Dis/Locating Blame: Survivors' Constructions of Self and Sexual Abuse

Abstract

This article examines issues of sexuality and identity for women who have been sexually abused as children. It is based on five in-depth semi-structured interviews with women who were `identified' as survivors of childhood sexual abuse, a study which, in turn, forms part of a larger project exploring social constructions of sexual abuse in childhood (in therapeutic and self-help settings). A discourse analytic approach is used to explore how various meanings surrounding women's sexuality in relation to past events of childhood abuse are deployed and `the different ways in which people ascribe meaning to, and make sense of their situation' in the present (Crossley, 1997: 73). Attention is paid to the ways in which survivors construct their own and others' sexuality and identity in relation to their understandings of themselves as survivors of child sexual abuse and as `women'. This emphasis on the social identities of women sexually abused as children, addresses a gap in psychological and clinical theorizing. In particular, a critical reading is offered regarding how `gendered identifications' within discourses (e.g. psychoanalytic) get taken up and used by women to interpret themselves as past (blameworthy) victims and present (pathological) survivors.

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