80% of teenage girls suffer serious mental illness after sexual assault

[UglyCathKidstonBag]

I couldn’t see this posted on FWR (sorry if I missed).

“Researchers found that girls who had been assaulted were disproportionately likely to be from deprived or troubled backgrounds. Three-quarters were from a poor family, one in five had had a statement of special educational needs and more than half had previously been involved with social services.
In addition, half had sought help from NHS mental health services in the 12 months before being attacked.

A number of the girls (4%) had become pregnant after being assaulted, 12% had had a sexually transmitted infection and 8% – one in 12 – had been the subject of another sexual assault.“

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/22/sexually-abused-teenage-girls-likely-suffer-mental-health-issues-months-later-study?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Bloody awful. The poorest, the most vulnerable, and instead of protecting them, there's fuckers of men out there who exploit and abuse them further, and society as a whole does sweet FA.

The way this was presented really pissed me off. Good heavens, it turns out that sexual assault is really bad for young women! As if 1) women hadn't been trying to point this out for ages and 2) the patriarchal cultural mainstream is clearly aware of it given that the victimised teenage girl who develops severe mental health problems following sexual assault is already a staple character of fictional and non-fictional cultural narrative.

Why did they not ask: what are we going to do about the rape culture that we are inflicting on our children?

(part of me want to scream "no shit sherlock - you had to be told this?!

To quote Fermat from another thread. Another report from the department of the bleedin' obvious.

No mention of the elevated risk of suicide. I expect that's because they're trying to be responsible about reporting it.

So sexual assault leads to serious MH for young women?
Well duh.
So what will this lead to? Better support for women and girls who have to suffer this? I hope so, but I'm not confident.
And in other news, bears shit in the woods and the Pope is Catholic.

It is totally a “well no fucking shit, petal” moment. Hopefully publishing an article about this report keeps hammering it home to the thickos are in the camp of “oh well, WAG get raped, what a shame!” because there are fucking lot of them.

We need to be shouting outward about what men are doing to women and girls and how it impacts their lives. Of course we are but we seem to be a minority.

Why are little girls being sexually assaulted? Who is assaulting them? Under what circumstances? How do we discourage the perpetrators? How do we better protect the girls from them? How do we hack the riskiest situations so that they become less risky? How do we make it easier for girls to report? Why aren't we talking about any of this?

Yep, we need reports into the perpetrators of these crimes. Why the do it. Where they do it. Also how we can protect them.

We need reports into why men think they can get away with this. Why men aren’t standing up and fighting against the people in their sex class who are committing these life wrecking crimes?

So instead of doing everything to protect our girls, they are now told they must except male bodies into spaces that should be safe, have no boundaries and that they are not allowed to say no to men.

I wonder if @MNHQ would campaign on this somehow?
Lots of girls and young women (daughters!) are being failed, it would be fantastic to have a site which is primarily populated by women and mothers be the voice of campaigning against this treatment of our young girls.

100% true. I was sexually abused at around eight years old, and went on to develop severe mental health issues, leading to a sectioning at 17, and a long period of massive instability. (Didn't exactly help that I was then raped by a male on a secure mental health ward, but you know, them's the breaks for people no one gives a shit about...)

Floral I'm so sorry and angry about what happened to you. It sounds horrific. Can't do the flowers emoji thing but am hand holding you in my head and heart.

Floral I hear you and feel you. I’ve been through something similar and my life is still negatively impacted daily well into my thirties. Robbed of my childhood, my virginity, my innocence along with my physical and mental health. We are forgotten and lost.

FloralBunting and UglyCathKidstonBag

You are not forgotten. A whole shadowy army of women stands with you and our voices are getting louder.

Thank you m'dears. I have the good fortune of having been able to pull myself through the years of crap and reach my forties in a much better place. But I'm very aware of how lucky I am, and the fact that this endemic criminality is still flourishing and ruining lives is a crimson stain on all our notions of civilized society.

(Hugs Floral)

That article - what, being raped has a negative impact on mental health? Really? What a shocker.