When it comes to allegations of sexual assault, often, we buy into long held beliefs about whether it is believable or not. The doubt that accompanies it often comes with a series of red flags that people readily pick out and maximize. This is based on the fact that all of us have internalized cultural stereotypes and messaging about who a perfect victim is and how they must operate. So when these red flags are observed, they are taken as an indication that the survivor must not be believed, as on the surface, it might not appear to constitute a “real account of rape.”
Ask a random group of people what they believe sexual assault (SA) to be and what makes a believable SA account, and you will find that many believe that SA cases must all have signs of physical injury. Additionally, the survivor must be visibly traumatized and also needs to be absolutely certain of all details of the incident. This is because people have a very strict narrative that they hold in their mind when it comes to SA reports. Realistically speaking however, only a very small percentage ever hold up to this stereotypic ideal of what “real rape” is.
