Becoming a Public Survivor of Sexual Violence in Australia

Abstract

The past decade has seen significant policy and law reforms relating to gender-based violence in Australia. Notably, there has been an emphasis on rape law reforms and related policy changes driven by the advocacy of survivors of sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Coupled with these reforms has been the emergence of public survivors – individuals who establish prominence in public and political arenas by identifying as survivors of sexual violence. In this article, we examine the political, cultural and legal conditions that have created opportunities for public survivors to emerge in Australia. We argue that public survivors are co-constituted by these conditions, along with a broader politics of speaking out and a politics of listening that constructs a willing audience ready to consume and support survivor narratives and advocacy. These politics are vexed, however, in their reinforcement of long-standing archetypal attitudes and knowledge about sexual violence that feed into who can successfully obtain and maintain the status of a public survivor. In conclusion, we focus on the afterlives of public survivors once their initial advocacy goals have been fulfilled.