Description
Women who have been raped often live the rest of their lives with mental and communicative challenges. When attempting to make sense of their stories, women are constrained by society’s inclination to pen them as being either victims or survivors. In addition, women who have experienced acquaintance rape face an even more difficult time when labeling their experience and coming to terms with what has happened to them due to fear, stigma, and stereotypes. This is an autoethnographic study following the author’s experience of being raped by the high school “it” boy; Richard, after staying silent for six years. Specifically, this study focuses on how rape and the discourse surrounding it has constrained her process of self-identification, her process of realizing she was raped, her process of disclosure after six years of silence, and what forms of communication have contributed to her recovery along the way. Keywords: rape, acquaintance rape, victim, survivor, rape discourse, disclosure, recovery
