The False Dichotomy between “Rape Victim” and “Rape Survivor”
Location
Ponderosa Room C
Presentation Type
Presentation
Presentation Topic
Rape, Trauma, Identity, Victim vs Survivor, strength vs weakness, pop feminism, pop psychology
Start Date
6-3-2026 11:15 AM
Event Sort Order
28
Abstract
It is my belief that the identity terms "victim vs survivor", in the specific cases of sexual assault and abuse, is a false dichotomy. In recent pop feminism, I have observed a general shift away from the term 'victim' to reclaim a person's autonomy and not let the sexual violence they have faced define them. I want to argue that this, while understandable, is unhelpful because it removes the tragedy that sexual violence is systemic rather than the actions of an individual agent. To give a more precise example, I am a victim of the patriarchal and cultural misogyny that allowed my sexual abuse to happen and continue, and I am a survivor of the pain my abuser inflicted upon me. I am still victimized by the patriarchal system. For me, the term “survived” means to have healed and moved on, so I'm not always comfortable using it to define myself because I am still impacted by the trauma and continuously deal with the misogyny that protected my abuser.
I believe that the larger feminist movement must shift away from seeing 'victim' as something inherently wrong because of the weakness and vulnerability that comes with being a victim of a violent act; that sexual violence is a tool of patriarchal enforcement and is accepted on the wider social patriarchal scale, and that we can all be victims of it at any time.
The False Dichotomy between “Rape Victim” and “Rape Survivor”
Ponderosa Room C
It is my belief that the identity terms "victim vs survivor", in the specific cases of sexual assault and abuse, is a false dichotomy. In recent pop feminism, I have observed a general shift away from the term 'victim' to reclaim a person's autonomy and not let the sexual violence they have faced define them. I want to argue that this, while understandable, is unhelpful because it removes the tragedy that sexual violence is systemic rather than the actions of an individual agent. To give a more precise example, I am a victim of the patriarchal and cultural misogyny that allowed my sexual abuse to happen and continue, and I am a survivor of the pain my abuser inflicted upon me. I am still victimized by the patriarchal system. For me, the term “survived” means to have healed and moved on, so I'm not always comfortable using it to define myself because I am still impacted by the trauma and continuously deal with the misogyny that protected my abuser.
I believe that the larger feminist movement must shift away from seeing 'victim' as something inherently wrong because of the weakness and vulnerability that comes with being a victim of a violent act; that sexual violence is a tool of patriarchal enforcement and is accepted on the wider social patriarchal scale, and that we can all be victims of it at any time.
Presenter Bio
Yassmin Abdul-Malik is a senior from Webster University. She is a double major in Illustration and Philosophy and aims to hopefully teach people, whether through museum curation or becoming a professor, how art connects people across language, time, and borders. A fun fact about her is that her fastest time in Expert Sudoku mode is 5 minutes.