“There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” —Audre Lorde My assailants told me I was cute, that I was beautiful and small, that I was sweetness, that my hair was soft, that I looked innocent. My assailant told me he wanted a threesome. My assailant told me I was a “virgin homo,” and that I’d learn to like it rough. My assailant told me she would make it pleasurable while I wept. My assailants probably do not remember my name. The way I remember the trauma, I remember what of my body was taken, what of myself was changed after they assumed access to my body. But I also remember who they were in contrast to who I was; the sameness of one of my assailants, that we share a community, that the bisexual man who assaulted me that same night was asking the other assailant the same questions. I remember the difference.I remember that all of us are somehow marginalized for our sexuality, but that a power imbalance was still present, that I was victimized anyway, that my femininity was commented on again and again by both of them. I still […]
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