By Chloe Brice.
A single tweet in response to Donald Trump’s “sickening” remarks about women that surfaced yesterday has sparked an extraordinary response by women sharing their sexual assault and rape stories online.
Following the release of an off-camera recording of Mr Trump speaking in vulgar terms about trying to have sex with women, US author Kelly Oxford asked women to Tweet their “first assaults”.
“Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren’t just stats,” she posted.
Ms Oxford said she received 1,000 replies in the first hour, and later said 1 million women had described their assaults to her.
Warning: The following contains descriptions of sexual assault that some readers might find disturbing.
Women recounted memories of being abused, groped, fondled and violently attacked by relatives, teachers, friends, boyfriends and strangers.
For many, there was not just one account to share, but numerous examples of sexual assault spanning their lifetimes. Some said their memories were triggered by hearing Mr Trump’s comments.
The video in question, released by The Washington Post, was recorded while Mr Trump was speaking with TV host Billy Bush during the taping of US entertainment show Access Hollywood in 2005.
Off camera, and sitting on a bus, Mr Trump bragged to Bush about trying to aggressively pursue a married woman and the tactics he used to try and have sex with her.
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