Rape is not an extraordinary or evil act for an assailant. It is like forcing someone to eat when she is not hungry.

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the...

False Memory” for Errors in Memory for Details, Journal: Ethics & Behavior 14(3) pages 201-233, 2004

But no matter how much evil I see, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that there is much more light than darkness.

Machines were the ideal metaphor for the central pornographic fantasy of the nineteenth century, rape followed by gratitude.

Many professionals have to sign gagging clauses or face the sack if they speak out. The social worker and therapist was familiar with the scare that revelation brings to the survivor. […]We are in this...

A husband or wife did not have the right either to demand sex from his or her spouse or to refuse it, and there was a catalogue of forbidden sexual practices, notably homosexuality, bestiality, certain...

mistake.’ That’s insulting. I’m not a mistake.

ohonhonhonhon~

Most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while most women fear rape and death.

War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but...

Over half a million women are raped in this country every year, and only a fraction of them report it because they’re too ashamed. It’s a really screwed up world, but its not your fault,...

A quick and brutal fuck from behind usually served as an effective reminder of where you stood in the pack hierarchy.

Actions have consequences. Kids today don’t think about that. It’s like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t this be awesome?!’ Consequences? What are those?

I WILL FOLLOW ANYONEAND THANK EVERYONEWHO TRIES TO MAKEA DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVESOF VULNERABLE CIVILIANS

In all the interviews I have done, I cannot remember one offender who did not admit privately to more victims than those for whom he had been caught. On the contrary, most offenders had been...

Let’s be very clear about this, asshole: I’ve been a woman in Arkansas. I know damn well what it means when a man says to me ‘Calm down.’ Being raped comes next, and that’s a...

No, Sky. You didn’t tell her everything…you told you everything. Those things happened to you, not to someone else. They happened to Hope. They happened to Sky. They happened to the best friend that I...

And we’re all good, everything is forgiven between Beethoven and me because this is the part of me that hasn’t changed. In this monent I’m not defined by the other things, the things that happened...

Imagine the message that sent to my sister and me. A cousin violates us, confesses, and walks away with barely a slap on the wrist. I learned at a young age that if I was...

I am not sure if we are numbed to the reality of rape, but here’s the sad irony. While the word rape can add an edginess to your language, talking about actual rape is taboo....

The whole thing becomes like this evil enchantment from a fairy tale, but you’re made to believe the spell can never be broken.

Young women are not putting themselves in danger. The people around them are doing the real damage. Who? you might wonder. The abstinence teacher who tells her students that they’ll go to jail if they...

The man is well inside the train before the dreadful truth occurs to me. He is the man from the newspaper. The rapist. My doppelganger. My mirrored doppelganger.”William Wilson in the short story ‘Metro’ by...

I am not depressed; my life is just shit. As a consequence of my not being depressed, I am not like them. You need to know this from the very off. You need to know...

Rape is a more heinous crime than murder since the rape victim dies throughout the period she lives.

The silences after his last gasp were sung together by a blackbird. I lay there, my eyes unable to close. His were unable to open. I listed the places where I hurt, and how much....

Who are we to say getting incested or abused or violated or any of those things can’t have their positive aspects in the long run? … You have to be careful of taking a knee-jerk...

Not being assaulted is not a privilege to be earned through the judicious application of personal safety strategies. A woman should be able to walk down the street at 4 in the morning in nothing...

If people don’t sleep with me I just rape them. Because right is not given but taken.

Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend...

Unfortunately, there’s no surefire way to prevent sexual assault.

I think I just said it, but I think it’s worth repeating. They gave me hope that there is good in the world out there. There really is. It really does exist. Regardless of how...

The prediction of false rape-related beliefs (rape myth acceptance [RMA]) was examined using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999) among a nonclinical sample of 258 male and female college students....

The discovery that detonated Cleveland is one of Britain’s great contributions to awareness of child abuse. In 1986 and 1987 the Leeds paediatricians Dr Jane Wynne and Dr Christopher Hobbs reported in the Lancet that...

Those who were molested or beaten as children or teenagers might later be vulnerable to sexual abuse or violence, because their natural impulses to protect themselves and protest (physical and verbal) were extinguished. Expectation of...

abuse seminar” together some place, somehow? Was it taught in the seminary? In some dark corner? It goes beyond coincidence—the similarities in deeds and verbiage that these predators use on us. It truly chilled me...

The fact is, rape is utterly commonplace in all our cultures. It is part of the fabric of everyday life, yet we all act as if it’s something shocking and extraordinary whenever it hits the...

The responsibility for men’s behavior, indeed for civilization itself rests entirely with women here, and in how they dress and behave. Men’s animalistic impulses are presumed to be overwhelming and uncontrollable. And as men are...

Consent to petting isn’t consent to penetration.

The town was more than ready to accept the window dressing that hid the ugly truth of Joe’s guilt. Some shared the secrets and kept the silence. Others would not have believed if they had...

Isn’t that just typical. You’re either asking for it, or having it forced upon you without your consent. Who decided women always have to be passive in sex?

Mind Your Language in the Presence of PatriachsQ. When is rape not rape? A. When it is your father or stepfather.

I WILL FOLLOW ANYONEAND REMIND EVERYONEOF THE SUFFERING…OF THE ENSLAVED…YAZIDI WOMEN

over and over victims are blamed for their assaults. and when we imply that victims bring on their own fates – whether to make ourselves feel more efficacious or to make the world seem just...

A nightmare has taken hold of my body. Lunacy has dug its way inside my mind.

As he returned to the bed, he could see Vallant eyeing him warily, but he ignored this, sat on the opposite end and braced the pad on his knee. You think after all that, I...

She once told me of a night that fumed with escapes and was filled with bedsides reeking of ecstasy; she told me the stars cast not judgments, but blessings, knowing full well the disastrous outcomes...

My goal in going public was not to put my extended family to shame, or to get back at Brian for abusing my sister and me; rather, my mission was to give a face and...

People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive...