The Time I Was Almost Raped And Why This Is Important To Share

This is a vulnerable post, because of the shame I (and many women, and some men) feel in somehow ending up, repeatedly, in situations like this. It is important we start sharing about these almost-rape experiences, to overcome shame and begin to shift societies and cultures around the world.

I imagine every man who has been in an even somewhat romantic context with me is clutching their pearls right now. Cool it. Because I am trained to protect men from the consequences of their own behaviors, I won’t reveal your name publicly, and I will not share any identifying information about who this is. But, if you are the man I am writing about, you will certainly know it.

I have had so many grey-area experiences with men in my dating life. In these grey-area, almost-rape experiences, I have not given full consent and then ended up engaging in a sexual experience I didn’t really want. Or, I have narrowly avoided what felt like a creepy, scary interaction, where someone was invading my boundaries, and it was quickly escalating to where force could have easily been used. So, almost-rape experiences could be those that are grey area encounters that actually ended in a sexual process, or they could be experiences where someone successfully evades and escapes the experience through physically leaving or possibly distracting the potential perpetrator.

I think many people would dismiss my label of almost-rape and simply say that these men were oafish, meant no harm…