They carried on about how nice he was, how he would never do anything like that.

I went to the University of Toronto hoping to have a wonderful college experience. Unfortunately, that wasn't at all what came to be. I was at a party in my first semester where I was sexually assaulted. I only had sex once in my life prior and completely blamed myself for the situation because I froze. I didn't realize at the time that I was acting on instinct, him being 6'4 and myself under 5'4. Yet immediately after the rumours spread throughout the college, and for a long time, I believed them. I was called a slut for having sex in the washroom by both girls and guys, by people who knew me and people I'd never met. A man started harassing me, encouraging the older students to chant 'slut' at me at parties. The man who sexually assaulted me started harassing me in public, yelling at me. When I went to my friends for support, they demonstrated how cruel girls can be, and sided with him. They carried on about how nice he was, how he would never do anything like that. I lost all my friends, I lost respect from others and for myself. Always described as an outgoing, warm and bubbly person, I spiraled into a deep depression and waking up and continuing with school and life seemed impossible. He was in my program and I was forced to see him in classes, at exams, and in my residence. I moved back home, I transferred to a different campus and have very few positive memories from my university experience. Four years later and after treatment, I have finally overcome what happened. I graduated my program in 4 years and graduated with lots of job offers and am so happy with where I am in life. I refuse to let those people be anything more in my life than they already have. What bothers me now, is that even today so many young women and men do not understand the severity of sexual assault. That highly educated young people can be so ignorant and forgiving. Rapists are criminals and sexual assault is criminal behaviour, however to me, the support of rape culture was almost just as horrible as the assault itself. Thank you very much for your work here.