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 My modeling headshot as a 19-year-old aspiring actress in 1987, a couple of years after I met Bill Cosby. (Nicholas deScoise) 
 
 Barbara Bowman is an artist in Scottsdale, Ariz. 
 
 In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify. Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suit for an undisclosed amount of money. 
 
 Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously. So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times. In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal. The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event. I was staying in a separate bedroom of Cosby’s hotel suite, but he pinned me down in his own bed while I screamed for help. I’ll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off. I furiously tried to wrestle from his grasp until he eventually gave up, angrily called me “a baby” and sent me home to Denver. 
 
 (UPDATE: On Dec. 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with sexual assault for a crime he allegedly committed in 2004.) 
 
 Back then, the incident was so horrifying that I had trouble admitting it to myself, let alone to others. But I first told my agent, who did nothing. (Cosby sometimes came to her office to interview people for “The Cosby Show” and other acting jobs.) A girlfriend took me to a lawyer, but he accused me of making the story up. Their dismissive responses crushed any hope I had of getting help; I was convinced no one would listen to me. That feeling of futility is what ultimately kept me from going to the police. I told friends what had happened, and although they sympathized with me, they were just as helpless to do anything about it. I was a teenager from Denver acting in McDonald’s commercials. He was Bill Cosby: consummate American dad Cliff Huxtable and the Jell-O spokesman. Eventually, I had to move on with my life and my career. 
 
 I didn’t stay entirely quiet, though: I’ve been telling my story publicly for nearly 10 years. When Constand brought her lawsuit, I found renewed confidence. I was determined to not be silent any more. In 2006, I was interviewed by Robert Huber for Philadelphia Magazine, and Alycia Lane for KYW-TV news in Philadelphia. A reporter wrote about my experience in the December 2006 issue of People Magazine. And last February, Katie Baker interviewed me for Newsweek. Bloggers and columnists wrote about that story for several months after it was published. Still, my complaint didn’t seem to take hold. 
 
 Only after a man, Hannibal Buress, called Bill Cosby a rapist in a comedy act last month did the public outcry begin in earnest. The original video of Buress’s performance went viral. This week, Twitter turned against him, too, with a meme that emblazoned rape scenarios across pictures of his face. 
 
 Bill Cosby asks the Internet to "meme" him, Twitter responds with rape allegations http://t.co/j3evWYUlzj #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/EO80Oi93hC — New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 11, 2014 
 
 While I am grateful for the new attention to Cosby’s crimes, I must ask my own questions: Why wasn’t I believed? Why didn’t I get the same reaction of shock and revulsion when I originally reported it? Why was I, a victim of sexual assault, further wronged by victim blaming when I came forward? The women victimized by Bill Cosby have been talking about his crimes for more than a decade. Why didn’t our stories go viral? 
 
 Unfortunately, our experience isn’t unique. The entertainment world is rife with famous men who use their power to victimize and then silence young women who look up to them. Even when their victims speak out, the industry and the public turn blind eyes; these men’s celebrity, careers, and public adulation continue to thrive. Even now, Cosby has a new comedy special coming out on Netflix and NBC is set to give him a new sitcom. 
 
 Fixing this problem demands more than public shaming. For Cosby to commit these assaults against multiple victims over several years, there had to be a network of willfully blind wallflowers at best, or people willing to aid him in committing these sexual crimes at worst. As I told the Daily Mail, when I was a teenager, his assistants transported me to hotels and events to meet him. When I blacked out at Cosby’s home, there were several staffers with us. My agent, who introduced me to Cosby, had me take a pregnancy test when I returned from my last trip with him. Talent agents, hotel staff, personal assistants and others who knowingly made arrangements for Cosby’s criminal acts or overlooked them should be held equally accountable. 
 
 I have never received any money from Bill Cosby and have not asked for it. I have nothing to gain by continuing to speak out. He can no longer be charged for his crimes against me because the statute of limitations is long past. That is also wrong. There should be no time limits on reporting these crimes, and one of my goals is to call for legislation to that end. Famous and wealthy perpetrators use their power to shame and silence their victims. It often takes years for young women to overcome those feeling and gain the confidence to come forward (by which point physical evidence is long gone). Our legal system shouldn’t silence them a second time. 
 
 Last week, I became a volunteer ambassador for PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment), a national victim advocacy group that seeks to shatter the silence around sexual violence through targeted social, educational and legislative tactics. I will be writing and traveling the country talking to media, students and other interested groups about the importance of speaking out against sexual assault. I’ll largely focus on young models and actors who are especially vulnerable to the influences of the rich and powerful. They, like other sexual assault victims, deserve our support. It’s the perpetrators who should be facing public humiliation – not the victims. 
 
 Editor’s note: A representative for Bill Cosby did not return multiple calls and e-mails from Washington Post staff for comment on this piece. Elsewhere, Cosby repeatedly denied separate sexual-assault allegations by Andrea Constand. 
 
 More from The Washington Post: 
 
 ‘I feel whole.’ After 30 years, a woman confronts her abuser — and herself 
 
 My own rape shows how much we get wrong about these attacks 
 
 For battered NFL wives, a message from the cops and the league: Keep quiet 
 
 Rape and death threats are terrorizing female gamers. Why haven’t men in tech spoken out? ||||| (CNN) -- Nasty allegations have been haunting one of America's most iconic comedians, a man with a reputation for moral wholesomeness. For nine years, Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by women who say they were the victims. 
 
 Cosby has repeatedly said that the allegations are untrue. And he has never been prosecuted. 
 
 But since 2005, a handful of women have made the claim. This year, those accusations resurfaced, and on Monday, a seemingly harmless post to Cosby's confirmed Twitter account turned them into a social media storm. 
 
 In its wake, one of his accusers, Barbara Bowman, turned to the public once more with an article in the Washington Post. She also spoke to CNN's Don Lemon. 
 
 Bowman claims she was drugged then raped, though she said she never saw drugs. 
 
 "I woke up out of a very confused state not in my clothes." She said she knew her body had been touched without her permission. This occurred several times in the course of their contact, she said. 
 
 She said to CNN that Cosby told her she had been drunk. 
 
 Bowman was 17 and an aspiring actress when she met Cosby in 1985. She considered him to be her mentor. 
 
 She spent time in his home, which included dinners with the star. 
 
 She said the abuse began after she turned 18. 
 
 Despite what she said was happening to her, she kept coming back. And Cosby and her agent financed her apartment in addition to supporting her acting ambitions, she said. 
 
 She was afraid to talk to her agent about her concerns, and she felt Cosby's influence over her was too powerful. 
 
 "I was terrified of him," she said. 
 
 "As a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal," she wrote in her Washington Post article. 
 
 In a Friday morning interview on CNN's "New Day," Bowman said she went to a lawyer in 1989 to discuss legal action against Cosby but "he laughed me right out of the office." 
 
 After that, Bowman said, she "just gave up" and moved on with her life. When another woman took legal action against Cosby years later, Bowman decided to lend her support, she said. 
 
 "I believe her because it happened to me," she said Friday. 
 
 CNN reached out to Cosby's representative for comment on this article but has not yet heard back. 
 
 When asked about the allegations Saturday during an interview on NPR, Cosby did not respond -- instead shaking his head "no," according to the interviewer, Scott Simon. 
 
 "There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance," Simon said, to silence from Cosby. "All right." 
 
 The Tweet 
 
 On Monday, the comedian -- or whoever was in charge of his social media -- put out a challenge with a jovial picture of Cosby in a cap: "Go ahead. Meme me! #cosbymeme." 
 
 The Internet immediately reacted, but probably not in the way Cosby expected. 
 
 "Claire, have you seen my ... nevermind, found my raping hat!" tweeted Trill Withers over the cap picture. 
 
 "My two favorite things (--) Jell-O pudding & rape," tweeted E.J. Coughlin over a photo of Cosby smiling. 
 
 By nightfall, Cosby's original tweet had been pulled from the Web. But in the social media age, the rape allegations have stubbornly remained in the open. 
 
 In late October, comedian Hannibal Buress bluntly attacked what he perceived as Cosby's "smuggest old black man public persona" by saying, "Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. 'I don't curse onstage.' Well, yeah, you're (a) rapist, so I'll take you saying lots of m*****f*****s on 'Bill Cosby: Himself' if you weren't a rapist." 
 
 A couple weeks later, Cosby was booked on Queen Latifah's talk show, but the allegations reportedly gave the staff "cold feet," according to TMZ. Cosby's booking was "postponed at his request," the website reported in an addendum. (Cosby did do interviews with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon without incident.) 
 
 For years, Cosby has denied the rape allegations. In February, after Newsweek ran an interview with one of the purported victims, Tamara Green, Cosby's representative said, "This is a 10-year-old, discredited accusation that proved to be nothing at the time, and is still nothing." 
 
 Nine years ago, when Green was interviewed by Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, his lawyer issued a statement: "Miss Green's allegations are absolutely false. Mr. Cosby does not know the name Tamara Green or (maiden name) Tamara Lucier and the incident she describes did not happen. The fact that she may have repeated this story to others is not corroboration." 
 
 In the case of Andrea Constand, who sued Cosby in 2005 over an incident the year before, Cosby says the sex was consensual. 
 
 Lawsuit airs allegations 
 
 At the time of Constand's lawsuit, Cosby had been in the news for a sexual affair once before. In 1997, a woman named Autumn Jackson claimed to be Cosby's love child. Cosby admitted to a relationship with Jackson's mother but denied paternity. Jackson was later convicted of extortion. 
 
 However, it wasn't until Constand's lawsuit in 2005 that the comedian was accused of rape. 
 
 Constand, a staffer for Temple University's women's basketball team, said in her suit that Cosby -- a Temple alum -- had become a mentor to her in the months since they met in 2002. In early 2004, he invited her to his house in suburban Philadelphia. Constand told Cosby she was feeling stressed and Cosby gave her three blue pills, which he described as "herbal medication," according to her suit, which was posted on The Smoking Gun. 
 
 Then, her "knees began to shake, her limbs felt immobile, she felt dizzy and weak, and she began to feel only barely conscious," the suit continued. Cosby then gave her another drug, she said, and led her to the sofa, where she says she was sexually molested. 
 
 "When Plaintiff awoke, her clothes and undergarments were in disarray," the suit said. 
 
 Constand later returned to her native Canada, where she reported the incident to police. Authorities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, followed up with an investigation, but that February declined to press criminal charges due to a lack of evidence. 
 
 Cosby's lawyer, Walter M. Phillips Jr., told CNN the allegations were "utterly preposterous" and "plainly bizarre." Cosby appeared surprised by the allegations. 
 
 "Looking back on it, I realize that words and actions can be misinterpreted by another person, and unless you're a supreme being, you can't predict what another individual will do," he told the National Enquirer in March 2005. 
 
 Constand filed a civil suit in March 2005. Constand's lawyers said they found 13 Jane Doe witnesses with similar stories. However, Constand's suit was settled in November 2006, and the witnesses were never called. Terms have not been disclosed. 
 
 The influence of Bill Cosby 
 
 Tarnished reputation 
 
 As Mark Whitaker's recent Cosby biography makes clear, the man has his demons. He had affairs while on the road and there have been bumps in his long marriage to his wife, Camille. 
 
 But Whitaker, a former CNN managing editor, told CNN that he didn't feel comfortable airing the rape allegations. 
 
 "Basically, I knew that I was going to have to be very careful in what I said about his private life. I felt that way as a journalist and also for legal reasons," he said in an interview about the biography. 
 
 "In the case of these other allegations, basically because there were no definitive court findings, no independent witnesses, it didn't meet my standard for what I was going to put in the book." 
 
 "I also was very aware that if I just did a she said-he said, and I printed allegations and denials without my own independent reporting, first of all it's not really in the spirit in the book, but also every person who then reviewed or reported on the book would be free to repeat those unconfirmed allegations just because they were in my book. And I just didn't feel comfortable being responsible for that." 
 
 Still, the rape allegations are always just a mouse click away. 
 
 Not long after Constand's accusations hit the media, Tamara Green went public with her claims on "Today." A few months later, another Jane Doe, Beth Ferrier, also spoke out. Bowman came forward in 2006. Green and Bowman both gave interviews to Newsweek in early 2014. 
 
 How all the controversy has affected Cosby personally is unknown. He's still scheduled to star in an NBC sitcom next year, and his skills as a comedian appear undiminished. Last year's concert movie, "Far From Finished," earned mostly positive reviews, and his recent comedy tour has also received praise. 
 
 But his once-sterling reputation has taken a hit. The Washington Post, Salon and The New York Times have all mentioned the rape allegations in stories, criticizing Cosby to varying degrees.
– Last month, comedian Hannibal Buress called Bill Cosby a rapist in a video that quickly went viral. "Google 'Bill Cosby rape,'" Buress told an audience during a standup routine—and suddenly, Cosby's name and the accusations that he raped several women in the 1980s were everywhere. But why now? asks Barbara Bowman, who says Cosby "drugged and raped" her after winning her trust as a mentor when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress three decades ago. On another occasion, at an industry event in Atlantic City, "he pinned me down ... while I screamed for help," she writes in the Washington Post. "I'll never forget the clinking of his belt buckle as he struggled to pull his pants off." "I first told my agent, who did nothing," then told a lawyer, who "accused me of making the story up," Bowman writes. But that didn't stop her from speaking out publicly, which she has done numerous times. Other women, including Tamara Green, Beth Ferrier, and Andrea Constand have done the same, CNN reports. "Why didn't our stories go viral?" Bowman asks, noting that the public outcry began "only after a man" called Cosby a rapist. That's "a very valid question," but "we know why, and that's part of the tragedy," Alanna Bennett writes at Bustle. She says Cosby, who has a new NBC show on the way, "is the kind of figure in American cultural history whom it is very uncomfortable to confront in the context of what's been accused." Click for her full column, or Bowman's.