Trigger Warning for discussion of rape in the media and rape statistics.
I’m Ellen, and I’m a 21-year-old queer ciswoman who watches shows from all around the world just to find representation. The kind of representation I’m talking about is not LGBTQ+, though that is a very important aspect of media that I’m always analyzing and critiquing. No, the representation that I find severely lacking in media is of sexual assault victims/survivors.
If you live in the United States and you own a TV, chances are you’ve found yourself watching Law & Order: SVU. With so many seasons and channels to watch it on, it’s pretty hard to miss, even if you’re just channel surfing. If you’re unfamiliar with SVU, the stories center around the investigators in the Special Victims Unit who work on cases primarily related to sexual assault, rape, and violence against women.
I’ve been watching SVU for over 10 years now, and I can tell you that the way the victims/survivors are portrayed is seriously lacking. Many of the stories are about women (mainly straight, cis, able-bodied) who are attacked by A Masked Stranger at night while they’re out walking in the city. There have been a few instances of crimes committed by someone who knows the victim, but those are few and far between.
Usually the victim is found dead, stripped naked, covered in bruises/gashes or horrendously mutilated, and the investigators have to find out who did it and why. The camera zooms in on her injuries both at the crime scene and in the morgue, the coroner lists the grotesque details, and that’s pretty much the end of the victim’s story.
You find out bits and pieces of her life from odds and ends in her apartment, the investigators speak with her grieving family and friends. Once they start to figure out who did it, everything about him, down to insignificant details, comes to the surface. It’s no longer about the victim, but rather the perpetrator. They catch the guy, the music starts to build, and the audience learns all of the sick and twisted details of his motives and how he did it.
The investigators arrest him, make one or two pithy lines, and then Dick Wolf is suddenly there on your screen because the show almost always goes unresolved. There, I just saved you from watching about six seasons.
Here’s my problem: Most sexual assaults aren’t committed by A Masked Stranger in a dark alleyway at night. 2/3rds of assaults are committed by someone the victim/survivor knows. I know that I used Law & Order: SVU as my example, but despite the statistics stated above, most shows that do feature that an episode of rape/sexual assault only have victims of stranger rape/sexual assault (and usually it’s never brought up again).
That’s where I think the media fails victims/survivors; there is an abundance of shows and movies that exhibit the trauma of sexual assault (though again, it is usually committed by a stranger), utilizing it as a catalyst for action, but it’s rare to see a story that doesn’t revolve around a) the assault as it’s occurring, b) the immediate aftermath, or c) someone else taking action/avenging the victim (as shown above in SVU).
I’m a victim of rape and sexual assault. My experiences reflect the 2/3rds statistic; I was raped by someone I didn’t know, raped by someone I did know, and sexually assaulted by someone I worked with. And in all of my searching of shows, books, movies, etc. I’ve come across maybe one or two that I have been remotely able to identify with. Don’t get me wrong, every single assault is different, even if the details are all sickeningly the same. But I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to close a book or turn off a show or movie because it was the same trope used again and again.
Some people have recommended that I read comic books about superheroines who became vigilantes after they were brutally assaulted. While the intention of the backstory may be to used to perhaps embolden and inspire some victims/survivors, the story arcs almost always revolve around a villain using past assaults to weaken the superheroine. Sometimes the villain assaults them again, just to prove once again that the heroine has no control over her bodily autonomy, even with superpowers.
As confusing as it may sound to people who are not victims/survivors, I actively seek out stories that have some aspect of rape/sexual assault. Just like queer women seek out representatives of their sexuality who aren’t stereotypes and tired tropes, I seek out representatives of my experiences that clearly reflect the rape culture we live in and, if it is written well, I empathize with those representatives. I’ve spoken with several victims/survivors who have felt the same way and have actively sought out stories and characters with a similar experience.
I want to see a victim/survivor represented in the media as a fully fleshed out character. I don’t want other victims/survivors, fictional or not, to all be put under the same theme of the Broken Woman, and have other characters use their trauma to emote and grow. I’m tired of victims/survivors being portrayed as the frightened, wide-eyed innocent girl. Right now, that’s all we’re really getting, and it does nothing but feed into harmful stereotypes in rape culture.
With the statistics being what they are, it’s not that big of a stretch to have victims/survivors accurately represented in books, movies, tv shows, etc. It feels like no matter who I talk to or where I go, there are victims/survivors who all have a story. So why can’t we see ourselves in the media? Why are we put on the back burner for an After School Special?
Media representation matters to me because my trauma shouldn’t be used to fit a convenient narrative. I am more than my lived experiences, I am more than the commodity my rapists/assailant saw me as, and I am not the broken woman they thought they left me as when they were done with me.
Reader submission by Ellen Trask