I still haven't told anyone except my husband about what happened.

I moved with my family to a small town when I was beginning Grade 10. The boys in the town took interest in me. I was "new." The girls in the town didn't like it. During my first week of school, my family woke up to find the word "slut" had been written in soap all over our car. My Dad washed it off. At a party that fall, a boy pushed me to the ground, put his hands on my breasts, and stuck his tongue down my throat. I pushed him off. He said, "What's the matter, I thought you wanted it." For the next year he spread rumours about me being a "slut." People believed him. High school was hard. People laughed at me no matter what I did. I took comfort in my studies and received straight A's. I made friends outside of school. After I finally moved away, it was a breath of fresh air to realize that the rumours didn't follow me. I was free. It has been 20 years but being labelled the high school slut has haunted me to this day. I still haven't told anyone except my husband about what happened. If my parents knew, they didn't say anything. No one said anything. There was a tacit understanding in that community. Girls get labelled sluts, and their reputations are destroyed. That is how it is. That is how it was. That is how power is maintained in that town.