A man saved me from drowning, but now I am suing him for rape because he touched me.

20-year old feminist Cassidy Boon speaks of a traumatic experience involving #SaveRape

A week ago I was close to dying from drowning. Here’s what happened…

I was at this lake, having my first swim for the summer and although it was cold in the water it was quite pleasant and I finally got to try on my new super cute bikini. So anyway there’s this ten feet high, floating jumping tower out in the middle of the lake and I swam there to go practice my jumps. So I swatted away some annoying kids who were looking inappropriately at my body, and climbed the ladder up to the top platform, (there were three all in all, at different heights), and jumped.

There was a BANG, an explosion of pain, and then it all went black.

The next thing I knew I was being dragged through the water, by a man, and blood was running down my face and into my mouth. I didn’t have any idea what had happened, my head was spinning and throbbing and I felt like I was going to throw up. The man who was dragging me was like 40 or something and towed me towards the floating platform. I didn’t like this situation at all - at all. I asked him what had happened (in a very slurred tone) and he told me I had hit my head on the way down from the jumping platform, that I had been knocked unconscious and that I had been under water for at least two minutes. He said that he had been lucky to have felt my hand in the depths and that I was nearly at the bottom when he pulled me up. He carried me up the little ladder and laid me down on the wooden boards of the floating platform. People were gathering around us, gasping, screaming, crying. I was astonished, I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe I was alive. I was feeling like shit though, I was woozy, I was in pain, but most of all, most of all, I was disgusted. I was disgusted at this hairy man having felt it appropriate to touch my body like that. To grab me forcefully and pull me in what ever direction HE wanted to go. He took control of my body down there in the cold water, when I was unconscious and unable to look out for myself, he touched my all-but-bikini bare body when I was KNOCKED out and unable to struggle. Him, being a white man, felt he had the right to possess my milky body - to put his rough hands on my innocent flesh and command my body to come with him to the surface. I did NOT give him consent, in fact I was UNABLE to give consent and yet he grabbed me around my waist and gripped my hand and pressed my body against his like we he wanted to engage in aquatic sex. I am now charging or suing or whatever this man for rape - because what he did is literally the definition of rape - he exerted his Patriarchal power over me and did stuff to my body without my consent. Sure, he saved me from drowning, but if we start excusing rape just because our rapists did a nice thing to us, we're really just excusing rape culture. I know a lot of misogynists and anti-feminists are going to be all like “hurr durr, you should thank that man for saving you, you wouldn’t be there without him, he only touched you because he needed to save you from downing” Oh yeah and by that shoddy logic we should excuse serial killers for being nice to hitchhikers and picking them up before killing them. The truth is HE RAPED ME, HE PUT HIS HANDS ON ME WITHOUT MY CONSENT, and regardless of saving my life or not, he needs his due punishment for violating me in that disgusting way. If you don’t see anything wrong with what he did, you’re a rape apologist. Sure it was kind of a nice thing to do to save me and all, but that doesn’t excuse him raping me. The guy, my rapist, who’s name I later learned was Jim, is due before courts soon, charged with rape. When I told him I was pressing charges, he was shocked, then he got angry and then he even began to cry when he thought about what his family would have to go through. Seeing my rapist break down that way was nothing less than empowering and I am glad I am able to put him before the justice system and have him punished for what he put me through. There is no way I am losing this fight. Jim will get at least ten years in prison - my lawyers will make sure of that and maybe this will set an example for other men who think they have the right to touch women without consent. I hope to start a revolution now. I hope to shed some light on a very rare, but very damaging form of rape that doesn’t get enough attention. It’s called “Save rape” and it’s what I was subjected too, deep, deep down in that filthy lakewater and I know - I KNOW - many hundred girls are subjected to the same thing every year from strange men who grab their chance to cop a feel.

I’m starting this hashtag #SaveRape right now to spread awareness about this issue and you all should totally tweet under it. Let’s go people, let’s take down the Patriarchy, one tweet at a time.

UPDATE: Cassidy has made a video about her experience