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[–]ImPiqued1111111 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Ah, I didn't know that about Jewish survivors. I definitely have no objection to usage of that terminology around that. Not for me to do so.

I was more talking about sexual assault and domestic violence, which I think somewhere during the 90s, the language around that began to change. If I remember correctly, the idea was about empowerment, but I think it takes away emphasis from the perpetrator and places too much responsibility on the victim (or survivor if you prefer).

[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, your portrayal of what happened is spot on, except for the decade. It was in the (late) 1970s that persons the Nazis slated for extermination and sent to death camps but who managed to remain alive started to be referred to as "survivors."

It was in the early-mid 1980s that public attention started to admit and be focused on child sex abuse as well as on widespread sexual violence against girls and women. With and following those changes, the term "survivor" was extended to refer to victims of sexual assault in both childhood and adulthood