In this study we examine how events that may have been called “normal” or “acceptable” by some people at one time are recalled and reconstructed as “harassment.” Four interviewers conducted open‐ended unstructured interviews with 21 women about incidents in which sex was not the ostensible purpose of the encounter but sexual innuendo and in some cases assault was the result. The analysis of their stories explores how they experienced events that at the time were not called “sexual harassment” but that they now call by that name. The respondents describe themselves as having been “naive” or “gullible” and having felt “guilty” or “ashamed.” In analyzing these stories the paper compares the experiences of “preverbal” children and adults who recall events that have been reconceptualized