Over the past week, many of us have encountered the Me Too hashtag on social media. The campaign was created a decade ago by a woman named Tarana Burke in part to work towards “radical community healing,” and has resurfaced in light of Alyssa Milano and the Harvey Weinstein scandal this past month in order to demonstrate the magnitude of the issues of sexual harassment and violence.
While messages about solidarity and community amongst survivors are circulating the internet, we have yet to reach a point of critical conversation about how these issues of trauma differentially impact communities who hold marginalized gender, ethnic, and sexual identities. Countless studies demonstrate that sexual orientation, gender presentation, race, and other factors of social identity play a role in the ways in which people experience both traumatic experiences as well as recovery and healing. Sexual violence and social discrimination are not mutually exclusive; different groups of people experience different rates of sexual violence as well as trauma symptoms, and these identities also impact the ways in which people are able to heal and benefit from social support. Let’s engage in discourse about that.
-Anjali Menon, APUG Senior
References
Langenderfer-Magruder, L., Whitfield, D. L., Walls, N. E., Kattari, S. K., & Ramos, D. (2014). Experiences of intimate partner violence and subsequent police reporting among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adults in Colorado. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 31(5), 855-871.
Sigurvinsdottir, R. & Ullman, S.E. (2016). Sexual orientation, race, and trauma as predictors of sexual assault recovery. Journal of Family Violence, 31(7), 913-921.
Weiss, B. J., Garvert, D. W., & Cloitre, M. (2015). PTSD and trauma-related difficulties in sexual minority women: The impact of perceived social support. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28(6), 563-571.