The words used to describe the body, the harm, and the resistance all shape how women feel about themselves and how they are seen. If the term “sexual violence” is pushed into euphemism, the conventional structures for understanding and naming that violence shift. A woman’s personal narrative of “survivor,” “advocate,” or simply “woman who was harmed”, for instance, becomes harder to anchor. Over time, the erosion of precise terms weakens individual agency and collective recognition.
