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Pressley says she was raped in college

By adamg on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 8:44pm

At-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who attended Boston University in the early 1990s, released a statement today, in advance of a hearing on sexual violence she is holding with follow first-term Councilor Felix Arroyo:

I am a survivor of sexual assault while in college. Mine is a truth shared by 17 million women, and like 90% of other rape survivors, I knew my attacker. Although I have been frank about surviving childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual assault throughout my campaign and first term in office, I want to make it clear that speaking about these episodes is never easy. But living with the mental and emotional scars is even harder. Like all survivors, I have been forced to deal with the feelings of shame, the below-the-surface emotional trauma and the memory of the social isolation in the aftermath of my sexual assault. However, I feel it is my responsibility to speak up about this issue and give voice to the millions who suffer in silence.

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Comments

By Taylor Dobbs on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:03pm.

Good for her for going public with that. I'm sure it wasn't easy, but a woman in a position of power coming forward with that could give other women the inspiration to deal with anything similar they might have been through.

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By Brett on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:27pm.

I feel it is my responsibility to speak up about this issue and give voice to the millions who suffer in silence.

It was also her responsibility to report it to authorities. Did she?

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By eeka on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:30pm.

There are a lot of reasons why a survivor of sexual assault, particularly a female one, might not report it. If you really can't figure this out and would rather blame the victim, then go fuck yourself.

(And no offense against males intended whatsoever. Totally not the point, and my guy friends reading this know I don't mean them.)

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By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 10:14am.

Rape is pretty seriously underreported when it happens to guys, too. Insensitive law enforcement and cultural tropes heap humiliation on male victims of rape, leading to nonreports.

Not that it doesn't happen to women, too, but the factors in play are slightly different.

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By datadyne007 on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:38pm.

As eeka said, there are a multitude of reasons women don't report sexual assault. The root of the entire situation is that the victims often blame themselves after the event and can't seem to find reason to report it because "they could have and should have handled it."

Just watch almost any Law & Order:SVU episode.

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 12:04am.

When I want to know the truth, I go to a television series.

Good God.

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By Shira on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 7:09am.

In this case, the information the previous commenter learned from TV is actually correct. But if you want to do your own research, you have Google! And I'll start you off with http://www.barcc.org.

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By datadyne007 on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 10:03am.

I didn't learn it from TV, I actually learned it from my partner who was sexually assaulted a few years back. SVU hits all the scenarios exactly on the nose. The psychology and research that goes into that show is simply brilliant and voice for all victims of sexual assault.

I was just giving a tangible reference.

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By laura k on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 5:34pm.

I am a rape survivor and have done a lot of public speaking and volunteer counseling work. A producer of Law & Order SVU and two of the lead actors attended a training course for which I did regular speaking engagements.

This was not a one-shot workshop, it was an intensive 12-week program given to medical school students, emergency room staff, police and others who deal with victims of sexual assault. The program wasn't the full extent of the research for the show, but it was part of it.

I can tell you that what's depicted on that show is very realistic.

No one should ever question why rape survivors do or don't report crimes to the police. It's very complicated, and until we live in a perfect world where every survivor is believed and treated with dignity, we will not have 100% reporting. In other words, never.

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By datadyne007 on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 9:33pm.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience with us. It is appreciated.

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By pierce on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:47pm.

how did you send that email from 1950?

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By anon on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:56pm.

I believe her, unlike Mitt Romney who lied about his assault.

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 1:18am.

So is something going to come from this, or is this just her personal Oprah moment?

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By Shira on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 7:07am.

As the article says, she and Councilor Arroyo are holding hearings about sexual violence in colleges and universities. And she's the first walker at the BARCC Walk for Change (http://www.barcc.org/join/events/walk). So, pretty clearly there's a lot coming from this.

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 1:44am.

But at least we know that the Councilor would entertain an offer to host a talk show if not re-elected. An unnecessary replay of previously released information. Nobody doubts the lady's ability to empathize. Close race?

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 8:04am.

And get her to accuse Ms. Pressley of bringing up the incident as a campaign stunt-- like she did with Scott Brown:

www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/scott_brown_campaign_confidential/

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By JohnAKeith on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 11:10pm.

The link to the Eileen McNamara's column is:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/scott_brown...

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By Kathode on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 10:04am.

but she doesn't seem to want to answer any questions about her particular situation, what happened and if she reported it or not. You just can't bring something like this up in the public arena and then not answer questions or expect people won't want to know more. I'm sure she did it to help others, but it's pretty awkward.

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 2:52pm.

She can, actually.

Just because you might want to know more, doesn't mean you have the right to. If she doesn't want to answer questions about it -- seriously, you want her to give you the details of how she was raped? -- she doesn't have to.

Nothing awkward about it. Only awkward thing is people like you thinking you have some right to know more.

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By anon on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 2:58pm.

this morning. I'd had no idea she experienced this. I thank her for talking about it publicly because so many women suffer in silence.

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By anon9mous on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 3:38pm.

will dismiss this as a campaign/publicity stunt, just as they did Scott Brown... yes?

The silence from the turds is deafening- more LeftyLib hypocrisy on display.

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