Shattering the Silence

For a long time I felt different, as if something inside me hadn't been wired correctly. "What's wrong with me?" I must ha...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) Sometimes I have trouble being around other men because we tend to get close after a while. That makes me...

“Some victimized children later initiate sexual abuse,” an article said, “so they can predict when it’s coming.” Those words from a well-kno...

“It was my fault.” That’s one of the most insidious lies of all. Too many of us believed we did something to arouse our perpetrators. Many...

Another argument used to silence women who claim to have been sexually harassed is, “She didn’t fight back.” Yet when people are robbed or m...

Another cruel argument against the women who claim to have been sexually harassed are these five words: her story doesn’t add up. Because...

Here is one of the irrational arguments used about women who are now speaking up after years of silence: “She didn’t come forward immediatel...

One of the charges leveled against the women who claimed to be groped or raped is that they stayed friendly with their abuser. Their critics...

Too often, law enforcers and others assume they need a response of crying to believe the victims. Again, it’s the stereotypical acceptance a...

For their 2017 “Person of the Year,” Time magazine chose “The Silence Breakers”—women who triggered a #MeToo national outcry over sexual ha...

Most of us have been inundated with information about sexual misconduct in Hollywood, New York, and the political realm. As I’ve listened to...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) In January 1995, I received a 2:30 a.m. phone call from my hysterical sister. “Dad shot Mother while she ...

At the end of emails to good friends, I sometimes add these words: "Be kind to [their name] today." Occasionally I'll add, ...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) I talked to a friend who was in and out of same-sex relationships because of his abuse. We discussed that...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) When I was 21, I suffered from some stomach ills and depression. My employer had employee assistance prog...

I first read those words as the title of a book by Claudia Black, and I scoffed. "More psychobabble," I mumbled. But the words sta...

The speaker referred to "strategies for protection from painful memories." He said many of us, unable to face the reality of horri...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) For those of us who have been abused and exposed to some of the sordid sex practices, it’s difficult t...

(This post comes from Roger Mann.) Something I’ve been thinking about for a while now is how my abuse affected me in the area of relationshi...

All of us have harmed others, and we’ll do it again. We probably find it easier to forgive ourselves for those simple, thoughtless deeds. We...