Sexual Trauma Quotes

“Why didn't I report it? Because when you are sexually assaulted by a relative, it's terribly complicated. Initially, I felt shock, numb, and powerless. Keep in mind, sexual assault is an act of violence; not sex. In addition, sexual assault is about power. It's common for victims to feel helpless.”
― Dana Arcuri, Sacred Wandering: Growing Your Faith In The Dark

“Assault survivors respond differently. There's no right or wrong way to react after being sexually abused. The assault can be so overwhelming that we may respond in three ways - fight, flee, or freeze.”
― Dana Arcuri, Sacred Wandering: Growing Your Faith In The Dark

“I’m not going to be specific, but I had some early sexual experiences that, as I got older, were really, really difficult to deal with. It wasn’t to do with anything that happened in my family or at home, it was these… different things that happened. So my mental health had come through the negotiation of sex as a teenager and a young man, and romantic relationships.”
― Matty Healy

“The prediction of false rape-related beliefs (rape myth acceptance [RMA]) was examined using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Payne, Lonsway, & Fitzgerald, 1999) among a nonclinical sample of 258 male and female college students. Predictor variables included measures of attitudes toward women, gender role identity (GRI), sexual trauma history, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. Using linear regression and testing interaction effects, negative attitudes toward women significantly predicted greater RMA for individuals without a sexual trauma history.
However, neither attitudes toward women nor GRI were significant predictors of RMA for individuals with a sexual trauma history."
Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexual Trauma History, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Shannon N. Baugher, PhD,
Jon D. Elhai, PhD,
James R. Monroe, PhD, Ruth Dakota, Matt J. Gray, PhD”
― Shannon N. Baugher

“He pulls down one of my straps, slides his other hand in among the feathers, but it's no good, I lie there like a dead bird. He is not a monster, I think. I can't afford pride or aversion, there are all kinds of things that have to be discarded, under the circumstances. "Maybe I should turn the lights out," says the Commander, dismayed and no doubt disappointed. I see him for a moment before he does this. Without his uniform he looks smaller, older, like something being dried. The trouble is that I can't be, with him, any different from the way I usually am with him. Usually I'm inert. Surely there must be something here for us, other than this futility and bathos.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“In 2017, after the Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault scandal went viral, the #MeToo movement grew like wildfire. It triggered my trauma. Flashbacks of horrific injustice. Old memories resurfaced.”
― Dana Arcuri, Sacred Wandering: Growing Your Faith In The Dark

“The hostility and venomous response the topic of sexual trauma and rape in the military brings up, especially with men from my Era, is revealing. This opposition speaks to their guilt and toward the truth that stays hidden.”
― Diane Chamberlain, Conduct Unbecoming: Rape, Torture, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Military Commanders

“Sexual trauma isn't a one time event. It's something we battle for a lifetime. No matter how much I tried to mute troubling memories, I couldn't. Flashbacks occurred without warning. Seeing the predator at social events was a constant reminder. I was a broken mess.”
― Dana Arcuri

“I have metabolised my sexual trauma by writing columns, blogs, books and a one-woman show. I also regularly participate in erotic photoshoots. My brand of ‘fierce female sexuality’ doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. How dare I control my image and narrative by exploiting my sexual self online? Instead I should wait around to be the victim of revenge porn and have my explicit images shared without permission.”
― Vanessa de Largie

“One often reads of elite athletes for whom their chosen sport is their life. Not simply a livelihood or a hobby, but an obsession that informs every aspect of their mental, physical, emotional and philosophical being.

I am similarly consumed with sex. Far from just the act of sex, it is its possibilities that dictate my thoughts and motives. Sex is the distillation of my own essence, it is the prism through which my life is processed.”
― Vanessa de Largie

“If the men who paid me weren’t rapists, if this was all consensual sex, why am I traumatised by it? Why do I experience flashbacks with the same tone and texture as flashbacks I have had from being raped? I have had a lot of sex I regret having which I am not traumatised by. There is sometimes sadness, but not trauma. I experience trauma and flashbacks only in relation to sexual exploitation. Sex that didn’t involve money, in which I’ve felt dissociated, or didn’t feel like it, or when I didn’t stop something I wasn’t comfortable with has not traumatised me in the way sex-trade sex has – sex to which I ‘consented’.”
― Mia Döring, Any Girl: A Memoir of Sexual Exploitation and Recovery

“The circle is an ancient symbol that denotes continuation, movement, connection, and wholeness. It embodies the essence of the infinite nature of existence. When you attune to the energy present within this source of totality, you can more easily embrace your challenges with the understanding of the greater container available for healing. In other words, the circle helps you recognize
that you are not alone.”
― Dina Saalisi, Transcending Sexual Trauma: Self-Awareness Tools and Nature-Based Practices to Cultivate Inner Healing

“Garden calls, like a new lover. Needing my attention to grow. I scoop up her seeds in my wanting arms and spread them beyond the hedge. The bounty extends to all. The prowess of pollination, alive and surging through shared soil. Reaching the hearts and souls of all who welcome this sacred medicine.”
― Dina Saalisi