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I read somewhere that about 1/3 of all women were at some point molested, and after seeing the other thread (about the old friend who turned out to be a molester) was curious it those stats ring true. So, if you were, just green thumb this post - no identification necessary.
Yes, roughly 1/3 rings true between views and thumbs. Sad, that. Thanks for taking part.
I will chime in as I have come to peace with what happened to me and I can openly talk about it.
When I was a young teen, 12-14ish, my trainer had a creepy older French boyfriend. A lot of us passed off his "creepiness" on him being foreign and having different customs. To him children were to be seen and not be heard. He was also BAD about nagging us on our weight. So bad in fact, that one of the girls developed an eating disorder.
The summer that I was 13, myself and 3 other girls from our barn (all 13-14ish) spent the summer at their farm in France riding and showing. The man seemed to enjoy walking in on us changing and in the shower. He would also touch us VERY inappropriately, but said he was "correcting our posture". He exposed himself several times to all of us. We were young and afraid to tell our parents, so nobody found out about this until many years later.
I really loved and respected my trainer. I was convinced that she had no idea what went on so we didn't tell over. Over time I realized that there is no way she didn't know. I lost A LOT of respect for her and ended up leaving that barn only a few short years later. To this day, I still have trust issues with men and authority figures (I'm now 24).
If we separate full sexual contact, just touching etc., I think the number would be much, much higher, from inappropriate colleagues, uncles, etc.
I've certainly had to yell at more than one dirty old man. Thing is to teach young girls to be assertive and try to stay safe with common sense.
I have a close family member that was hypnotized and now thinks she was molested. I just can't/won't believe her. She's all about drama and I think she could be led to believe anything. She says things happened that I know without a doubt did not.
It's not just girls.
I think the untold story is boys having been molested by thier female babysitters....
in the boy scouts they have been making an effort to teach - rather have the parents do it - how to recognize what is wrong.
To my knowledge, girl scouts are lacking that so far (but I guess variing mileage for the organizations I guess)
I'm very lucky that my mother was so protective of me. She always went into the dentist's, doctor's, orthodontists's, etc. office with me, even when it was protested and she was told she was overprotective. Years and years after the last time I saw him, my childhood orthodontist was jailed for child molestation.
I think parents need to have the sex talk with kids when they are very young. I know it can be embarassing, but, really, young kids are still learning about the world and they are bound to have questions. My mom had the talk with me when I was 4 or 5, when I started asking questions. She told me all the proper names for everything, the whole process, etc., and I am very grateful for that. It naturally lead to a conversation about appropriate versus inappropriate touching, so I was armed with that information, plus she of course told me to immediately tell her and my dad if anyone tried anything inappropriate with me. We need to empower children and teach them what they should/should not tolerate from adults.