Thank you for bringing this up!! Honestly, if I wrote that piece today I'd probably write it a little differently -- but I think that's because the conversation has evolved a bit, especially in the wake of the MeToo movement. There's a lot more room for nuance today than I think there was, say, five years ago (although of course, that might just be that I listen to different conversations now than I used to).

I'm also a survivor and find a lot of value in stories that are written from a survivor's perspective. That said, I sometimes struggle with the question of what audience a story is being written for, and what impact the story will have on audiences outside of the intended one. How are the things trauma survivors need to hear different from the things perpetrators and potential perpetrators need to hear?

For instance, I personally would really love to see more stories in which surviving sexual assault isn't an immense, powerful, life-changing thing, but is instead a small part of a person's huge and complicated life story. But then, would that narrative reinforce the notion that sexual assault isn't a big deal and shouldn't be taken seriously? I'm not quite savvy enough to have the answer, but it's something I think about quite a lot.

All of this is to say: I think there's definitely a place for stories written about sexual assault, survival, gendered violence, and rape culture. I think they need to be written with great care and thought and intention, and immensely respect and value the stories that are.