I've listened to the stories of

[mercuryblues]

A friend who was gang raped

A friend whose step father molested her. When she told her mother...she sent her to the grandparents.

2 aunts whose father molested them

A cousin who was raped

I pulled my step father off my older sister. My mom threw him out that night.

A sister-in-law who fought off a serial rapist in her own home.

A neighbor's sister who was raped and killed

on top of my own experiences

I am not special. This is not an anomaly. This is the normal life women live with their family and friends. Our sisters, cousins, aunts, mothers all have their stories and the stories of their friends.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[lunatica]

2. The reason people don't know is because women don't talk about it

But lately with the #MeToo movement and women like Dr Basey Ford coming out women are coming out, throwing shame away and telling their stories.

[Honeycombe8]

6. So true. I thought I was a rarity. Now I see...it's so common!

My situation is similar to Ford's, in fact. I am shocked that it's so common.

I am not alone. You are not alone.

[mercuryblues]

15. Which is why I made the

list. As I was putting it together, it overwhelmed me. I have though about them individually and always excluding my own experiences. Is it easier to cope if I considered them all isolated incidences? Most likely. Suffice to say, it is a pattern. Men and women need to call it out.


Notice I left out all the grabbing of body parts by random men in public spaces.


We are not alone. That is the biggest fear of men like Kav&co's worst fear. We are 50+5 of the population and they are losing ways to control us so they retain power.




Alone we are strong, Together we are powerful

[Honeycombe8]

17. "Together we are powerful." YES! November comes. nt

[japple]

7. We can only hope that this horrible oppression will end with our generation. I know that women of

color have experienced this far longer than any other women in our history, but we have all been held down too long.

From Sarah Grimke, as quoted by the notorious RBG in that recent documentary about her life, "I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy."

[Honeycombe8]

18. What a wonderful quote.

I can only imagine what women of color have experienced, if white women (the daughters of white men) have experienced these things so often and so long.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Anybody who has not heard of sexual abuse told to them firsthand is in a hole too deep in the ground

[betsuni]

4. K&R

[BigmanPigman]

5. I heard one in three women are/have been sexually assaulted.

Do the math...how many of the reps in Washington have or currently are doing it themselves? A lot!

[Honeycombe8]

9. Interesting question. And how many of the female Senators had had a similar experience?

It's likely that some of them had.

[BigmanPigman]

11. I read of one woman rep who acknowledged that she is a survivor today in fact!

[Blue_true]

8. Before I read your post, I was sitting here thinking about how clean and safe my place felt.

But I am a relatively large, athletic guy. I think that every guy should be magically converted to live as a woman for two weeks. Once all guys go through that, I feel that we will have a much better world.

[lunatica]

10. Make it a solid month

so they can experience having their period.

They’ll be even more sympathetic!

[mercuryblues]

12. I would be happy

if they stop denying this reality exists for women. Stop covering for other men. Start calling each other out on their sexist behavior.


Women experience this, some from the time they are born. It is time that men stop denying it.

disclaimer:

In this post, I do not mean you specifically, nor do I say all men.

You see I had to add that disclaimer because some men will make this all about them and not the daily lives of the women trying to speak up. It is another form of silencing us. Their feelings are more important than our physical and psychological abuse we endure throughout our lives.

[calimary]

16. As I was watching Kavanaugh's sturm und drang about how offended and violated he feels

and oh what it's done to his reputation and his family and their lives have been destroyed - all I could think of was: "gee, dude, now you know how it feels to be a woman."

[Equinox Moon]

13. Yes! Your list is a reflection of reality for women.

Let the flood gates open. Times Up!

I predict we see more and more reporting from long ago, and then we progress to reporting immediately after an assault.
The final stage will be sexual assault is a rare thing. This is what I predict.

[LisaM]

14. I had a coworker who was abducted and brutally raped.

Amazingly, she was able to survive AND to lead the police to where it happened (I can still tell you the exact apartment complex where it occurred). They caught the guy.

One day she was our coworker, and then we never saw her again. She was traumatized. I don't know if she didn't want to face her former coworkers or if she went into deep counseling, but I never, ever saw her again. She was a friend. I liked her, I liked working with her. She was kidnapped out of her laundry room.

Her husband had a hard time with it, too. I wonder now, where they are?