As a genuine question with no means to offend, why do sexual assault victims wait so long to seek charges against their alleged abusers?

Because sometimes, even when the culture has experienced a revolutionary and unprecedented shift to take stories like yours seriously and believe them, when those people come forward, what happens is they face death threats and relentless media scrutiny. Then they’re forced to relive their trauma live on TV while being grilled by literally the most powerful people in the world. Then, when their story is deemed credible (compared to the person they’re accusing, who screams and cries and tells everyone how much he likes drinking beer), they’re told none of that matters, maybe it “felt true to you”, but we’re still going to treat this as an annoyance and minor speed bump to our unstoppable, evil ends.

So you’re like, if that’s what happens when it really matters, what’s going to happen when it’s just me?

(And that’s exactly the point, by the way.)

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread