Post a response:
|
The answer to your question is one word: Stigma. You ask, "what is the harm of being known as a sexual assault victim, UNLESS that makes you 'damaged goods' in some way?" but you miss the simple and obvious answer. It is not that the people advocating protecting the identity of rape victims themselves believe that a raped person is "damaged goods" or any other such negative assessment. It is that they know that lots and lots and lots of people will and do (wrongly) judge people who have been raped in a negative way. Also, having everyone know that you were raped makes it harder to put the event behind you and go back to a normal life with normal relationships. As with any significant and negative event that might happen to someone, they often value other people not knowing about it because then it cannot color how they are perceived. You seem to be completely unaware that there is a difference between understanding that being raped affects how a person is perceived and thinking that the difference in perception is justified. That is just plan dumb. |