Thoughts of a survivor

Thanks to a very public rape scandal that has been all over the news for the past days, I've been able to read different opinions about it.

People are very skeptical about a man that was admired so much over the years to be able to do these things to so many people.
Others, including me, feel nauseated about it.

I'm no expert on the subject, I'm no psychologist nor psychiatrist but this is my opinion on the matter:

1. It is very hard to live with something that traumatizing happening to you, sometimes you won't be able to admit to yourself it even happened.  Plus, society has taught us that when you're raped, it's probably your fault. On top of all of that, you feel dirty and not worth anything.
It's an experience that shakes your whole soul.

2. It takes a LONG time for you to acknowledge it did happen, to accept it in your own mind. It takes even longer to be able to talk about it or confess what happened.
And when you do, you're surrounded with questions like "what were you wearing?" "did you know him?" "what did you do to incite him?" which just makes everything worse.

3, Nobody will ever understand, unless they've lived something similar. Sadly, it seems to me, more and more people are being victims of rape.

4. It's much harder to take a legal action against the person who hurt you and, most of the time, nobody does it. There's fear, there's embarrasment, there's so much to it.
I've read people saying that because it took so long for some women to come clean about their experiences, they must be lying. They just don't understand the courage it really takes to do it, the precuations one must take to avoid any other danger.

5. I firmly believe nobody has the right to demand sex or any kind of sexual act from you, either you're a man or a woman. Nobody should feel entitled to force you to do anything.

Let's all, please, begin to put ourselves in the shoes of the victims, try to be more supportive and more understanding.
Let's stop seeing rape as a taboo, when we all know it happens everyday to lots of women, men and children.
Let's all work together for less rapes everyday.
Let's all hope for a rape-free world.

Rape is NOT a joke, it's not funny, it's not nice.