Scream Queens actress Abigail Breslin has just opened up about being raped, and why she didn’t report the sexual assault to the police.
In an Instagram post yesterday, the 21-year-old shared statistics from U.S. anti-sexual violence organisation, RAINN, which highlighted jarring statistics showing the amount of sexual assaults that happen compared to the amount of perpetrators who walk free.
When Abigail posted the image, someone wrote below, “reported rapes are the only rapes that count.” A comment which struck a personal chord with the actress.
She wrote a reply and shared it to her following of 533k with the caption, ‘Trigger Warning,’ saying, “I did not report my rape. I didn’t report it because of many reasons. First off, I was in complete shock and total denial.”
“I didn’t want to view myself as a ‘victim,’ so I suppressed it and pretended that it never happened. Second of all, I was in a relationship with my rapist and feared not being believed. I also feared that if my case didn’t lead anywhere, he would still find out and would hurt me even more,” she wrote.
“Thirdly, I knew how hurt my friends and family would be after finding out, and I didn’t want to put them through that.”
The actress also revealed in the post that she has since been diagnosed with PTSD, which is common for people who have been sexually assaulted.
“I have made a lot of progress since the event occurred, but I won’t pretend it isn’t something I struggle with. I still have flashbacks, I still get nightmares, I still jump when somebody touches me unexpectedly, even if it’s my best friend tapping me on the shoulder.”
“To say that reported rapes are the only rapes that count contributes to the ideology that survivors of unreported rape don’t matter. It’s unfair, untrue, and unhelpful. It’s like if you got a black eye from getting punched in the face, but because you didn’t call the police, you didn’t really get a black eye. Unreported rapes count. Reported rapes count. End of story.”
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