Nobody's victim: an interview with Samantha Geimer

[Samantha Geimer:] It's extremely frustrating. Why do strangers want to project their own dysfunction onto others? When I told my mother I was okay she never questioned it. My family accepted that easily, but that did not absolve Polanski. My mother showed me that I did not have to accept being used that way and it was worth a struggle to prove that, no matter what the cost to our family. So why do others insist I must suffer, and that if I do not display the correct amount of agony and shame, that there must be something wrong with me? I don't have to be injured to prove what Roman did was wrong. His intent was certainly not to injure or frighten me. People don't like facts that don't fit with their preconceptions. When you see how ugly and spiteful some of these people have been to me it shows that they really don't care about my welfare at all. So then what is the point? [...]

[Samantha Geimer:] It was clear to me that Polanski wanted to have sex and he wanted me to participate willingly and to enjoy it. That may not matter to some people, but it certainly mattered to me. I knew what was happening was somehow wrong, but he was not rough or demanding or cruel. I was 13 years old. I said "no." That makes it rape. I do not see the value in exaggerating the experience to prove that. [...]

[Samantha Geimer:] As I've already mentioned, people become angry when they discover they can't use me to suit their purpose. Roman returned to the US, he served his sentence, and he was treated unjustly by a corrupt judge. It's been 40 years. Enough. [...]

[Samantha Geimer:] It's all politics. We are not human beings in the eyes of the court, just a witness and a defendant measured by our value to the careers of others.

source: Interview 'Nobody's Victim: An Interview with Samantha Geimer' by Jamie Palmer; quillette.com/2018/01/31/nobodys-victim-interview-samantha-geimer/; Quillette; 31 January 2018