A little more than three years ago, a case opened America’s eyes to both the realities of rape culture and white privilege. A white, ivy league athlete sexually assaulted a young woman known by the pseudonym, Emily Doe. This horror was quickly sensationalized and took on a different narrative, one involving the “Stanford Swimmer” and a “sexual assault victim.” While at first glance, this imagery seems normal, looking at the deeper meaning behind the presentation of each individual reveals a profound ugly truth about America. A boy who not only assaulted but also drugged a young girl at a party being described by his swim times and intelligence and the woman as “unconscious, intoxicated woman,” instead of a graduate student or accomplished journalist.
While the term victim can appear nothing more than a description, the reality is the connotation within America’s rape culture is not only demeaning but demoralizing to the survivor. Being called a victim in any context, not only sexual assault, can make the subject feel less than and defined by that one tragic event. Trying to recover from trauma is hard enough, and add on to the constant reminder of their trauma, can create an impossible situation. The process of recovery and growth requires one to not only come to terms with what happened to them but to realize that the trauma does not define who they are as a human or an individual. Emily Doe wasn’t only suffering to recover from an attack on her body, but the various personas thrust upon her by the media. Something many of us cannot fully understand.
Yesterday Emily Doe came forward not as the faceless victim the media characterized her as, but as the strong, talented woman she is, Chanel Miller. She refuses to be another sexual assault “victim” and instead wants the world to know her as she is a sexual assault survivor. The courage she projected to come forward marks a change from victim to a survivor. As she will no longer let the actions of a predatory boy define who she is and who she will become. Not only has she released her name but has also written a memoir about her process of recovery in hope to illustrate the realities of being a sexual assault survivor. The cover of her memoir recalls the image of Japanese Kintsugi pottery, which involves breaking pottery and repairing it with a mix of resin and gold powder. This imagery not only shows the world that her sexual assault did not break her but that she is not ashamed of what happened to her, and she will no longer hide it.
She is Chanel Miller, know her name.