UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times
Sandy Banks
LOS ANGELES TIMES
sandy.banks@latimes.com
When Jane Piper was raped by a stranger in a Brentwood parking lot, she grabbed the corkscrew he used as a weapon and tried to fight him off. The man beat her so badly her hair was matted with blood. She managed to escape through a car window as the rapist drove off.
Police were called, an ambulance came and Piper was delivered to a hospital where rape counselors, trained to deal gently with victims, tried to comfort her.
Instead, their textbook reassurance grated on her raw nerves.
“They think because you had this horrible thing happen, they have to whisper, tiptoe around it, treat you like a child. Some people take comfort from that,” Piper acknowledged. “I didn’t need it. I felt patronized.
They think because you had this horrible thing happen, they have to whisper, tiptoe around it, treat you like a child. … I didn’t need it. I felt patronized.
– Jane Piper
“The whole mentality back then was ‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell anyone.'”
Back then was 2003, but not much has changed since. Protecting the privacy of rape survivors is still considered a priority — a way to shield vulnerable women from painful scrutiny.
But Piper didn’t want secrecy. And she didn’t need absolution. “They must have said to me 15 times, ‘You have nothing to be ashamed of. You didn’t do anything wrong.’ I wanted to say to them, ‘You don’t have to tell me that.’
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