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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...
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...
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...
December 5th, 2019

“It’s not your fault.”

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For the first 11 years of my life, I was raised and groomed as a sex toy, mostly for my male family members. However, my mother would also often trade me to other men for various things: drugs, money… love and affection. I have no idea how many times good-intentioned...
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...
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...
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...
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...
October 6th, 2024

Lesbian After Assaults

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Hello there, my name is Marley, I am 28 years old and I am a rape survivor. Since the sexual assault, my dad has seen some profound changes in me. First of all, I was completely estranged from my mother as my mother has denied that anything even happened while...
August 7th, 2019

Was I raped?

2
I was drinking wine with my great friend Scotty. We were playing Monopoly and catching up on each others life. I had taken a gap year from college so it was nice to see all of my friends again. Everyone was tired so they went to bed and I settled...
April 24th, 2019

It was just a vacation

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When I was 12 I went on vacation with my grandparents and my brother who was 14 at the time. This was supposed to be a month long adventure of visiting family and having fun however I couldn’t have been more wrong. My brother and I were sharing a room...
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,...
April 4th, 2022

A young girl

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Was 14 when a stranger secually abused me by touching my butt when i was in a store. After that incident i became very confused about what had happened. I started hating my body i thought it wasn’t mine anymore. I gained 10 kgs in 3 months. I was afraid...
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...
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....
March 8th, 2016

Abuse Continued

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My story differs from a lot of stories here in that, there was no actual penetration (unless it happened to me during my sleep, which I sometimes wonder). I was molested by my mother’s ex-husband. I must have been around 7, 8 or 9. This “man” lived in the house,...
August 10th, 2022

Middle school sexual harassment

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Hi, my name is Valeria. When i was in middle school i was constantly cat-called and sexual harassed. people would ask me to do things (I did a couple times until i caught on).
March 15th, 2021

Home invasion, wife saved daughter

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A little back story, The wife and I had a daughter, we live in a fantastic old farm house outside of town with vary few out her houses around . We keep to our selves, we grow our own food and home school our kid . Let’s get to our...
December 13th, 2021

He was my best friend

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He was my best friend of 8 years. I was really leaning on him for support as I had just experienced my first sexual assault like 6 months beforehand. I was really struggling mentally so he offered to take me out for a night and we went into the city...
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 9th, 2022

When My Body Wasn’t Mine.

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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...
November 11th, 2016

Let’s Fight Back With Love

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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...
May 23rd, 2019

Used

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I was 17 years old, it was August 2016. It was the summer going into my senior year. It had been crazy summer but a great one noneless the less. I was staying with my bestfriend (let’s call her G) during the time so we were at her apartment. We...
May 8th, 2019

UNEXPOSED – AFTER 30 YEARS OF EXTREME...

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Molestation 4-13, dissociation syndrome started, afraid 24/7, PTSD 10, black outs began & were triggered by the smell of certain foods or a male authorities voice. Attempted Rape 15, Physical Abuse 16-31, all my ex-boyfriends. Rape 18, also attempted suicide & started dancing because I needed extra money & no...
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....
April 20th, 2022

So long, I’ll be seeing you everywhere

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He was my boyfriend. I thought he saw us as equals – after all, we used to be members of progressive parties in our country. But I was wrong. One night, I told him that I do not want to have sex that time because I might get pregnant. He...
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...
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...
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...
June 14th, 2019

A not so perfect family exposed to...

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When I told my story no one cared, my dad who had raped me hundreds of times was never charged, my mom who watched was never punished and my brother who wasn’t exactly innocent or guilty in the matter is the only one charged. I was told by police that...
August 24th, 2019

Help !

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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...
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,...
June 3rd, 2019

I was used. I got left. I...

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15. That’s how old I was. 15. I thought my life was great. I had just got my permit and was loving my life. 15. I got used and then left. During this, I got strong. I have known this guy since I was in sixth grade. We used to...
April 25th, 2018

Just Playing

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My brother and I got into some basic games of “Doctor”. Nothing starting out as abuse, just a lot of looking, and a little touching. One afternoon he inserted a finger, and I got a little blood. I went and told an adult, as I was supposed to, and because...
February 16th, 2020

My first love

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I was 13 and we went to the same high school. I didn’t know him but we both took part in drama. He was a year and a half older and we met at a school trip to a theatre one evening. He was a ‘bad boy’ causing trouble but...
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 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...
July 3rd, 2020

The pain that was never mine to...

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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...
May 14th, 2019

Drunk and taken advantage of

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It happened in October of 2018, I was 15, and a sophomore in high school. I live in a small town where teens to nothing but party to have fun because there is nothing else to do. In the town next to mine there is a college that a couple...
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...
November 6th, 2022

I story I have yet to accept...

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I was only 17. He was 18. He was a friend of mine. Looking back he was no friend of mine. Because after that day, everything changed, he knew what he did to me. Because he never tried reaching out to me once. It was November 4th, 2019. We had...
August 24th, 2020

He Was a Family Friend

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Trejo molested me when i was 8 years old. We lived on 548 Calle cinco de mayo in Juarez Mexico. He was one of my step dad’s “Carnales” and offered to let him stay with us while him and his wife looked for a new house. The house we lived...
June 6th, 2019

A night gone wrong

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2 years ago when I was 20 years old I went on a night out with a group of friends in our local town. We went to bars and the club and I began mixing drinks and became incredibly drunk, more then I ever have been, barely able to function...
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...
April 15th, 2019

raped as a lone solidier in israeli...

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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...
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.
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...
November 3rd, 2020

Ex Boyfriend

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I dated a boy for about 6 months. He was 17 I was 15. He seemed to care about me but there were so many red flags that I ignored. I’ve never told anybody this, but he raped me. The next day and I told my friends that I lost...
August 16th, 2020

Does the pain ever go away?

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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...
November 12th, 2014

Finally Using My Voice

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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...
September 13th, 2022

Raped in my own bed

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Locked forever in Liberty Plaza, Frozen in time, always saying no, But no one hears me, no one listens and no one comes. But why would they? If I don’t scream for help. Locked forever, in my tiny uni room. Your clothes, stained with vomit, in my bathroom. Photos of...
July 16th, 2020

Mental Breakdown

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My life’s a mess at 19, but I don’t like complaining to people (friends + family) because I don’t want to burden someone else with my problems, and to be honest nobody really cares like that, I don’t want to project myself as this ‘weak abused girl’ so later on...
September 28th, 2019

I Didn’t Know I Was Raped

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Grass stains on my back and blood in my jeans I gain consciousness while my body is jerked like a rag doll My eyes focus on the hazy streetlights as I try to make sense of my surroundings I hear his zipper as he’s walking away So, I pull up...
March 17th, 2024

Daycare friend

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I didn’t really know it at first but when I was seven this girl was 10. She told me it was just a game and she told me to touch her area and she would touch mine and I didn’t know better so I did what she said and she...
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 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...
March 20th, 2021

I said no – but he took...

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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...
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...
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...
June 29th, 2020

Red Flags

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I texted her. The girl he is currently seeing. I reached out to her as soon as I found out they were together. I told her that he was in fact a predator and told her to be careful. I didn’t need to text her, but I did. It was...
September 15th, 2020

My Multiple-Offender Rape

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Mine happened at 17. I was in high school and I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone knowing. I’ll never forget what “they” did to me. Parts of me died that night. I was Intoxicated, unconscious and woke up in an all-male athletic college dorm, being assaulted with an audience...
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...
May 15th, 2019

This Is My Story

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I was Only Seven My Dad Had A Girlfriend Who Had Many Sons and Just The One Took Me In My Room And Starting Playing With My Toys With Me Then We Played House n Had Barbie Kids Untill He Started Touching On me I didn’t Know It Was Inappropriate...
August 4th, 2024

April 19th

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When I was in 9th grade I was invited to a party by one of my friends. I had fallen into a bad crowd. Kids that used drugs and drank, violent people, people who were arrested, vandals, stuff like that. I was incredibly depressed at that point and I didn’t...
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...
May 10th, 2024

I thought you loved me

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I was in a relationship with Wormwood (my rapist), for almost two years when he drugged me and he and his friends gang raped me and beat me. The evening began at his friend’s camper on the river. While I was playing darts, I noticed Wormwood was pulling guys aside...
June 22nd, 2022

1 in 5

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1 in 5 Prior to joining a university campus, a serious of random webinars with quizzes about how much alcohol can affect the body and cheesy acting about doing the ‘right’ thing. It flies over most college freshman, who all have the same belief that I once had ‘that won’t...