“I’m 17, and I have a long-distance boyfriend. He begs me for phone sex and I say no. ‘I’m sorry, I’m just not comfortable.’ I hang up on him, feeling guilty. He’s lonely in the Marine barracks. I’m all he has. He needs me. He suffers from depression, self-harm. A few nights later, I pause on the phone. I hear his heavy breathing, muffled moans. ‘Are you…?’ I ask. ‘Don’t stop. Keep talking,’ he pants. Feeling sick, I hang up the phone. I feel dirty and embarrassed. ‘Men will only go as far as you let them,’ I’ve been told. Boys will be boys.”
‘I’m 14, alone with a boy. ‘What if you had sex with me?’ He leers. ‘No thanks.’ ‘What if I held you down and made you?’: Survivor advocates for fellow survivors of the Me Too Movement, ‘Culture tells us not to complain. To keep quiet.’
‘Your HUSBAND cleans?! Isn’t that your job?’ My jaw dropped. I could feel my blood boiling. Then, he proceeded to ask questions.’
“I invited my friend and her boyfriend over for a fun wine and painting night. ‘Where’s your son? Is your son asleep?’ he asked. I told him no, he was gone and under my husband’s supervision for the night. ‘WHAT? HE is gonna watch the baby? Why aren’t YOU watching him?’ I was LIVID.”
‘He’s just a tomboy. He’s going through a phase.’ At the age of 2, my son began showing a fierce rejection of all things female. It didn’t enter my mind that my child could be trans.’
“She said something along the lines of, ‘Please be careful with waiting to allow your child to transition. That can be dangerous.’ And then she proceeded to tell me why.”
‘Are you ok tonight?’ I was in the grocery store trying to pretend everything was OK, but it wasn’t. I was bawling my eyes out. ‘This isn’t a forever feeling.’ I’m so grateful to you.’: Mom overcomes severe depressive episode thanks to kindness of strangers
“I was afraid to leave my house without my husband. ‘I know this is hard for you,’ he would say. ‘Can you tell yourself that you’re safe?’ ‘No,’ I would respond. I reached out as a bit of a last-ditch effort, right there in the grocery store, tears running down my face. The response was incredible. Those women saved me.”
‘We are forgetting about our boys and that’s not OK.’
“Article after article is about raising daughters, not sons. And, when I do come across an essay on raising sons, it’s about how and why we need to raise our boys with particular values for the sake of the females and daughters of the world. This is something I’m not entirely on board with.”
This never-ending list of how women protect themselves against sexual assault proves WHY women are so angry
“I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other. Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted?”
‘My daughter wore a pair of jeans to school. They had a hole in the knee. In the middle of a quiz, a male administrator told her she needed to consider guys and their hormones, yanked her out of class and threw her into In-School Suspension.’
“I’m sorry but EXCUSE ME?”
‘I shouldn’t have met him in a public space. I thought he was safe. He ‘knew me well enough’ to engage in a physical relationship.’: Woman shares incredible weight loss journey after ‘tumultuous’ breakup, sexual assault
“In high school, I was healthy. Then suddenly at 16 my world turned upside down. I began dating my high school boyfriend. The beginning was like a whirlwind. I felt so in love, I was positive I’d spend the rest of my life with him. I’d like to say everything was his fault, but we were both to blame. I was suffocating but couldn’t imagine living a life without him.”
Moms, it’s up to us to raise daughters who don’t tear each other down
“Want to raise strong, confident and empowered little girls to lead the next generation? It’s time we all act as role models and empower the women around us, today.”
‘It cost the man almost $900:’ Stranger buys ticket for airman to visit her dying father
“My father’s health took a nosedive and he wasn’t expected to live more than a couple days.”
