(Re)claiming Stories in the #MeToo Movement: Righting Epistemic Wrongs of Physical, Mental, and Emotional Harms of Sexual Violence

Abstract

Sexual violence is a major public health concern, and healthcare providers are in a unique position to offer care and support for survivors. Our study analyzes survivors' stories of sexual violence posted on Twitter in the #MeToo movement between November 29 and December 25, 2017. In analyzing communicative traces that lie within digital data, we read survivors' stories for emotional expressions that create practice. Three themes, informed by survivors of sexual violence reported in our study, included: 1) gaslighting: (re)claiming what I experienced; 2) shame and blame: redefining victimhood and redirecting pain; and 3) bystander: becoming a respectful witness. The practical implications of this piece identify healthcare providers, and in particular OB/GYNs, occupy an important role to create a space where survivors can reclaim their agency, experience, and seek the support they need to heal.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 11 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.