Women Only: Safety on the road - sexual assault

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As the big bad abused woman on this forum, I just want to make it clear that I in no way disrespected any men in my posts. My experiences are just that, my experiences. To be afraid to be alone with me is the biggest insult you could give me, and I've been through some shit! I am actually one of the kindest, most polite, open minded humans you'll ever meet. It's completely your loss :)
 
Ya know, when the men posted a thread on their prostates on the Mens' forum, I didn't see any women complaining. Why not? Because we can't really relate! We will NEVER have a prostate or the symptoms they cause. So that's how I see this thread. Unless you're a man that's been sexually assaulted, you'll never truly "know" either. I can pretend or imagine to have a poorly working prostate all day long, but in the end...

I DON'T 't think Cammalu started this thread with the intention to male-bash. I for one don't hate men or hold any of the men here responsible for raping me. I think most of you men reading this are great. Many are even awesome, from what I can tell. For any of the men here to avoid the women here simply because they told you they were raped, is punishing the "victim" (and I use that word loosely.) We are survivors. Don't punish us and make us suffer again for something we had no control over, please.

I just want to add something because it seems there is a misunderstanding about who the perpetrators of sexual assault are. Some on the other thread think most women knew the perps. As a 15 year old girl I fell asleep on the sofa. I woke up to a knife to my throat at 3 AM. I didn't know the person. After about an hour, I was able to talk my way out of being raped, thank God. I still suffered from ptsd and fear of sleeping. In other words, it affected my young psyche. BTW, he was a serial rapist that usually did it to elderly women.

When I was an adult, I was drugged without my knowledge or consent and gang raped by a group of serial rapists. I didn't know any of them.
 
XFile36, quote "protecting your son from men, there are female sex abusers too..." I am aware of this thank you and I shouldn't have just stated men; my apologies.

I think I need to clarify that what I mean by protecting my son is that A) I won't let my son go off alone with someone; B) awareness of someone showing too much interest in my son. He depends on me to keep him safe. He depends on me to teach him how to trust his intuition/gut feelings.

I can only do my best and hope it is enough. Cheers.
 
No, not all men are controllers, but I sure seem to attract the ones that are!
 
Sorry Trainchaser. Seems like we can repeat the same mistakes over and over doesn't it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is an important thread. I read that 1 of every 3 women in the US is raped. That could be a higher number since many cases go unreported.

I want to thank those of you who had the courage to share your stories. I have a lot of close lady friends who never discuss this subject, which is a mystery to me.

I spent years on the road. First as a hitch hiker coast to coast, often solo and with little money. Later as a young mother showing her son the beauty of this country.

Traveled for several decades later in life, as a self employed biz owner with high $$$ inventory. Made sure to be off the road before dark.

Since I was a kid I've always paid attention to what was around me. I'm intuitive, and while I enjoyed my travels, I'm also vigilant. 

I've been preparing for van travel the last few years. While in the prep stage I watched many videos re female safety on the road. Whenever someone glossed over the subject and said it's really safe for women out there I did not agree.

I do think women can be safe and have an excellent time. But I don't think boon docking alone or staying in remote campsites alone is always safe. Many women in the videos say they leave if anything feels wrong. Following that gut instinct is really important.

Safety methods have already been listed here. In the back of my mind I'm thinking about why my 3 dozen long term lady friends have never discussed the sexual assault issue.

Thanks, OP, for posting this thread.
 
A poster from the other thread in reaction to this thread had an extremely important and cogent point. I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him. Moderator please delete this post if he doesn't.

"I spent a decade as a LEO and that included answering many calls relating to assaults, reports of rape...which was almost without exception dates, husbands or live in boyfriends or exes of both. Seldom could I convince the women to go for a rape kit and file charges. When the domestic violence laws came to be at least I didn't need a complaint from a woman that just had the crap beaten out of them by a bad dude boyfriend that was still at the scene to arrest and file them myself.

But yeah, even though I am one of the good guys reading some of the posts gives me an empty feeling. I do understand that the words come from previously abused/sexually assaulted women".


" Yeah, it was my boyfriend, it was my father." "And I was hit by my husband and a casual date. He said it is my fault, because if I had done "x", he wouldn't have had to get me 'in line'". But I didn't press charges because, if I called the police, he would beat me again". Or, he swore up and down that he would never, ever, ever hit me again. "Or he threatened to take my children away". Or "he controlled the money and how was I supposed to take care of myself and the children?" Or, "he had a knife to my throat and he said he would wait until he could get away with it, then he'd be after me, and/or the kids"...or, he had charm and charisma and he convinced my family that I was crazy and that he was such a nice guy-who's going to help me if my family won't? Or he told me that "no wife of mine is going to work outside the home", so I have no skills. Or he has kicked the dog or threw the cat against the wall and said he will torture/kill them if I leave. Or he would spend $50,000 a year to drag my ass through the courts if I did him wrong. My family says it is my duty to be patient, to let him fell like he's in control, that he wouldn't have to hot me if I didn't make him angry. Or he would say if I call the cops, he'll say that I hit him first and have me arrested. Then noone will will believe me and I'll have a record of domestic violence. Or he's in the military, and if report him, he'll be discharged and will not have to pay any child support. Or, he's a cop and will lose his job if you report him. Or he'll have his friend to tell the court that I came on to him and slept with him and want to claim my husband abused me so he would look bad. Or, if she said anything, she would be deported, or deported and the children would stay with him. Or her religion was that the husband is the head of the household in Jesus's name. Or he was from a culture that supported honor killings and she would be murdered or punished in some way if she was deported. I saw a woman covered with cigarette burns, while the husband was laughing and joking while she's swearing up and down that it wasn't him. Or the intelligent, educated woman I worked with, she was hideously scarred on her face and neck. Her husband, upon her leaving him, threw swimming pool acid on her, saying that if he couldn't have her, he would make sure that no one else ever would want her.

If some of things didn't happen to me, I've heard and seen them all from other women in one way shape or form. In my professional life, I dealt with a lot of women and I could see their fear, they were afraid to say anything. Because the husband or boyfriend wouldn't leave her side, not because he "loves me so much", but because that way he could insure that she wouldn't tell me about any abuse.

And you wonder why they don't press charges. But it is the woman's fault that she stays in an abusive relationship, that way we can walk away.
 
Since we're on the subject of sexual assault and safety on the road, here is a real-life experience of a young woman (and her male traveling companion and doberman dog) on youtube: She ran into a CREEP on the road while camping. Life is not all lollipops and sunshine. P.S. This is why I don't want a trailer.

It's been said elsewhere to listen to your gut instinct, park facing outward, keep keys ready, be armed, buy old men's large boots and leave them outside next to yours, etc. I think, when you can, travel in groups for safety.
 
I wrote this and thought about not posting, but changed my mind:

But some of the men here are so defensive when all we're trying to say is that the ubiquitousness of sexual predation, big and small, affects our worldview. And they don't get that the 360° presence, in our society, of the possibility of attack of some kind, however small, influences our day to day actions and thoughts. And, that we're not necessarily being thin-skinned, but very wary, because sometimes a very bad experience starts with tentative feelers with ostensibly "harmless" conversation.

And to the men that don't want to be in womens' presence, because they are afraid of false accusations? That's crazy. Women are generally happy to be around a guy, who even though he might be a little sexist or patronizing, is not a threat. That, oftentimes, is appealingly quaint. But trust me, after a few bad experiences, we can usually feel it when he's a creep. The great majority of men aren't , and we're good with that. And, with good men, we feel safe. Just reading these forums, for example, if I were to meet some of them here, I would trust them with my life. Others, I would carefully back away from. Women can develop a "good guy radar", and we love you guys for it. And the opposite is true.

But, some of us don't want to be alone with any strange man, because there are variations of a Ted Bundy everywhere. Ask any guy about when he enters an elevator with a lone woman inside, how often has the women stepped out, as if she had reached her floor? Or, if an elevator has only one man can inside, if a woman is waiting for it, all of a sudden, she turns around and acts like she forgot something. She'll wait for an elevator without a lone man. The fact that our mothers all had warnings on safety regarding such male/female interactions (and there are many such warnings), is based on real life. And the shame is that men don't have to worry like we do, their mothers don't give them warning after warning. Parents worry about their daughters getting kidnapped, or mutilated, raped or abused. All because she's a female. Parents with sons worry about their boys getting into trouble, being idiots, getting into car wrecks because of teenage male driving, or motorcycle accidents. Now all of these are generalizations, but you get my drift.

The point of the thread is to explain why a woman will fear being alone anywhere. Because regardless of the chances of harm, we've learned that we can never let our guard down. Because if we do, and something happens, that it's our fault.

And that's just effing crazy.
 
I have been in an abusive relationship before and all I can say is that such situations can get really complicated. In my case, I didn't leave. I was left but because my boyfriend felt out of control and felt he couldn't help it and that I triggered him. He told me that he didn't want to be "that guy" and it honestly took me years to see it from his point of view. I thank him now.
 
Agreed. Many men don't understand what it's like unless they have daughters. When I talk about selling my stuff so I can leave, I have to educate SOME men that I just can't put it on Craigslist and have strangers come to my home. We have to do things differently. (At least we who are safety-conscious.) We do have to self-protect almost all the time. Men aren't vulnerable like women, and yes that was a generalization only.
 
"In the back of my mind I'm thinking about why my 3 dozen long term lady friends have never discussed the sexual assault issue."

TRAINING.

First, comes the blame. If you've been assaulted, somehow, it's your fault. Even if you never saw the guy who hit you with a pipe from behind. It's often not overt, but hidden. But your subconscious picks it up... from your parents, from your friends, from your doctor, from the cops. The blame is applied to a six-year-old because she was proudly showing everyone her pretty new pink dress. The blame is applied to a 12-year-old wearing old sweats. The blame is applied to old ladies who have trouble getting around w/o a cane.

Part Two is the Shaming. Maybe all of your friends did talk to other people about it... a few times. And then they stopped. And maybe if they don't talk about it, they can forget it forever.

Part Three is probably from being raised as a victim. You do as you're told by mommy, or you'll get hit. You do as you're told by daddy or you'll get smacked. You do as you're told by weird Uncle Al, or he'll do it again. Some women grow up not knowing anything else. So they take up with a man who is familiar: he beats and rapes and threatens her. What's new? Nothing. And after him, it's another one who is just the same. And the next... It's who they are.

Years ago, a friend said that 'bad people' (both sexes) should be branded on their foreheads: 'rapist', 'killer', 'thief', 'child molester', so it would be easier to identify them when you first meet them.
 
This place is just a (slightly skewed) microcosm of the rest of the world, women speak amongst themselves about an important issue, men choose to listen in and are promptly offended or upset. They don't start threads saying "hey guys, what can we do to help with this, how can we get the word out that this isn't okay". Nope, we get them saying how bad it makes THEM feel. Know what? I don't care how it makes them feel, I wasn't talking to them in the first place, like many other topics I've learned they are best not shared with men, I get tired of having to explain or worse yet, having them explain my experience to me.

On the road I give men a very wide berth, I don't know their intentions and don't trust them, so I keep to myself. My choice.
 
Queen, quote "...or worse yet, having them explain my experience to me..." end quote.

This is the best description of man-splaining I've ever seen. Cheers.
 
TrainChaser said:
"In the back of my mind I'm thinking about why my 3 dozen long term lady friends have never discussed the sexual assault issue."

TRAINING.

First, comes the blame. If you've been assaulted, somehow, it's your fault.  Even if you never saw the guy who hit you with a pipe from behind.  It's often not overt, but hidden.  But your subconscious picks it up... from your parents, from your friends, from your doctor, from the cops.  The blame is applied to a six-year-old because she was proudly showing everyone her pretty new pink dress.  The blame is applied to a 12-year-old wearing old sweats.  The blame is applied to old ladies who have trouble getting around w/o a cane.

Part Two is the Shaming.  Maybe all of your friends did talk to other people about it... a few times.  And then they stopped.  And maybe if they don't talk about it, they can forget it forever.

Exactly. I understand the issue pretty well. Blame & shame. And also, many women tend to bury horrible experiences so deep that the memories barely surface. But that doesn't mean the experience isn't creating an influence every single day.

If something triggers the memory of a really bad, possibly life threatening experience, then the inevitable PTSD with flashbacks can occur for years.

Even if women see a therapist for a decade they may chose not to reveal what occurred. It's just too dark to discuss with anyone.

When I read the 1 out of 3 stats, I considered my approx 36 closest female friends and thought, wow, that means up to 12 of those women may have been assaulted. 

For some, the circumstances are too gruesome to share. And yes, not talking may make it easier to forget.
 
Further to Kathleen's post, if you've been violated, it changes who you are. If it happened throughout your childhood, that once sweet little girl who only ever wanted to please is changed for ever more. Your very core essence changes. It matters not about the counseling, it can never return you to who you once were before. The world will always be looked at through the marred lens of of a girl who was violated. The most any of us can hope for is that we are actually seen. We are seen as the strong survivors we are. We survived the violations. We survived any addictions that were a result of the violations. We are strong. We are still here. We are whole.
 
Another thing I would recommend is having night vision cameras installed to monitor the outside of your rig. You can see what's around you in the night and record everything (such as another Vehicle's License Plate Number.)
 
My old man never said a word to my brothers about sexual assault. Grandpa didn't say anything either. I think they just assume they raised the boys right. Part of the problem is in good men, fathers and grandfathers, not talking to their sons about sexual assault.
 
^ Before I get called out on generalities, not all fathers and grandfathers fail to teach their sons how to behave.

I will also add here that mothers should be teaching their daughters how to fight dirty... knee to the balls, fingernails to the eyes, etc. If they can't do it they need to find someone who can.
And maybe even more important... remind them while stranger danger is real, the most danger may come from relatives.
 
bigsallysmom - quote "...teaching their daughters how to fight dirty... knee to the balls, fingernails to the eyes, etc. If they can't do it they need to find someone who can.
And maybe even more important... remind them while stranger danger is real, the most danger may come from relatives." end quote

I agree totally! I told my girls and oldest son that pushing on someone's eyeballs will get them to let go very quickly. Throwing something, anything (purse, jacket, etc) at someone who is trying to hurt you gives you valuable seconds. As for stranger danger - I teach tricky people. A tricky person is someone who asks kids for help and not other adults. Do not trust tricky people.

I thought in my 50's I'd be done with teaching since my kids were adults. Lo and behold, I started again and my youngest is only 5. The responsibility of getting him to adulthood unscathed and safe is on my mind constantly. It is draining being hyper-vigilant.
 
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