Part 1 -- Background
It's a sad case really and I doubt she will ever be truly able to stand up for herself. She was referred to me because her friend thought she could benefit from one of my Assertiveness Training Workshops. That's putting it mildly. I don't think I have ever met anyone as meek and obedient as Julia. She has been through the workshops twice and is still as unassertive as the day she first walked in.
Julia was raised in an extremely strict and devout religious household. Her father was so strict, many people would describe his disciplinarian role as abusive. He is ex-military and is one of those no-nonsense, no backtalk kinds of guys. Julia was never even allowed to give him a defiant look without a hard slap across the face. She swore he never abused her sexually, but he certainly withheld affection and was quick with his hands. She was often spanked as a young child, and was backhanded at least once or twice a day for one minor grievance or another until she finally left home for college.
Julia's mom is also a strict but was always subservient to her husband, and demanded that Julia be so, too. Rather than stick up for Julia or encourage independence, she always urged Julia to go along with whatever her father wanted her to do. By word and example, she taught Julia to obey immediately, and never hesitate, let alone argue with him.
Both parents had an almost cult-like devotion to their church. They attended services, Bible study meetings, and prayer-focused social activities several times a week, and of course, Julia always had to go. At every meal, even in restaurants, the family read passages from the Bile and bowed their heads and prayed aloud before eating. Once, Julia was slapped hard by her father because she picked up her fork too soon after the last "Amen" of grace.
Julia was a well-behaved student, as a result. She was never a behavior problem to her teachers and youth leaders because she feared the vicious wrath of her father if she didn't get straight A's or got a bad conduct report from anyone in authority. She studied and did homework several hours a day because her father didn't allow her or her mother to watch television (only he could do that). He made her read the library books he picked out for her and quizzed her on arcane topics like Philosophy, Biblical History, and the Classics. Her mother filled the rest of her non-school time with plenty of household chores, which Julia always dutifully performed without a squawk.
In High School, she was not allowed to date until she was 17. Her father terrorized any boy who came near her and threatened her with murder if he ever found out Julia didn't keep her virginity until marriage. The one boy who took her to the Senior Prom was so intimidated by Julia's father, the kid was too frightened to walk her to her front door at the end of the night. He dropped her at the curb and sped off.
So, when Julia got to college, she had a tough time adjusting to the lack of parental structure. Still, she was in the habit of studying hard and had no interest in television or non-G-Rated movies. She took phone calls several times a week from her parents who grilled her about her assignments, term papers, and exam preparations. Naturally, she got straight A's. Julia didn't like her dormmate very much. She had a lot of lovers, and she thought Julia was a prude and had a stick up her ass. In a way, she was right. Julia didn't know how to have fun or how to say no to anybody.
Part 2 -- Taken Advantage of
With her father not around, the young men on campus began to notice her. After all, she was quite pretty and had a nice willowy figure. Throughout high school she had played sports and her father had made sure she ate lightly and had exercised like a soldier at boot camp. Some guys flirted with her but she didn't know how to respond. The nice guys freaked her out the most because she had no idea how to deal with a male who didn't boss her around and treat her like a child. The nicer they were to her, the more confounded she got and the farther away she ran.
Then she met Brad, a rich conceited jerk and the handsome son of a well-known politician. She was attracted to him immediately, probably because he resembled her father both in appearance and demeanor. He was cool, aloof, and arrogant and was used to getting his way on everything. Whatever he couldn't manipulate, he bought. If he couldn't get a girl to put out for him -- and he seldom had difficulty in that department -- he'd hire a prostitute (or two) to take care of his needs. Brad was popular and a member of one of the college's most elite fraternities. His grades were average, but he thought nothing of paying brighter students to write his papers or take his exams for him.
Initially, that's what got him interested in Julia. He told her later that he never thought she was pretty. He said she "wasn't ugly, just rather plain." Brad had a lovely buxom blond bimbo girlfriend at the time, so he only saw Julia as someone he could use to get better grades. Everyone who ever took a class with Julia knew she was a diligent student who always scored well on exams and papers, so one day, Brad asked her to "draft" his term paper for him, and he was pleased when she nonchalantly said okay. He had hoped she'd do an outline and perhaps some of the library research, and was surprised when she gave him a finished, high-quality paper two days later. For the rest of the semester, she did everything Brad asked of her. She did it quickly and efficiently and without so much as an impatient look.
Brad asked her to edit his personal statement for his grad school applications and she wrote it so well Brad's father made him re-do it, because he knew there was no way Brad had actually written it himself. So, Brad got Julia to "mess it up a bit" for him.
Brad and Julia had no classes together for the spring semester but he found her at her usual table in the Library and told her he needed some tutoring for his Calculus test. He "asked" (more like TOLD) her to come by his frat house and tutor him. She didn't want to go because her father had told her to stay away from fraternity houses, plus she had plenty of her own work to do. But Brad was insistent, so she said okay. He was certainly handsome but she didn't like him very much and she definitely didn't want to displease him or get him upset with her.
That night, she showed up and tutored him in his room. At some point during the evening, Brad apparently noticed she was a girl - that she actually had tits. Most people considered Julia a rather attractive young woman in a girl-next-door kind of way. Julia wasn't Brad's usual "type," but Brad had recently dumped his latest bimbo girlfriend and his hormones were overdue for release. Julia was there and looked good enough to meet his immediate needs, sexually as well as educationally.
Brad instinctively knew Julia would do whatever he told her. He was used to that, growing up in a plush 6- bedroom house with maids, a cook, groundskeepers and parents who spoiled him rotten. He decided to test her and told her to take off her sweater. She began to protest that the room was cold, but one look from Brad's stern face shut her up and she promptly pulled the sweater over her head. The cool air of the room made her nipples poke through the thin bra and T-shirt she had underneath. She looked down and turned red when she saw her hard nipples. She crossed her arms to hide them, but Brad told her to drop her arms and let him see because she looked nice. She obeyed. That's when Brad knew he had a no-effort score -- kind of like after he handed a whore a $50 bill. Julia was his to use.
He lay down on his bed as Julia tried to resume her drill of Brad's test material from the safety of his desk chair. When she saw him leering at her, she squirmed uncomfortably and thought about making an excuse to leave. But when Brad patted the mattress in front of him and said "c'mere," she reluctantly but immediately went over and sat on the bed next to him.
"Come closer, I want to kiss you," he told her.
"No, I can't. I have to go," she said meekly.
Brad snapped back with a stern retort. "Do what I tell you."
