I have never been raped.
I am fortunate. I have been supported by friends and family who allowed me to feel strong and taught me to stand up for myself. My loved ones have always contributed to my feeling of security and importance in this world. I am privileged.
I have never been raped. And still I have been made to feel small, weak, and undervalued.
As a middle schooler, I was followed home by a boy who was bigger and stronger than me. I told him to stop. The next day, he left before me and jumped out of some bushes a block away from my house. He wanted to scare me for a joke. I laughed because I was scared and I didn't know what to do.
I have never been raped.
As an adolescent, my male friends referred to my stylish braids as "handle bars." Again, I laughed. I felt uncomfortable.
Those same friends of mine once worked together to attempt to unbuckle my overalls because they learned doing so would cause them to fall down exposing me in my underwear. When I protested, the 2 of them pushed me forcefully into the nearby boys bathroom. I was backed into a stall, and yelled furiously as they laughed and unbuckled my straps. They then ran away, leaving me alone, in the boys bathroom, in my underwear. I did not laugh. I was astonished.
I have never been raped.
In college, I once had to forcefully shove my elbow into the padded belly of a man dressed as a tomato who felt that the dance floor of a Halloween party was an appropriate time to slither his hand up my shirt and cup my boob. I did not know him. I could not see his face, but I stomped his foot, elbowed his gut and shouted "FUCK YOU TOMATO!" I laugh about this now.
I have never been raped.
In my 20s, when I went out dancing with my friends, we regularly discussed how we would skillfully dance one another away from the unwanted advances of men who felt our enjoyment of music was an appropriate time to touch, fondle or kiss us. I remember spinning a friend away from a man who randomly stuck his tongue down her ear. With my back to him, on a crowded dance floor before we could get away, he grabbed my breast.
I have never been raped.
However, I once purchased a couch from a man who copied my phone number off the sales record. He began texting me. At first I responded, thinking of the possibilities. The messages quickly became uncomfortable, and I stopped responding. He showed up at my apartment a few days later. I hid from him in the elevator.
I have never been raped.
However I have been hit on by men who had wrong numbers and knew nothing about me other than that I sounded female. I once answered the phone at a clinic for survivors of domestic violence and encountered a man seeking treatment for batterers. After I directed him to the appropriate agency, he asked for my number.
I have never been raped, but I have clutched my keys in my hand while trying to find my car in a dark parking lot. I have held my phone tightly in my pocket while riding public transit alone in the dark. I have asked to be escorted to my car in the secure parking garage of my luxury apartments.
I have never been raped. Though some of what I have experienced constitutes sexual assault, I have never been attacked or beaten, and my experiences do not count in the eyes of statistics. Many of my experiences were brief, and easily escaped. Those that weren't, were reported and promptly dealt with before they could escalate. I have been protected, defended, and able to keep my self "safe."
I am one of the lucky ones, and these are facts from my life.
I have never been raped. At least not yet.
