DU Women:

[Le Taz Hot]

In response to a couple of posts regarding the figure of "1 in 3 girls will be the victim of date rape" post and in that I've seen figures that indicate 1 in 4 girls will be sexually assaulted by the time they were 18, I'm interested in getting some numbers from DU women. You don't have to identify yourselves if you don't want to, but chime in on the poll if you will.

[blondeatlast]

1. Kick. Sometimes we forget polls need an occasional kick. nt

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Thanks.

Kicking again.

[CTyankee]

2. I think more clarification about what is meant by "sexual assault" is in order.

Does it cover "groping" for instance? If so, my answer would be yes to the under 18 category. As it is, tho, I am in the over 18 category...

[Le Taz Hot]

4. I would say any unwanted touching, so

yep, "groping" (unwanted) would definitely fall in that category.

[CTyankee]

6. Thanks, that helps. n/t

[TahitiNut]

22. Under that definition, I've been sexually assaulted, too.

:shrug: It might be of interest to know that males are sexually assaulted at between 1/3 to 1/2 the rate of females before the age of 18.

[MedleyMisty]

5. My mother's boyfriend

When I was around 9 to 11.

[Le Taz Hot]

14. . . .

:hug:

[Irishonly]

7. Kick

When the boomers were teens there wasn't a lot of education about rape. I was so glad to take my teen to a date rape awareness program. The information she received covered everything from rape to peer pressure.

[Le Taz Hot]

8. Kick

because I want more DU women to have a chance to answer.

[Occam Bandage]

9. It seems assaulted women are overrepresented here. I wonder why.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. I don't know.

Well, actually, I do know, but please, care to speculate? The poll IS open to anyone who wants to answer it.

[Occam Bandage]

16. Well, as a wild-ass guess,

I might guess that liberal women are more likely to be assaulted, or assaulted women are more likely to be liberal, but neither seems to make sense to me. (I am open to evidence, of course, I'm just saying first reactions here.)

Slightly more realistic to me is the proposition that assaulted women would find the notion of a message board more appealing (for a variety of factors). But again, this is just a guess.

So what is it? Why withhold knowledge?

[Vektor]

26. I think it happens to at least just as many conservatives.

But considering the oppressive, repressed culture of conservatism, and the taboos associated with things of that nature, it's likely that conservative women might be less likely to speak up about what happened.

I don't think the number of victims is overrepresented here. I think if we knew the real number of how many females have been sexually abused sometime in their lifetime but never spoke up, we'd be shocked.

[Arkansas Granny]

18. I voted before I read any other responses. Since the OP was

talking about date rape I answered about rape only, not sexual assault in general.

[Vektor]

23. I wouldn't say that - the "1 in 3" figure are only the ones that are REPORTED.

1 in 3 is the widely known statistic, and it comes from reported cases of sexual abuse and assault.

Imagine how many victims never speak up.

[Occam Bandage]

27. Oh, you're right. I hadn't even considered that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[Vektor]

28. No prob - it's sad really.

Friends of mine have spoken to me about abuse that they suffered in their younger days, and never told anyone about. They are older now, married, with kids of their own, and it turns out they were molested in their youth and never told a soul about it.

And it's not just the females. Two very close male friends of mine also suffered the same fate. I wonder how many others?

[Mountainman]

10. The term "sexually assaulted" covers a lot of ground. From being fondled to rape it looks like.

It's hard to get a picture of just what all is going on. A child being fondled by an adult is truly an assault I think but is the same true for an adult fondling an adult? I would assume both are an assault but is the degree different?

I don't know. Just asking.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. It is hard to nail down

but my own personal definition is unwanted touching; however, it can also include lude remarks. I'm not talking the occasional "blue" joke here, I'm talking about shit like, "Nice tits" (actually said to me when I was 13 by an adult male). Those comments can be VERY hurtful at any age. Sorry, that probably doesn't answer your question. Maybe someone else can answer this better than I.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. but sexually assaulted covers everythign that could happen to you

if it was your fault for being drunk in the first place

for purposes of this poll i dont think there is any need to distinguish between rape and groping


psychologically penetration and pain caused during rape increases chances of PTSD etc.

[sandnsea]

21. Well we know when we're being assaulted

And we never should be so the degree really doesn't matter.

[hiaasenrocks]

25. Le Taz Hot is big on extreme generalizations

It happened yesterday with mental illness posts, and I sent a message to LTH. No response. (Maybe because I put them on ignore for responses? I don't know.) This person has no idea what they're talking about.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. several times before i was 18 and much before i started drinking.

none after.

[donsu]

17. never been assaulted but then I had a mother who warned me very

early that I was prime abuse property.

I thank her for that.

[Annces]

19. I had friends

when I was young who had severe sexual abuse. When I became more aware about what goes on, as an adult, I realized there was an epidemic of sexual and physical abuse of women, but my parents never talked about it at all. I think alcoholism of parents and women dependent on men (or having no real power of their own) played into a lot of the abuse.

[Le Taz Hot]

20. Well, as unscientific as this poll is,

that fact that 60% of the respondents have been assaulted is pretty telling. Personally, I think it's much closer to the real figure than the 1 in 4 figure as so much of this goes unreported. Thanks all who participated. (Feel free to keep adding to the poll results if you wish.)

[Vektor]

24. Not just date rape - "1 in 3" are only the ones that are actually reported.

I believe that number is not just "date rape" but any kind of sexual assault, whether it's a stranger, a date, or a pervy relative.

Imagine the number of victims who have never told a soul.

Then think about what the actual statistic must be.