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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

CW/maybe TW? Tinder date brief fling bothering me

60 replies

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 21:08

Ok this will be really long and it might be what you call ‘triggering’ but I just really want some anonymous perspectives on this please if you could let me know what you think?? This happened about 3 years ago now. It’s such a long time I don’t know why I’m even thinking about it now.

Met a guy on tinder - there was a language barrier so chat was nice but sometimes a bit stilted, he was attractive and complimentary and had an interesting job. I met with him one evening we had a nice meal, went back to his, OK we had sex it was average and the next morning I made my excuses and he dropped me home, nothing bad he was just very keen for a morning blowjob and I really didn’t want to do it, he did the hand in the hair, pushing head down etc, he even got some flavored stuff out and said use this it won’t be so bad etc. Ended up doing this weird handjob type thing which was super awkward, he didn’t reciprocate and I felt a bit weird about it - I was almost annoyed at myself as I really wanted a relationship with someone - anyone - to work out and I thought I needed to get over my own sex hang ups and just be more open minded and cool about things, I’d hear about friends doing crazy stuff and having amazing sex in restaurant bathrooms and cars and at work and I’d think I can’t even bring myself to give a guy a blowjob?

Anyway I went on to a second date a week later, we had drinks at his and I was pretty much smashed before we even went out. More wine with a meal, and a taxi back to his, I vaguely remember him stopping at a late night shop for even more wine - he poured me the biggest glass ever back at his and I sipped it and could feel the vomit rising like, no way can I drink this - then he took my jeans off on the sofa and got into the bedroom, don’t remember how, he might have carried me, I was intoxicated at this point , I admit I remember feeling a bit excited as I was drunk, not had a relationship for years and not a casual sex type of person so I kind of saw myself from above you know this fun girl who sleeps with hot foreign men in their apartment and drinks red wine. Anyway we lie down and the room is spinning and I feel really sick, he is pants off, putting on a condom and I just think it will probably be over really soon anyway so no point saying anything now. Anyway I think I was in and out of consciousness at this point as it was like waves of nausea, it was pitch black in there and I felt the condom coming off, he swore and put it back on and it just all felt like such a chore or something I just had to endure, no pleasure at all, he eventually just loses the condom as I can feel it just laying there and then he , or I don’t know if it was, penetrated me anally, it was really painful and he did apologize but every three or four thrusts he did it again and it wasn’t like a prod - it was like almost all the way in - and then he carried on until he finished. I fell asleep before he finished, I think, and woke up about an hour later absolutely spinning and with the driest mouth in the world thought no fuck this and got up and dressed (absolutely zero underwear no idea where it was), he doesn’t even wake up or pretends not to I don’t know. I got an Uber which came in like five minutes and got downstairs of the building in the lifts somehow, must have looked an absolute state - I know I was fucked up because I religiously remove my makeup with expensive makeup remover which I spend a fortune on, even after wild nights out with friends and when camping or staying over at random places my face gets washed at least, and I had a full face of makeup smeared everywhere. Anyway I got in the taxi and threw up violently out of the window, it was about 4 miles home and when I got there I again vommed violently but managed to wash my face and get some sleep. Woke up several hours later and was sick again about four times, I do get really bad hangovers so it’s not that unusual for me in those days to react like that, but I was also sort of aching and there was some bleeding when I went for a wee for a few hours - I also realized my ‘back passage’ was hurting, sort of a bruised feeling which was mortifying but again I didn’t really think that it was that bad, I was annoyed he had done that but thought maybe it’s really hard for guys to ‘get the right hole’ when they are in the midst of quite forceful sex? I know now that actually it’s not that easy to accidentally penetrate there, I must’ve been very malleable because I was so drunk and out of it, as now if I was having good sex with my partner he’d realize straight away he was heading that way and say sorry and we would probably laugh about it.

I didn’t hear from the guy until about 1pm, he didn’t ring repeatedly wondering if I’d been abducted by aliens or anything, like you might if someone literally disappeared from your bed whilst you slept at 3am, it was a ‘oh did you leave’ type message and I said something like ‘haha yeah I was so drunk’ and that was that. A bit more messaging superficially for a day or so. I was in two minds whether to say something about how bad the sex was, when tumble weed, nothing from him for weeks, before he sent a ‘sorry I haven’t been in touch I don’t think we will work as a couple’ message which I ignored. I wasn’t arsed at that point, but some part of me did think if I’d been cooler, less drunk, less of a mess, willing to do the kinky shit I’m sure he was into, then things would have been better ? I was annoyed with myself almost that I’d let this stupid situation happen?

The other thing that really bothered me was the fact that as someone who has been paranoid about accidentally getting pregnant since I learnt about how babies are made in a terrifying sexual Ed class in primary, I was freaking out about the fact that the condom left the situation half way through, I never thought about STDs it never really occurred to me, but I was paranoid to the point of doing a test three weeks later, and I wasn’t fully relieved until I got my actual period.

Anyway I just think about this a lot at the moment , it was horrible and I hated it and the days that followed but it wasn’t like assault in tv shows where the assailant is violent and the girl is crying with a bloody lip and some stranger finds her, a kind doctor takes care of her and she begins an inspiring path to healing, or whatever he fuck happens, it was just a nothing situation, no one noticed anything and I just moved on so I think why bother about this now? He probably hasn’t even considered it since so why am I here so much time later considering things and wondering why it bothers me? I have good friends who have been through worse - one was in a relationship which was abusive and one was assaulted in a more obvious way so I have never felt comfortable talking about it with them as I almost feel like I’m trying to ‘prove’ I was assaulted even though it wasn’t as bad as theirs, and I as a person am quite emotionless when I speak, for example I rarely get visibly upset even at funerals and stuff and have a reputation for being a bit of an ice queen emotionally so I think I’d just feel like a robot just saying lines and they would be baffled.

Thanks if you’ve got this far, I’ve never actually written it down or said it out loud especially not in chronological order so it’s a bit of a jumble. I just think it’s not rape, I see it as like as assault which I consented to through my actions? And the long and short of it is that we all have had terrible sex before, this is just something to learn from? I wonder sometimes why I even give it head space.

OP posts:
Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 21:09

Sorry to be graphic and a bit gross I just wanted to explain things properly

OP posts:
AccidentallyOnPurpose · 31/01/2021 21:16

I've had bad sex before, this wasn't bad sex, it was rape.

You were out of it.
He removed the condom without consent.
He penetrated you anally without consent.

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 21:19

Thanks for you reply. I just wonder why was I messaging this guy back at the time? Why was I making excuses in my head for him? Why wasn’t I fuming instead of this pathetic‘I might be pregnant from this but I should have just been more assertive, if I’d been able to open my mouth without vomiting’ ?

OP posts:
crosshatching · 31/01/2021 21:23

Oh my love I'm so sorry you went through that. I understand your confusion but what happened to you was completely out of order. I really think talking to someone who deals with assault and trauma could pick this apart with you.

AccidentallyOnPurpose · 31/01/2021 21:24

You answered that yourself.

was almost annoyed at myself as I really wanted a relationship with someone - anyone

It's a very dangerous and risky state of mind to be in. A lot of women in that position end up hurt and abused.

pumpkinbump · 31/01/2021 21:26

I'm very sorry this has happened to you. Maybe you have tried to bury this but it has raised it's head now. What happened was wrong. You were taken advantage of and he sounds like a vile man. I don't want to startle you, but have you been tested for STDs since this incident?

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 21:38

I’ve not. I know that sounds absolutely awful written down. I’m in a committed relationship now and I almost can’t even face thinking about it as if I’d given anything to my partner now, I’d be devastated beyond anything and I wouldn’t even know how to begin explaining

OP posts:
Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 21:39

@crosshatching thanks so much for giving your time to read and reply. How do I even go about that? How would I find someone willing to listen? Would I pay for therapy ? I’m not sure I could afford it or be able to justify it to my partner when we have so much to fork out for

OP posts:
crosshatching · 31/01/2021 21:47

I think it would be worth getting in touch with Rape Crisis rapecrisis.org.uk/ and spend some time exploring their website if you can't quite bring yourself to call them.
What happened to you was very wrong, have you been able to talk to anyone else about it?

MizMoonshine · 31/01/2021 21:47

I was analy raped by a boyfriend when I was passed out drunk.

I stayed with him for months after. It was still rape.

Just because you texted him back, doesn't make it not rape.

nevernotstruggling · 31/01/2021 22:00

This really reminds me of something that happened to me in 2001. It was quite similar with very blurred lines and frankly it made me psychologically ill. About a year later a male friend questioned me quite pointedly about the time I spent with that person and I told him and he spelled it right out and said that was rape.

Accepting a trauma is really hard but it's the route to dealing with it emotionally and unpicking it all.

Big hugs op x

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:06

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your replies and the fact that you’re replying at all means a lot

I am sat here watching a film with my partner and he thinks I’m just scrolling through Insta, he would be horrified but also I think very confused about all this. I don’t think I want to tell him as I don’t think he would process it well and if he didn’t have a reaction I wanted I’d be so annoyed at myself for ever saying anything. He’s one of these where rape to him is a woman being dragged down an alleyway at night and you immediately involve the police who he would immediately assume would be supportive and sympathetic. Nuances are hard for him to think about and though he is sensitive I think he’d take a bit to process it all.

In a way I wish someone would ask me out right about it. The closest I’ve come is sort of dropping a small hint during a conversation with a friend at work when we were dealing with a sexual violence related work thing. It just made her uncomfortable so I decided it was the absolute wrong time to even bring something like this up.

OP posts:
Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:08

@nevernotstruggling can I ask, if you don’t mind, and it’s ok if not, what happened with you in 2001 was it a bad date type situation? And how did your friend bring the conversation up?

OP posts:
Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:12

@crosshatching thank you for the link. I’ve looked at that website for work before. I’ll have a look for myself maybe tomorrow. I have never breathed a word about this except to one friend who was talking about tinder and I said something like I’ve had a terrible tinder date I ended up legging it at 3am I was so drunk - she laughed and thought it was so funny so I just was like ‘yeah don’t drink a lot if you’re meeting someone from there’ and laughed it off. And I dropped a tiny hint to a work friend in the context of sexual violence awareness like ‘more people have experienced dodgy stuff than you’d think’ and she was sort of uncomfortable and changed the subject but we were at work and it was unfair to mention it like that really

OP posts:
MizMoonshine · 31/01/2021 22:13

OP tell your boyfriend.
He's not going to judge you for what has happened to you. You're in the middle of a pandemic and coming to terms with being raped
Ask him for the support you need.

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:18

@MizMoonshine how do I even bring this up though ? I spend most of my time pestering him to do DIY and our life is so settled and mundane. I can’t bear to think of him judging me about this

OP posts:
sometimesamazinggrace · 31/01/2021 22:21

I'm so sorry this happened to you OP. I still think about a guy I had a ONS with over ten years ago. It wasn't violent, but I made it clear before we went back to his that I didn't want to have sex, and I ended up being pressured into it.
Have you watched I May Destroy You? It could be triggering but it covers a lot of issues around consent and you could maybe watch it with your partner to start the conversation?

MizMoonshine · 31/01/2021 22:23

He's not going to judge you.
Tell him that something is bothering you. Tell him that it's nothing to do with him, but it's something you need to get off your chest and talk about. Tell him that you are just coming to terms with it. Tell him that you need support.

Let him love you.

Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:29

I am just worried that he will be of the opinion that I let myself get absolutely smashed on wine, and this happened - he would be so confused why I am bringing this up now.

OP posts:
Blueeyedgirl21 · 31/01/2021 22:30

@sometimesamazinggrace I’ve never seen that. Friends raved about it. I watched something on Netflix recently where a character gets assaulted and it’s all very vague and not handled well. It bothered me and I started making parallels to my own situation

OP posts:
GreenlandTheMovie · 31/01/2021 22:35

You didn't give consent to anal sex.

I think its possible you were given Rohypnol.

You should probably report it to the police, even though it occurred 3 years ago. I can understand why you might not want to though.

Who gives a fuck about his feelings? He certainly didn't care about yours?

Deathgrip · 31/01/2021 22:39

Real life abuse of all kinds is nothing like in films and on TV. We are used to seeing these things a certain way - big drama, emotive music, dark lighting etc. When they happen in real life they are just something that is happening. It’s a bit like how the start of pandemics in films are all drama, and in real life it was press conferences and a toilet roll shortage. I remember thinking “this is so much more mundane than you’d expect”. That’s what my experiences of abuse have been like too.

You don’t want to be a victim of abuse or assault so you rationalise it, you make excuses, you seek to blame yourself.

I was abused by my father when I was a child. Honestly until adulthood I made excuses - he got in the wrong bed, it only happened because he was drunk, he probably doesn’t remember it and it was an accident (even though it wasn’t a one off). I don’t know how I ever thought that now, but I did. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, that was my other rationalisation.

My first two boyfriends were lovely and respectful but then I had three relationships in a row with men who sexually assaulted and / or raped me. I thought well it must be my fault, or maybe this is just what most relationships are like. I didn’t want to face up to what was actually happening and my boundaries were skewed.

You were too drunk to consent. Would you have sex with someone who’s so drunk they can barely move - would you feel right about it? I know you wouldn’t.

I’m concerned that your partner doesn’t understand that the majority of rape happens in circumstances like yours rather than in a dark alley. Why do you think he thinks that - has he said this?

It’s bothering you now because you have tried to crush this into a box in your head but you can’t keep things pushed down forever. Despite the ways you’ve tried to rationalise it, you are traumatised by what has happened

I absolutely agree you should contact Rape Crisis and you should also talk to your partner. I told DH about things that happened in my past just a few years ago and it has really helped him to understand me and has made our relationship stronger.

MizMoonshine · 31/01/2021 22:40

Explain it the way you have here.

PolloDePrimavera · 31/01/2021 22:41

You didn't do anything wrong OP, stop judging yourself. You should tell your partner, when you feel ready. And look into rape support for yourself, because that's what it was. Take care Thanks

hamstersarse · 31/01/2021 22:47

It’s so hard to come to terms with a trauma and betrayal like this. I’m sorry you have experienced this.

Perhaps try journaling it for now. Write down all your feelings, really try and access them. It’s a really complicated situation with loads of conflicting emotions but maybe it’s time to confront those feelings, you are ready to face it. Then perhaps if that’s not too bad to do it privately, you might also be ready to speak to rape crisis.

I too wonder about spiking. I was spiked 15 years ago and that ‘totally wasted before I even went out’ just rung an alarm bell for me too. But usually you have total memory block for at least a few hours so maybe not as you do seem to be able to remember most parts of the night.

Good luck op