Sexual Assault Quotes

“She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the thick makeup, they were still dark-rimmed., haunted, and sad. Most of all though, they were familiar. The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all. I'd spent a summer with those same eyes-scared, lost, confused-staring back at me. I would have known them anywhere.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen

“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn't even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them?”
― Sierra D. Waters, Debbie.

“You know all the ways you can kill a girl?

God, there are so many.”
― Courtney Summers, All the Rage

“I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other. Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? At first there is a kind of awkward silence as the men try to figure out if they've been asked a trick question. The silence gives way to a smattering of nervous laughter. Occasionally, a young a guy will raise his hand and say, 'I stay out of prison.' This is typically followed by another moment of laughter, before someone finally raises his hand and soberly states, 'Nothing. I don't think about it.' Then I ask women the same question. What steps do you take on a daily basis to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? Women throughout the audience immediately start raising their hands. As the men sit in stunned silence, the women recount safety precautions they take as part of their daily routine. Here are some of their answers: Hold my keys as a potential weapon. Look in the back seat of the car before getting in. Carry a cell phone. Don't go jogging at night. Lock all the windows when I sleep, even on hot summer nights. Be careful not to drink too much. Don't put my drink down and come back to it; make sure I see it being poured. Own a big dog. Carry Mace or pepper spray. Have an unlisted phone number. Have a man's voice on my answering machine. Park in well-lit areas. Don't use parking garages. Don't get on elevators with only one man, or with a group of men. Vary my route home from work. Watch what I wear. Don't use highway rest areas. Use a home alarm system. Don't wear headphones when jogging. Avoid forests or wooded areas, even in the daytime. Don't take a first-floor apartment. Go out in groups. Own a firearm. Meet men on first dates in public places. Make sure to have a car or cab fare. Don't make eye contact with men on the street. Make assertive eye contact with men on the street.”
― Jackson Katz, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help

“... in practice the standard for what constitutes rape is set not at the level of women's experience of violation but just above the level of coercion acceptable to men.”
― Judith Lewis Herman

“I am a victim, I have no qualms with this word, only with the idea that it is all that I am.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name

“But no matter how much evil I see, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that there is much more light than darkness.”
― Robert Uttaro, To the Survivors: One Man's Journey as a Rape Crisis Counselor with True Stories of Sexual Violence

“[Referring to rape] It already is bigger than everything else. It lives in front of me, behind me, next to me, inside me every single day. My schedule is dictated by it, my habits by it, my music by it.”
― Daisy Whitney, The Mockingbirds

“The silence was killing me.

And that's all there ever was. Silence. It was all I knew. Keep quiet. Pretend nothing had happened, that nothing was wrong. And look how well that was turning out.”
― J. Lynn, Wait for You

“Today I wore a pair of faded old jeans and a plain grey baggy shirt. I hadn't even taken a shower, and I did not put on an ounce of makeup. I grabbed a worn out black oversized jacket to cover myself with even though it is warm outside. I have made conscious decisions lately to look like less of what I felt a male would want to see. I want to disappear.”
― Sierra D. Waters, Debbie.

“In my mind, I built stairways. At the end of the stairways, I imagined rooms. These were high, airy places with big windows and a cool breeze moving through. I imagined one room opening brightly onto another room until I'd built a house, a place with hallways and more staircases. I built many houses, one after another, and those gave rise to a city -- a calm, sparkling city near the ocean, a place like Vancouver. I put myself there, and that's where I lived, in the wide-open sky of my mind. I made friends and read books and went running on a footpath in a jewel-green park along the harbour. I ate pancakes drizzled in syrup and took baths and watched sunlight pour through trees. This wasn't longing, and it wasn't insanity. It was relief. It got me through.”
― Amanda Lindhout, A House in the Sky

“The thing that most people didn't understand, if they weren't in his line if work, was that a rape victim and a victim of a fatal accident were both gone forever. The difference was that the rape victim still had to go through the motions of being alive.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle

“Making someone feel obligated, pressured or forced into doing something of a sexual nature that they don't want to is sexual coercion. This includes persistent attempts at sexual contact when the person has already refused you. Nobody owes you sex, ever; and no means no, always.”
― Miya Yamanouchi , Embrace Your Sexual Self: A Practical Guide for Women

“Hand off my ass or I'll rip off your balls.”
― Katie McGarry, Dare You To

“Standing behind predators makes prey of us all.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Tell me what good touch is and what is bad for I am young and I have no dad. -Jenifer”
― Durgesh Satpathy, Equating the Equations of Insanity: A Journey from Grief to Victory

“I always like to say "be the Swede". Show up for the vulnerable, do your part, help each other and face the darkest parts alongside survivors.”
― Chanel Miller

“I don’t care if men accused of assault have good relationships with their wives or daughters or women they deem valuable. How do you treat women you have no stake in protecting?”
― Tavi Gevinson

“Don't get killed. Don't get robbed. Don't get billed for jobs that were abandoned. Don't let your house burn or your pipes burst or your children curse. Don't let your purse get stolen. Don't get trapped underwater. Don't get food poisoning or the flu. For God's sake get vaccinated. Don't get cancer. Seriously. Do. Not. Get. Cancer. Don't get t-boned by a drunk. Don't get struck by lightning. Don't get allergies. Don't get depressed. Don't get noticed by the IRS. Don't get catfished or gaslit. Don't get ghosted by an ex. Don't get talked into a bigger car. Don't get bit by a rabid dog. Don't get your boo angry. Don't get cheated on. Don't get called out, dragged, tagged in pics you don't remember.

Don't get raped

cause the jack asses and idiots will say that's your fault, too.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout

“So, if there was sex on a first encounter—and most of these weren’t even dates, just parties—you couldn’t convince a jury it was rape, not get to beyond a reasonable doubt.”
― Susan Kraus, Insufficient Evidence

“Moving away from studies, what of real world feedback? In West Germany, rape rates have slightly declined since 1973, when pornography became widely available; meanwhile, other violent crime has increased. In Japan, where pornography depicting violence is widely available, rape is much lower per capita than in the United States, where violence in porn is restricted.”
― Wendy McElroy, XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography

“Being indifferent about sexual abuse is an absolute assault on the truth of who the victim is!”
― Lorraine Nilon, Breaking Free From the Chains of Silence: A respectful exploration into the ramifications of abuse hidden behind closed doors

“Consent & Manhood (The Sonnet)

Better deemed a coward than forward,
For there is too much at stake.
Stand ready to wait till infinity,
Without violating her personal space.
She's not your bonerville,
Until she gives you consent.
Remember, consent is the line,
Between a baboon and a sapiens.
Expose your feeling with your gestures,
Earn her trust without forcing yourself.
Keep your libido down, below your knee,
Till you are asked to strip all restraint.
It is no man that turns a beast at the sight of woman.
Real Man is a father, friend and lover - all in one.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“It can seem perplexing from the outside, this pull that many women experience to make things better for those who have hurt us. The impulse to smooth things over the keep ourselves safe...”
― Sarah Polley, Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory

“Ich fühlte mich zurückgesetzt in die Haut des machtlosen Mädchens im gelben Zimmer.”
― Spencer Hill, Krieg zwischen den Welten – Das zweite Gesicht

“No one tells women that none of it is their fault. That the blame falls squarely on the awful men who do terrible things and the fucked-up society that raises them, molds them, makes excuses for them. People don't want to admit that there are monsters in their midst, so the monsters continue to roam free and the cycle of violence and blame continues.”
― Riley Sager, Survive the Night

“I'm not going to be a part of this war you think is coming. You say I should be a weapon, not a pawn- they seem like the same to me. The only difference is who's wielding it.'

'I want your help, not to manipulate you,' he snapped.

His flare of tempter made me at last lift my head. 'You want my help because it'll piss off Tamlin.'

Shadows danced around his shoulders- as if the wings were trying to take form.

'Fine,' he breathed. 'I dug that grave myself, with all I did Under the Mountain. But I need your help.

Again, I could feel the other unspoken words. Ask me why; push me about it.

And again, I didn't want to. Didn't have the energy to.

Rhys said quietly, 'I was a prisoner to her court for nearly fifty years. I was tortured and beaten and fucked until only telling myself who I was, what I had to protect, kept me from trying to find a way to end it. Please- help me keep that from happening again. To Prythian.'

Some distant part of my heart ached and bled at the words, at what he'd laid bare.

But Tamlin had made exceptions- he'd lightened the guards' presence, allowed me to roam a bit more freely. He was trying. We were trying. I wouldn't jeopardize that.

So I went back to eating.

Rhys didn't say another word.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“Behind every man alive and kicking, there is a woman. Behind every woman abused and killed, there is a man.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Not real. Not real. Not Real. That's what I keep thinking NotRealNotRealNotReal. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Like a mantra. Like a prayer.”
― Amber Smith, The Way I Used to Be