rape

There was a text from him: "Sorry about last night." There were calls. Then more texts: "Babe are you ok?" When I responded: "You raped me," he stopped reaching out.

Grace is a survivor who has something to ask of you: she's asking you not to spend time with people who have abused me or any other survivor you know. And she's also telling you quite a lot about why.

Sexual assault and abuse can take so many forms that some people don’t recognize right away or ever. I didn’t initially recognize it. The most simple legal definition of sexual assault is “forcing a victim to participate in sexual acts,” but this definition isn’t always helpful when you’re trying to figure out if you’ve been assaulted. It's so much more complicated and unique than a one-sentence definition.

Hey there, lost. I'm so sorry that you had to experience that abuse, but I'm very glad you survived it, and have started to be able to look towards healthy, wanted intimacy in your future. Let's see if I can help get you started. First, I want to alleviate a fear that could get in your way. You don...

I know that isn’t news to anyone, but I think we forget that sometimes when trying to help our friends or family members who are going through it. We expect them to act “rationally,” like we would, or like we want them to. But sexual assault is traumatic, and making decisions during and after trauma is complicated. Decisions about who to talk to - the police, a healthcare provider, a friend, a teacher - can feel incredibly complicated. Are they going to believe me? Are they going to listen to me? Are they going to call the police even though I don’t want that? What is going to happen next?

What is sexual harassment likely to look like in your life, or the lives of your friends? And what can you actually do about it, whether you’re the target of it, trying to avoid harming people yourself, or you’re the friend of someone who’s being harassed at work?

First off, I'm sorry to hear about your sexual assault. If it helps to hear this, having a strong fear of pregnancy after a sexual assault isn't unusual, especially when someone is feeling shame over it or worrying that they caused or deserved it in some way. Pregnancy can feel like an inevitable...

How do you support a teen as they recover from sexual assault?

The charts below are excerpts from the far larger, ongoing Multigenerational Experiences With and Attitudes About Casual Sex Survey I have been collecting responses to since 2010. The data below reflects responses given as of 6/8/2014. It is a broad, international survey, with the age of respondents...

This doesn't just go both ways, it goes -- it needs to go -- ALL the ways. For everybody. Always. I really appreciate you asking about this. It's something we remind people about often, both on the site and in our social media, but I feel like we can't talk about this enough or provide enough...