For me, I see Marcus' understanding of rape as a script as an easy way to circumnavigate rape myths while also reinforcing them when they (the survivors) do not follow her solution to disturbing the script. I find Marcus' solution more so victim blaming then helpful in preventing rape. I am no longer ready to accept that rape, or anything in our lives, can be done according to a script, especially one so cis-heteronormative.
The other day I read an opinion piece about how the author saw the way we interpret and create narratives around the after-math of sexual assault damaging. That, by creating only one narrative around how a victim must experience the aftermath of their assault, as well as how this must affect their behaviour. I would agree that this is damaging. While this narrative rings true for many people - and I am in no way trying to refute it, or try to say that anyone's experience is invalid, it is just that having one way to expect survivors to feel after their experience is limiting. It invalidates so many other situations, experiences, stories and feelings and again just creates another script.
Society needs to let go of it's scripts and myths that build up, tear down, restructure and create what rape is supposed to look like. Rape is silencing enough without societal scripts boxing survivors in.
Hey Daniella!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with the fact that Marcus' rape scripts are extremely limiting in terms of what survivors are "allowed" to experience. Something that came up today in class was Wendy Brown's problematic idea that victimization becomes entrenched in identity the more feminists and survivors speak out about it as a collective, which Mardorossian refutes on the grounds that "collective enunciation" actually politicizes survivor experiences (764). I think that MAYBE Marcus' rape scripts could be viewed as trying to add to that collective enunciation, trying to politicize the act of rape as structural rather than a problem lying within individuals, even though her solution to disrupting the scripts does, confusingly, require the victim to take charge of the situation themselves. In no way am I attempting to argue that Marcus' rape scripts are more useful than they are problematic (because I don't believe this), but I just wanted to bring this up.
Thanks!