person now. I’m dating the best person I know but I, too had a horrible history. I was bullied in high school. It all started when I was invited to a party. I went there and a guy offered me a drink and dumb me...
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...
November 3rd, 2019

No

2
I was sexually assaulted at 10 years old. I need help.
October 5th, 2023

my toxic relationship

1
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...
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...
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...
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...
November 11th, 2016

Let’s Fight Back With Love

0
Hi fellow survivors. The recent posts I am seeing on this site sadden me because we are all strong survivors and we should try to always remember this. I know like me, many of you are still having a hard time processing that a man who is so clearly a...
April 25th, 2024

Another kid raped me

2
When I was in kindergarten there was a girl that everyone hated, she would pin other younger kind down and rape them but to us it just looked like punching and stuff like that. That wasn’t OK but we were scared that she would punch us if we told the...
October 9th, 2022

When My Body Wasn’t Mine.

1
I remember the times where my body wasn’t mine. When you grabbed my barely developing body forcefully. And my small body with little to no strength could not fight back. Could not take away your hands from places that were supposed to be private. Places that were supposed to be...
January 4th, 2021

Michelle Johnston

2
I just wanted to write on here. Something amazing happened today. I came home and my mom was telling me about this documentary and how Linor was trying to encourage woman to speak out. I got a lump in my throat as I had just reported the rape that happened...
April 18th, 2020

Gang rape

1
I have survived multiple rapes from different men through out my life. I was first raped when I was in college around 19 years old by two men much older than me. I didn’t know them exactly, they were friends of my male friend back then and one of them...
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...
August 24th, 2019

Help !

3
14 and i was inappropriately touched, scared forever, changed, afraid. 3 years later i understand it was sexual assault and i moved on. 17 and someone pushed his foot inside of me through my clothes now i am thinking if this count as rape or not I think that if...
December 21st, 2014

Family Secrets

2
From the ages of 6-11, I was molested by my 12-17 year old step-brother. He started out making me kiss him. Saying that all brothers and sisters did it. Then came the touching and later on the oral sex. He would threaten to rape me or tell our parents “what...
April 16th, 2009

Thank you

1
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...
May 8th, 2019

I didn’t even know what was happening

2
I say I didnt know what was happening and I mean that, now I do, but at the age of 7 those things aren’t programmed into our brains. We don’t learn in preschool what sexual assault or rape is. We were on vacation in Mexico and my parents went out...
March 5th, 2016

My Only Brother

0
My parents were always out so it would just be me and my brother which was fine he took care of me and we were close so I never thought he would hurt me or tell me anything wrong so I trusted him. My mom went to work her night...
September 2nd, 2020

This Is Me, my fight song

1
College has started, around this time I was a college freshman fully moved in and Saying bye to my parents. I felt so cool living on my own in my own place, doing my own thing and the best part was, I was playing soccer. It was everything and more....
May 1st, 2024

Throughout my teen years

3
I am 19 now, but from the young ripe age of 14 years old I have encountered multiple sexual assaults but thankfully just one rape where it should be 0. I was coerced into sexual activity after saying no multiple times for days, begged me to do sexual activities in...
November 27th, 2024

I know when I see a rapist...

0
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.
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...
July 18th, 2024

I was just 9.

2
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....
May 30th, 2022

Prom’s ideals

1
You hear the stories of the prom right? Young girls in their dresses, maybe looking to loose the one thing that society deems as ‘pure’ or ‘innocent’ with the one you love. Imagine your innocence being taken away. Stripped of your childhood on a night supposedly there to celebrate… Covid...
August 16th, 2020

Does the pain ever go away?

4
I really don’t know how to write this but I do want to try. I’ve been reading these stories for a while and have wanted to write my own but every time I try it’s too hard to actually put words down… I don’t know why this keeps happening. Every...
August 28th, 2020

Still Lost :/

2
There were two of them. Two men. This was a few months ago. I can’t tell what is going on in my mind. I don’t know if I’m upset about it but I just can’t stop thinking about what happened. And the next day I was just, I don’t know,...
December 20th, 2019

To the men who hurt me

2
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...
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

2
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...
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...
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 4th, 2020

Pastor’s Son

1
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 5th, 2009

Thank you

0
Thank you for your voice and for your strength.
June 11th, 2025

Just Words

4
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....