These 2 Powerful Web Series Show How Women Feel The Pain Of A Sexual Assault Survivor

Sexual assault. We’ve all been there, in various degrees, so recognition of and empathy to a survivor comes naturally to most women.

April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month demands I write about two scenes from two different web series in recent times, which show that solidarity for a sexual assault survivor comes naturally from a woman to another woman, because we’ve all been there.

It’s crazy how a woman knows that another woman has been sexually assaulted. It’s how the solidarity for not questioning, judging or asking for an explanation comes so naturally to in such cases. It’s also why it’s natural for us to clearly understand why another woman dismissing men constantly isn’t misandry but experience.

“Because a patient needs us”

Grey’s Anatomy (S15Ep19, Silent All These Years) saw a woman entering the hospital in a state of bleeding cuts.

One look and the doctors who are women know instantly she didn’t fall down and hurt herself. One look and they can feel the shock themselves that the woman probably is feeling right then. They haven’t been in her place before but they just know. It’s why they don’t push for answers or compell her to report the incident. It’s why they know what she means when she says she can’t report it because she was alone at a bar drinking in a short dress. They hear the accusations that would be thrown at her when she would report it.

The most heartbreaking scene is when she dismisses a surgery because she can’t look at a man and the journey from the ER to the Operation room alone would take her back to the alleys of the same bar she was at last night. One of the doctors arranges for getting the entire hallway blocked and having only the women stand guard. No person in the hallway is explained why they are standing there. They are told another woman needs them and they are right there.

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It’s crazy but this is exactly what women do in real life. They don’t question. They don’t judge. They are just there when this happens.

“It’s just a stupid bus”

The second scene is from Sex Education (S2Ep7, a must watch) and equally brilliant.

When Aimee is assualted on the bus and initially dismisses the incident, the tension in a female viewer is already building. Because in our mind the incident will come back to haunt her and it eventually does. She stops taking the bus and walks the whole damn way to her school and back. And it’s so fucking relatable.

We’ve done that. We’ve been there. We change routes to avoid a certain crowd, we get down from public transport halfway when touched, we miss trains and walk longer distance than get into a sharing auto. It’s all happened.

When Aimee finally breaks down and admits she can’t get on a bus again , her friends are right there to pick her up. The whole scene of sharing traumatic sexual assault experiences and making sure to she gets on the bus and has the company of her friends is beautiful and horrifying.

Beautiful because women saving women has been the premise of each of our lives and as much as the notion goes that women are biggest enemies of women, we are also the biggest supporters.

Horrifying because this need to save another woman from the same trauma and to console and strengthen her for the same routine everyday for the rest of our lives is exhausting and in our minds, it never stops.

But this is for women being there for women. For being the pillars one leans on and catches a breath before fighting the same monsters.

This is for women being cavalry for their sisters.

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