I Have Something to Say

If you're wondering why women don't speak up after being sexually assaulted, it's because we never get believed or get taken seriously. During high school, I had a boy subdue me and grope my breasts at a school dance. He followed me to a water fountain. Initially my thought was that he was just going to the water fountain too. But he corned me against a wall and put his hands underneath my clothes. When I resisted, he grabbed me by the throat and shook me. I mean he literally shook me. I didn't protest after that. He was at least a foot taller than me. I knew I didn't stand a chance of breaking away. He only stopped when he heard someone walking towards us. I ran away from him as fast as possible and told one of my teachers what had just happened. His response was and I still remember clearly: "He probably didn't mean any harm. Let me know if he does it again." That night, I learned speaking up was useless. For some reason that I cannot understand for the life of me, people just don't care. And all women learn this at some point in their lives. So next time you hear a woman speak up, don't tell her she should have spoken up sooner or that she should have said no.