If you have not seen this from the Cleveland Plains Dealer Beyond Rape: A Survivor’s Story take a read. The level of detail in the exploration of how the system worked in one case is really amazing.
Beyond Rape: A Survivor’s Story
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Diary of a Black Male Feminist 
I really identified with this line of thinking when she said:
“I was ashame…of not fighting back. I was ashamed of being a victim when I wanted to see myself as a strong, independent woman.”
I totally feel that way when someone says something misogynist or says a sexist joke and I don’t speak up or I keep my thoughts to myself.
Hello there,
This is powerful!
I have counseled women who have been raped while they are in the E.R. and the rape seems to forever divide their lives into “before the rape” and “after the rape”.
Rape tears something very, very deep that scars the personhood of every woman – many can heal but they are never the same as they were. This does not imply that they are irreparably broken! On the contrary! The healing process produces an evolved person.
In the E.R., staff does not refer to the person who has been raped as “a rape victim” and due to confidentiality, the person’s name can not be uttered. We refer to the person who has been raped as “the survivor”.
Thank you for blowing the trumpet on this!
Lisa
You are welcome to visit my house:
http://blackwomenblowthetrumpet.blogspot.com
Hello there,
This is powerful!
I have counseled women in the E.R. who have been raped. The rape seems to forever divide their lives into “before the rape” and “after the rape”.
Rape tears something very, very deep that scars the personhood of every woman – many can heal but they are never the same as they were. This does not imply that they are irreparably broken! On the contrary! The healing process produces an evolved person.
In the E.R., staff does not refer to the person who has been raped as “a rape victim” and due to confidentiality, the person’s name can not be uttered. We refer to the person who has been raped as “the survivor”.
Thank you for blowing the trumpet on this!
Lisa
You are welcome to visit my house:
http://blackwomenblowthetrumpet.blogspot.com
Hi there!
Will you delete my first entry? I notice a duplicate.
Thanks!
Lisa
Wow…that’s powerful stuff…I can’t imagine the strength it required of her to relive all of that so publicly…
I like what Lisa says: “The healing process produces an evolved person.” It goes perfectly with what Connors says near the end of the first video there about freedom.
Thanks for sharing this.
Q.
I appreciate the article-reading it,I mean-and have made a note to contact the Editor of the Cleveland newspaper this is published in…why? Well,it is my quest to try to turn around the confusion that woman are the only victims in rape.
Unfortunantly-our society from ages back has done a horrendous injustice to all of us-the stigma that lays on males who have also suffered assault…yes,males-and because of this stigma (“this does’nt happen to men”) the numbers are even distorted.
This past week the ‘supreme court’ failed every survivor-and victim-by lessoning the power this crime has on a person. As an adult survivor-raped as an adult male-I have NEVER gotten over this crime,and how it took so much from me. How can we not feel the wrong in the justice system to sit back and hear them say the crime of rape against children does not harm them enough to warrant severe punishment (hmmm-the death penalty? I’m not sure) but punish the culprits who do this to children-punish them harshly…and,help us educate the nation and allow us to catch up with the others like the UK and Australia who recognize that rape is a genderless and ageless crime-it effects all genders and all ages…man and woman,and children.
Thank you for your blog-it is very important.
I have NO IDEA where the smile face came from!!