Giving Voice to Silence: Empowerment and Disempowerment in the Developmental Shift from Trauma ‘Victim’ to ‘Survivor-Advocate’

Delker, Brianna C.; Salton, Rowan; McLean, Kate C.

doi:10.1080/15299732.2019.1678212

Cited by 49 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Mainstream media and politics in the United States celebrate stories of protagonists who transcend adversity and find redemption in the aftermath of trauma [4,23]. In a redemptive story, negative events are followed by positives such as gratitude, success, strength gained, or lessons learned.…”

Section: The Cultural Preference For Redemptive Stories May Not Applymentioning

confidence: 99%

Who has to tell their trauma story and how hard will it be? Influence of cultural stigma and narrative redemption on the storying of sexual violence

et al. 2020

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Although survivors of sexual violence have shared their stories with the public on social media and mass media platforms in growing numbers, less is known about how general audiences perceive such trauma stories. These perceptions can have profound consequences for survivor mental health. In the present experimental, vignette-based studies, we anticipated that cultural stigma surrounding sexual violence and cultural preference for positive (redemptive) endings to adversity in the United States (U.S.) would shape perceptions. Four samples of U.S. adults (N = 1872) rated first-person narratives of 6 more stigmatizing (i.e., sexual violence) or less stigmatizing (e.g., natural disaster) traumatic events. Confirming pre-registered hypotheses, sexual violence trauma (versus other types of trauma) stories were perceived as more difficult to tell, and their storytellers less likeable, even when they had redemptive endings. Disconfirming other pre-registered hypotheses, redemptive (versus negative) story endings did not boost the perceived likelihood or obligation to share a sexual violence trauma story. Rather, redemptive (versus negative) story endings only boosted the perceived likelihood, obligation, and ease of telling other, less stigmatizing types of trauma stories. Findings suggest that sexual violence survivors do not benefit, to the same degree as other survivors, from telling their stories with the culturally valued narrative template of redemption. Clinical and societal implications of the less receptive climate for sexual violence stories are discussed.

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Section: The Cultural Preference For Redemptive Stories May Not Applymentioning

confidence: 99%

Who has to tell their trauma story and how hard will it be? Influence of cultural stigma and narrative redemption on the storying of sexual violence

et al. 2020

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“…For example, in the sexual assault narrative, the narrator became an advocate for other survivors. The examination of differences in survivor endings and the issue of personal/ impersonal, acute/chronic is discussed elsewhere (Delker et al, 2019). 2 Per common rates, we initially paid participants $2.…”

Section: Sexual Assaultmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redemptive Stories and Those Who Tell Them are Preferred in the U.S.

McLean¹,

Delker²,

Dunlop³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The present studies examined the common, but untested, theoretical assumption that those in the United States prefer negative past experiences, such as trauma, to be redeemed, to be resolved in some positive or growth-promoting fashion. Narratives of six types of traumatic events that were rated by U.S adults (n = 1872) across six samples and two studies. Confirming pre-registered hypotheses, there was a reliable preference for stories that were redeemed compared to stories that ended negatively, as well as for the narrators of redemptive stories, who were judged as likable and to have desirable personality traits. There was no support for the hypothesis that redemptive stories would be viewed as more common than non-redemptive stories, or that the relation between story type and preference would be mediated by Belief in a Just World. Implications include the compulsory nature of storying trauma and potential risks of these cultural expectations.

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“…By the term culture, we refer broadly to mainstream, dominant U.S. cultural values constructed and normalized against the backdrop of settler-colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and consumer capitalism. Arguably, dominant cultural values in the U.S. include rugged individualism, personal responsibility, personal "grit" and stoicism, and presumptions of a meritocratic and "just world" for all [4,5,6]. To the advantage of powerful groups, dominant cultural values are made to seem normal, desirable, and universal, despite enormous social and economic inequality in the U.S. As such, we use the term "culture" with the intention to evoke its critical and contested dimensions: both culture and the subjectivity of persons are constructed within the setting of unequal power relationships [7].…”

Section: Why "Cultural" Preference and Stigma?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Cultural Preference For Redemptive Stories May Not Apply Equally To Survivors Of Sexual Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Who Has to Tell Their Trauma Story and How Hard Will It Be? Influence of Cultural Stigma and Narrative Redemption on the Storying of Sexual Violence

Delker¹,

Salton²,

McLean³

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although survivors of sexual violence have shared their stories with the public on social media and mass media platforms in growing numbers, less is known about how general audiences perceive such trauma stories. These perceptions can have profound consequences for survivor mental health. In the present experimental, vignette-based studies, we anticipated that cultural stigma surrounding sexual violence and cultural preference for positive (redemptive) endings to adversity in the United States (U.S.) would shape perceptions. Four samples of U.S. adults (N=1872) rated first-person narratives of 6 more stigmatizing (i.e., sexual violence) or less stigmatizing (e.g., natural disaster) traumatic events. Confirming pre-registered hypotheses, sexual violence trauma (versus other types of trauma) stories were perceived as more difficult to tell, and their storytellers less likeable, even when they had redemptive endings. Disconfirming other pre-registered hypotheses, redemptive (versus negative) story endings did not boost the perceived likelihood or obligation to share a sexual violence trauma story. Rather, redemptive (versus negative) story endings only boosted the perceived likelihood, obligation, and ease of telling other, less stigmatizing types of trauma stories. Findings suggest that sexual violence survivors do not benefit, to the same degree as other survivors, from telling their stories with the culturally valued narrative template of redemption. Clinical and societal implications of the less receptive climate for sexual violence stories are discussed.

show abstract

Giving Voice to Silence: Empowerment and Disempowerment in the Developmental Shift from Trauma ‘Victim’ to ‘Survivor-Advocate’

Cited by 49 publications

References 48 publications

Who has to tell their trauma story and how hard will it be? Influence of cultural stigma and narrative redemption on the storying of sexual violence

Who has to tell their trauma story and how hard will it be? Influence of cultural stigma and narrative redemption on the storying of sexual violence

Redemptive Stories and Those Who Tell Them are Preferred in the U.S.

Who Has to Tell Their Trauma Story and How Hard Will It Be? Influence of Cultural Stigma and Narrative Redemption on the Storying of Sexual Violence

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