Search Results for: blog coping with sexual harassment and assault 4

Are Your Teenage Girls Safe at Work?

A California girl just sued Starbucks for sexual harassment on the job. Her claim is that a 24 year old supervisor turned her into his sex toy. She felt like she could not say no and keep her job. Her manager eventually pleaded guilty and spent 4 months in jail. There are similar incidents all around the country. A Taco Bell Manager recently pleaded guilty to raping two 16 year old employees. They don’t always get away with it though. A 16 year old worker at a McDonald’s went to her mother about harassment and the manager was quickly fired. … Continue reading →

When Outing Your Father for Child Rape Breaks Up Your Family

Posted on by

Sadly fathers do rape their own children and sometimes they even rape their infant children. They can even rape several daughters over a period of years. Although this is a crime involving a prison sentence, many perpetrators go undisclosed. There are many reasons for this, the predominant one being fear. Children notoriously keep quite about sexual abuse because, depending on their age at the time of abuse, they may not even be aware that what is happening to them is abuse. Many adult women who were sexually abused by their fathers do go on to report that abuse to the … Continue reading →

Sexual Assault: Denying Your Anger at the Perpetrator

Posted on by

One would expect that when a person has been sexually assaulted, the victim of the crime would be extremely angry at the perpetrator. But the act of sexual assault has such a profound effect on a person that what one might expect should happen, doesn’t necessarily happen that way at all. Take the case of Madi. Madi had been sexually assaulted by her boss of seven years. She didn’t report the incident and continued to work with him. However, within weeks of the assault she developed severe anxiety and panic attacks. It was these out-of-control feelings that drove her into … Continue reading →

Adelaide Piper – Beth Webb Hart

“Adelaide Piper” by Beth Webb Hart began very differently than it ended. We start out with a literary look back at a girl’s childhood, a memoir of her past, her family, and her thoughts and feelings toward them. She is a poet, and we see many of her perceptions of the world around her through the use of her pen. We stay with her for a time as she grows up, and then goes off to college, and then the tone and the focus of the story changes quite a bit. She was date-raped while on campus, something that shocked … Continue reading →

Anger and Sexual Abuse (4)

Posted on by

In Anger and Sexual Abuse (3), we looked at how 35-year-old Jenna had been sexually abused by her stepfather as a child and was now taking out her rage at this injustice on the world at large. She had just lost her job as a lawyer and had come for counseling. Jenna had never told her mother of the abuse as she was too frightened to do so as a child and now as an adult, she didn’t see the point in raking up old wounds. Yet Jenna was in enormous pain. She couldn’t maintain long-term relationships due to her … Continue reading →

Anger and Sexual Abuse (3)

Posted on by

So far in this series on the anger associated with sexual abuse, we have covered the areas of guilt and internalized anger. Today we will examine the phenomena of “anger at the world”, a behavioral trait that is often exhibited by victims of sexual abuse. Jenna had been sexually abused by her stepfather from the ages of 8 to twelve. Her own natural father had died when she was 3, and her mother relied on her stepfather for a decent standard of living. Now 35, Jenna was consumed with rage at anything and everything. She had never told her mother … Continue reading →

Anger and Sexual Abuse (2)

Posted on by

In Anger and Sexual Abuse (1) we looked at the role of guilt and anger in keeping victims of sexual abuse caught in a twilight world of unrelenting personal pain and anguish. Today we will focus more on the anger itself. The anger may have two origins: the anger directed at the self as a result of sexual assault and the anger directed outwards. The anger directed at the self is particularly destructive. Shawna was a very strong person, but she did not view herself that way. Her particular incident of sexual assault involved being held prisoner and she feared … Continue reading →

Anger and Sexual Abuse (1)

Posted on by

In The Guilt of Sexual Abuse we looked at the issue of guilt and how it is such a common phenomena as to be almost expected after an incident of sexual assault. Today we will look at the anger associated with this insidious crime. Anger and guilt are the flip sides of the coin of sexual abuse. They are the daily currency for many victims of sexual crimes. But while guilt often appears soon after the abusive incident, anger can take much longer to come to the surface. Guilt, that is, taking responsibility for the abuse upon yourself rather than … Continue reading →

Danger in Not Turning in at the Same Time?

Yesterday in Pets I wrote about the case of the Wooded Rapist and the dog that helped crack the case. After I posted it, I made sure all the doors were locked, turned off all the lights, and then headed up to bed. Wayne was already in bed, so was my mom. Not unusual. Not out of the norm. It’s how the routine goes most nights. If I’m not staying up to bang out a few more articles at the keyboard, I have homecaring duties to tend to. Every so often it’s not work, but a chance to catch up … Continue reading →

Did the Dog That Helped Catch the Wooded Rapist Catch Someone I Know?

There’s been a big story here in Nashville the past few days. A man suspected of being what police had dubbed “The Wooded Rapist” was arrested earlier this week. News broke about the arrest on Thursday. I was watching with my mom when police held a press conference in which they said they believed they had caught the man thought to be a serial rapist. One who had terrorized certain neighborhoods in Nashville for nearly 14 years. What caught my eye was not that it was a breaking story, but because the picture of the suspect on the screen looked … Continue reading →