I don’t like to call it that, since I feel my experiences pale in comparison to what others have gone through, but yeah. It still affects me years later, though I’ve finally stopped having panic attacks when I see a certain model and color of car.
Maybe your daughter will make it. I hope so.
I was never sexually assaulted as a child and I would bet my siblings ( 2 older sisters and 1 younger brother ) weren’t either—my mama watched us like hawks at any large gathering, family or other-wise and forbade any kind of sleep-over, at all, period, no exceptions. She said you might like your friend and feel safe but you never know about their older brothers, fathers or neighbors. I thought she had an incredibly dirty and suspicious mind, but now I suspect she was molested by a family member.
As an adult woman, I’ve had my biutt grabbed, been knocked to the floor by an over-excited first date and last month was felt up at a club by a woman, such a surprise I didn’t re-act with kicking or slapping, just sat open-mouthed as she tipped a wink at me and walked off.
Wow, I guess I must be one of the sheltered few. Never been molested, raped, or vaguely harassed, and I’ve had enough sexual harassment trainings to recognize it. I’ve heard catcalls in the street, in college a guy kissed me which surprised me and I didn’t kiss back, a guy on an overnight train tried to to get me to stay in his cabin, and I’ve had lots of unwelcome flirting, but that’s all normal run of the mill stuff. Even on a date where I agreed to go back to the apt of the guy then changed my mind about doing anything physical, nothing happened.
From the posts here, it seems I’m a rarity. I thought for sure I was in a vast majority but it seems I’m part of a minority?? Or am I hideously ugly?? 
I guess that means the OP can have hope for her daughter. There are decent people in this world who will back off if you let it be known you aren’t interested. Not saying at all that she shouldn’t be careful in life. On the contrary, you should make sure she gets the best info, and it never hurts to start early. Talk to her, leave little brochures around the house, leave the computer on with the last page you were surfing that happens to be about how to know if you’re being sexually harassed or molested, that sort of thing.
I’ve been catcalled and ogled. That’s all.
No sexual abuse here. Some sexual harassment where I worked, though.
StG
When I was a little boy, about 7 or so, a man tried to kidnap me. I was walking by myself down a road near my home when he pulled up beside me and asked to to come over to the car. I didn’t answer him and he opened his door, put one foot on the ground, and then looked over my shoulder. I looked back to see what he saw and noticed a woman standing outside her backyard about 100 yards away. I looked back at the man who then got back in his car and drove away.
By the way, he was balding, with a beard and sort of thin. If you see him let me know - I have something for him. 
I also remember all the publicity about sexual harassment following the Hill/Thomas incident, but had the opposite experience from wireless. My friends all said that none of them had ever been harassed at work. Not once. Not ever. If you believed all the TV talk shows, everyone was being harassed or molested or raped. I would sit and listen to women you would never think would get any attention from men tell Oprah how they are continually pestered and picked on and given unwelcome attention at every job they have ever worked. And I would look at myself and think, what am I doing wrong? Not that I wanted to be harassed, but I never saw it going on around me and never heard from any of my friends about it happening where they work. Of course, most of my bosses were women or gay men, but I did work for a few married guys, too…nothing. No molestation. No rape. A couple guys in college tried to push things a little farther than I wanted, or assumed things were going a bit farther, but they were all pretty decent when I clarified the situation. I’ve led such a boring life.
I’ve never been sexually harassed or assaulted in any way, thank God.
Have been catcalled but they were making fun of me and not expressing genuine appreciation for my hotness, so that doesn’t count.
Never been ogled either or propositioned, except by DH. Never had a stranger flirt with me, either.
Fortunately, happily, no.
Harrassed at work a little when I was younger, but never raped or molested.
I can’t recall any sexual contact that wasn’t either welcomed or initiated by me.
Never molested as a child or young adult. Overall I’ve been treated reasonably well and with respect in the work place and dating.
There was a period though while I was working in an isolated area in another country among predominately male employees. I had quite a few bad experiences there including an attempted violent rape by two men from which I managed to escape. It’s not something I would normally talk about and the experience really hasn’t scared me in any way but I was pretty ticked off at the time.
My father used to get handsy when he was drunk, and he was drunk a lot. But either I’m repressing, or nothing “more” than that happened. There was an incident when I was 15 when he groped my chest (he was drunk). I avoided physical contact with him as much as possible for years after that.
I’ve been groped by overenthusiastic teenaged boys, and once I had a co-worker stick his hand down my pants-pocket and wiggle his fingers around while “trying to get the manager’s keys in my pocket” (bullshit). The management didn’t do anything about it, but you can be certain I told them.
Also, when I was a teenager working for my parents’ fast-food joint, we had a manager who liked to touch all the girls. Me too, of course, because he was “family” and I contributed to the problem by telling all the new girls that was “just the way he was”. Until the day one girl went home and told her father the manager was touching her ass, and the father came down to the restaurant and pretty much came over the counter at the guy. He cleaned up his behavior after that.
But the worst situation was when I worked as a dog groomer. The bather in the shop was a woman with a high degree of education and a very loud mouth, and she amused herself while she bathed the dogs by pretending to give them hand-jobs, and talked about the size of their penises, and so on, and she’d always try to engage me in the conversation. I didn’t want to, I wasn’t amused. I bought myself a tape player and headphones, and drowned her out. Then I was accused of being anti-social. It felt like sexual harrassment to me, anyway - felt like the woman had nothing to talk about but sex, and dog-related sex at that! - and the shop manager apparently saw nothing wrong with it. I couldn’t complain to her about harrassment because she was there and she didn’t blink. It was a great relief to me when I had to leave for other reasons.
I’d like to say I’ve never been harrassed or whatever, but there have been far, far too many instances otherwise. I have 4 daughters. You can believe I’m going to do all I can to protect them and wise them up. And still the chances are they’ll be among the statistics too. :mad:
I’ve been in situations that creeped me out because of the possibility of rape. I was waiting at a bus station and a guy pulled up behind me and asked me if I wanted a ride. I said no, and he turned around and went the opposite way of the busline. I was 16. I was (almost 18 and) in a museum in Paris and a guy that worked there kept following me around and asking me if I wanted to go out with him, he was an artist, he wanted to take my picture… do I look stupid? Makes me more leary of people in general, but that’s probably a good thing. A babysitter blew on my ear, saying to remember that, cause guys really liked it. I stayed away from her, but I was pretty young, so I don’t remember what became of it. Creepy stuff here and there, but nothing disturbing or scarring, thank god.
I have never had anything happen to me at all.
I worry about my kids too. I was molested by my father. I trust my husband not to hurt our kids but I have no trust for anyone else. It is going to be hard for me to let them go to school or attend sleep overs. Every day is a balancing act between keeping them safe and not letting my fears get in the way of letting them grow up.
Yes, I was groped once on the school bus by an older boy when I was 6 or 7 years old. I never told anyone at the time because I didn’t understand what was going on. This was just before the big blitz of “don’t let people touch your ‘special areas’” education hit the public schools.
I don’t think cat calls count on the same scale. I’m a 43 year old man, and I’ve twice gotten cat calls in the last two weeks from college girls. Let’s face, they’re just about to graduate, mean nothing, and are probably just teasing me anyway. But, Hell, it’s made my month.
I can report that out of my wife, her family, my family, and my coworkers, none have been molested or raped. A couple have been harassed. One was a baliff and the defendants can be pretty nasty (verbally) when the judge is away. She just looked at as a disagreeable part of the job.
When I was about 8, I was at a matinee in a movie theater when a man in his twenties sat next to me. He held my hand, put his coat over our laps, stroked my thigh, and started rubbing our joined hands over his crotch. I had had my first ever sex education class in school that week (big new social experiment in the '60s) and I remember thinking “He’s trying to get me to touch his penis!” at which point I panicked, jumped out of my seat, and ran to the ladies room. I then ran back out to my friend in the theater and told her not to sit next to that man, then returned to the ladies room for the rest of the show. I hope kids today would know to go to the manager for help and tell an adult afterward.
When I was twenty, I was riding my bike when a carful of guys went by and one of them slapped me on the ass. I don’t know how to classify that. It was a hell of a shock, but it didn’t feel sexual.
I’ve had a couple of rather uncomfortable situations happen.
When I was around 10, I slept over at a friends house. Her drunken father tried to unzip my sleeping bag. He didn’t suceed as I rolled over, clutching the zipper in my hands. I remember being terrified.
When I was 15 a ‘boarder’ at my boyfriend’s house gave me ‘something’ for a terrible headache I had. What he gave me, I have no idea, but I ended up being as high as a kite.
He ended up with his hands up my top. Eventually I got the strength to push him off me swearing I’d “kick him in the balls” if he didn’t get off. He did with the threat of “It’ll be the last fucking thing you do.” He was 26 at the time.
Other then that, I’ve never had any other problems with men or women for that matter, whether it’s in a social or work setting.
A guy once indecently exposed himself to me at a bus stop (I was eighteen and a sophomore in college), but I didn’t really see anything as my friend pulled me away before I knew what was going on. Other than that, nothing other than the occasional car-honking and non-particularly-threatening catcalls. I’ve always wondered what purpose the car honking is supposed to serve - are they expecting me to kick off the heels and chase down their car, shouting “Yes! Your car horn is so seductive that I want you to take me now!”
FWIW, I opened this thread to say “Of course nothing like that’s ever happened to me,” so it’s not like I found this experience particularly scarring.