A while ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who had been raped a long time back. We were just discussing it, comparing battle scars, when I slipped out the phrase '...you're a rape survivor'.
She punched me. Hard.
The explaination was given to me along these lines:
"I am not a rape survivor. I am not a rape victim, or sufferer or anything else. I am not a rape-anything. I AM ME. Nothing else but me. Yes, I was raped, but that doesn't mean I'm a survior, victim or otherwise. It's a thing that happened to me, not something I am. I survived being raped, I'm not a rape survivor. Sorry if I hit you too hard."
That girl has some arm on her... ** wince **