The figures are shocking: 40% of American women and nearly a quarter of American men have been sexually assaulted. While #MeToo stories and the survivors who shared them have helped combat sexual harassment in the workplace, improved police interventions, and resulted in high-profile convictions, the public has only just begun to reckon with the impact sexual assault has on survivors. The ongoing silence points to the still-taboo intersection of two subjects: sexual assault and sexuality.
Sex After Sexual Assault explores this crossroads through the lens of survivors' own stories. Millions of people across the United States experience sexual assault, and 94% of survivors experience symptoms of traumatic stress. These symptoms may affect our sex lives. This crucial book tackles the obstacles a survivor frequently faces while rebuilding a sex life after trauma. Each chapter includes a selection of survivors' stories. These stories illuminate how survivors have navigated their struggles into positive practices and outlooks and reimagined what sex and intimacy can look like.
For survivors it is a guidebook, a road map, true stories to lean on. These are survivors' stories, but the broader picture they paint is for anybody seeking more intentional, connected, and pleasurable sex with the awareness that rape culture impacts everyone.