Super-Survivor Discourses

This paper examines how normative regimes shape which narratives of sexual violence are rendered intelligible, particularly in the aftermath of #MeToo. I argue that sexual violence narratives are not only mediated by misogynistic normative expectations but also by specifically able-normative frames. Drawing on Eli Clare’s concept of the supercrip, I identify and theorize the emergence of a discursive trope I call the super-survivor: a subject formation that demands clear speech, linear storytelling, and a narrative about heroism through overcoming the pain of sexual violence—all of which reflect broader ableist ideals, which intersect with misogynistic assumptions, rooted in rape cultures, about those who speak about sexual violence. Feminists have long emphasized the importance of “speaking out” about sexual violence. Yet among feminists, there remains ongoing debate over how, when, and to what end narrativizing sexual violence matters. Given the taken-for-grantedness of the politics of “speaking out” today, I offer a genealogy of feminist projects of speech about sexual violence— tracing a trajectory from the 1960s consciousness-raising projects, the reception of child abuse testimony in the 1970s–80s, and the rise of memoir-writing in the 1990s–2010s. In so doing, I highlight certain successes and failures by feminists, as well as the ways in which speech about sexual violence can be liberatory or not. In light of this context, building on Foucault’s work on subjectivity and language, as well as placing it in conversation with crip theory, I argue that super-survivor discourse reflects and organizes the broader conditions under which those who speak about sexual violence become intelligible— or not— to the general public today.

#MeToo · Ableism · Consciousness raising · crip theory · feminist discourse · Intersectionality · memoir writing · Michel foucault · Misogyny · narrative politics · rape culture · speaking out · Subjectivity · supercrip · Gender and Feminist Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies