Utterly heartbreaking thread by Rachel Moran

[NeurotrashWarrior]

I can't read it all. to all.

Women, in order to deliver a necessary wake up call, I’m asking you to respond to this tweet with simply your age the first time you were sexually objectified/leered at/spoken to inappropriately or sexually assaulted by a grown man. Just your age please. I’ll start: 9

https://twitter.com/rachelrmoran/status/1245842180507340801?s=21

Really horrifying, but I didn't find any of it surprising. Great thread idea

I replied to it- I was sexually assaulted by a random strange man in a public place when I was age 9.
It makes awful reading doesn’t it.
My daughter had her bottom groped age 11 at the local ice rink. She was too ashamed to tell me at the time. I didn’t tell my parents about my assault as I wasn’t meant to be where I was at the time. To be honest I didn’t even know what was going on at the time so it didn’t scare me half as much as the thought of it now- I’d be beside myself if that happened to my own daughters at that age- but that doesn’t make it okay. Just means you don’t need to feel sorry for me I guess.

I'm sorry is

My grandad used to regularly grab me between my legs as a 'joke'. From age 7 I'd say. In front of my parents too....

I can’t make it public but I was 6. In a car coming back from a wedding we gave a ‘friend’ a lift home. He put his hands in my knickers and repeatedly touched me around my private parts - he tried to but his fingers between my lips and I kept pushing his hands away - my parents were in the front of the car - eventually I started crying and they stopped the car and threw him out.

I know he was never at any other events I went to - also my mum said they never reported it to the police to protect me.

I replied yesterday. It’s sadly not shocking even though is should be.

I'm not on Twitter, but 7. It was the first time I realised that if you're a girl, you can't play somewhere that's out of sight of anyone else, and you always have to be alert to the danger of that male, or in my case gang of males, appearing on the horizon and heading your way.

Just to add: that gang of males, who were probably between 14-16 and total strangers who just happened upon a 7 year old girl playing, cornered me, demanded that I undress and show them my privates, and when I refused, they cornered and forcibly undressed me. I raised enough Caine that they gave up trying to take it any further. My mother reported it to a couple of passing policemen, who pretty much chuckled, said boys will be boys, and they'd have a word if they saw the boys hanging about. End of it for everyone except me.

I was aged 8 or 9. I was at the cinema with my cousins and a man sat next to me, rubbed his leg up against mine and masturbated. I didn't know what he was doing but I was very upset as I knew that it was wrong. I thought somehow that it had been my fault so I never told anyone.

I was 13, one of my teachers in secondary school groped my arse.

My sister was 3 or 4, I don't think she even remembers this, I hope she doesn't. A friend of my parents, he was always quite touchy towards my sister, liked her to sit on his knee. I saw him one time touch my her between her legs. I told my mum, this guy never came back.

HerFemaleness

That made me cry. to you and your sister

14/15

Was just an unwanted kiss from technically an adult but the response from adults around me basically saying I was too nice and he mistook that has been something I've carried with me ever since . I'd be lying if I said I hadnt slept with people because I felt I'd let it get that far or it was my fault I was there so I better go through with it.

Not as severe as some of these though. So sorry

I remember a radio piece about a museum display of outfits. They were described- dresses, suits, jeans, skirts... a little kids cartoon pyjamas...

It was then explained that these were all the outfits worn by rape victims at the time of their assault.

I'm not on twitter. 5. A boy in my class pulled me into bushes and tried to force his fingers into me. He hit me. I was covered in scratches from him and the bushes. My teacher told me not to play with him again. God knows what was going on in his life, and what chances to help were missed.

Aged 10. Cat called by a drunk man standing outside a pub I was walking past in the afternoon. I cant remember what he said, but it was sexual and I remember thinking it was inappropriate. I turned around and yelled at him that I was a child. He said he didnt believe me 🤷‍♀️

I was 4 and at a school friend’s house. He had 2 teenage brothers. One of them led me into his bedroom (I remember the curtains were drawn), and he put me in a corner and started masturbating. I never told anyone. I’m not sure why.

About 8, but I didn't twig at the time what was going on since my mother turned up before anything really happened. Looking back it was really creepy but at the time I didn't have a clue what had been in the offing.

4

This is chilling. Even more so was working out how old I was when a man tried to get me to go home with him- 11/12? Before remembering the physical sexual assault when I was walking to Primary School.

11. Boys, aged 14, tried to grab my breasts and called me a pricktease when I said no.

The older I get,the angrier I get about this subject. Society in general like to ignore it as a way to protect "Mr Nice Guy Who Made A Mistake"

1. My dad.

5

I've been relatively lucky, but I ran into 6 lane traffic as a 9 year old because an adult male asked me the time and I knew I was in danger.

6
Boy at junior school. Didn’t dare tell my mother, she would never have believed me and was friends with his mother.