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Sloan Berry

Professor Henken

ENC 1102

1 March 2022

Healing Women’s Mental HealthTrauma and it’s Rhetorical Presence in

LiteratureSociety

Pop culture has often used rhetoric with negative connotationsnegatively connotated

rhetoric when regarding with regards to women’s mental health, including films, specifically the

exploitation movie genre, and many well-known books such as Fifty Shades of Greyhealing from

gender-based traumas including but not limited to, emtional abuse, toxic romantic relationships,

and sexual harassment. While men’s trauma is ignored, women’s trauma is belittled and

exploited to be used as an entertainment source. From a young age, girls are presented with the

notion that their abusers are Prince Charming in disguise which is a prevalent fantasy in Disney

movies. This includes many childhood favorites such as Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty,

and Frozen. The trend of fantasizing abusive relationships continues into the teenage cult classics

such as, Clueless, Easy A, and DC Comic’s Harley Quinn. Furthermore, this ideation is

continued into popularized adult media including 365 Days, Fifty Shades of Grey, and After. The

exploitation movie genre often shows graphic scenes of women’s torture aimed to please the

male audience. Fifty Shades of Grey is specifically marketed to women and fantasizes an

emotionally abusive relationship.Exposure to such fantasized relationships invalidates a

survivor’s trauma, thus, preventing real victims from coming forward about their experiences.
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Through the use of harmful rhetoric, women’s mental trauma has been belittled and exploited. In

this annotated bibliography, the reader will find a variety of sources that analyze how women’s

trauma is pillaged and repurposed as an entertainment source. While men’s mental health is

ignored, women’s mental health is disregarded. The goal of this research is to demonstrate the

negative impact that the society’s negative rhetoric towards women’s mental healthtrauma has on

society’s treatment of this traumaa victim’s healing process.

Brown, Catrina. “Women’s Narratives of Trauma: (Re)Storying Uncertainty,

Minimization and Self-Blame.” Narrative Works, vol. 3, no. 1, 20139,

https://doi.org/10.7202/1062052ar. Accessed 2022.

The aforementioned article follows the research of the narration of women’s trauma.

There is a particular focus on the research studies relevant to self-blame and minimization when

recounting traumatic events. Brown conducted interviews with twenty women and reported her

findings concurred with that of the other researchers’ whose work inspired her ownwhose

findings concurred with that of other researchers who inspired her own work. Through her

research, Brown found that women who were victims of sexual abuse showed increased

uncertainty, minimization, and self-blame when compared to their counterparts. Those who

experienced childhood abuse often had fragmented memory as a form of coping.

Much of the directionality behind this research has been inspired by the topic of this

article. Trauma as a narrative has been stigmatized by society to be downplayed as unimportant.

The article has directed this annotated bibliography as well as become a foundation in the

research being worked towards. The article granted access to current conversations between

scholars and new research points to explore. These points include but are not limited to how
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trauma is referenced by different age ranges and the change in rhetoric relating to the retelling of

one's trauma when alone or in a group.

Choruby-Whiteley, Amber, and Susan L. Morrow. “‘I Was Praying for My Very

Salvation from My Sexual Abuse’: Experiences of Sexual Abuse Survivors in the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” Women & Therapy, vol. 44, no. 3-4, 2021, pp. 292–

318., https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2021.1961436. Accessed 2022.

This article revolves around the internalization of cultural and societal messages with

regards to childhood sexual abuse. Specifically, this research pertains to those who were former

members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a special emphasis on how

religion impacts the healing process. The victims were frequently exposed to messages such as

“a woman’s value is connected to her virginity”, if you don’t get married you are a waste of

space, and “women are responsible for men’s sexuality”.

Societal messages play a large role in what I will be researching. While Choruby-

Whiteley and Morrow focused the influence of religious community, they failed to mention the

impact this had on the victim’s healing journey. This article has inspired the evolution of my

initial research question to regard society’s involvement in one’s healing journey. Furthermore, it

has also brought attention to adjusting my research to not only include individual interviews, but

also a group discussion.

Chowdhury, Nilima. “Practicing the Ideal Depressed Self: Young Professional Women’s

Accounts of Managing Depression.” Qualitative Health Research, vol. 30, no. 9, May

2020, pp. 1349–1361., https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732320917929. Accessed 2022.

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This article highlights Western culture’s “ideal” management of depression, particularly

when a woman is at work. There is also mention of the differences in how men and women

address and reference their depression. The research done in this article is interview based, with

the majority of the findings acknowledging that the “top girl” mentality limits one’s recovery

from depression. Chowdhury summarizes the way to present socially accepted depression into

five traits: “delivers no matter what”, “puts on a brave face”, “treats her depression medically”,

“looks after herself”, and “works towards becoming more positive”. By attaining those traits, one

would not outwardly present their depression, not would they properly address it.

This research model will be used as a template for my own research. Particularly, the

sociocultural and sociogeographical contexts are two aspects that require further investigation.

Another unique aspect this has inspired is the “ideal” management of depression for a young

woman in college. This article has inspired new parameters to guide later research on how

trauma-born depression is ideally managed.

Galvan, Margaret. “Feminism Underground: The Comics Rhetoric of Lee Marrs and

Roberta Gregory.” WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 3--4, October 2015, pp.

203–222., https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.2015.0043. Accessed 2022.

The article calls attention to the misrepresentation of women’s bodies within comics and

magazines. Galvan references two popular magazines in which the underground comics could be

found. She notes the rhetoric behind the comics, specifically the images with some reference to

the text, as well as its direct relationship with the depiction of women’s bodies. The author

ensures to reference the feminist discourse and how they have been implemented in political
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arguments, thus implying a change of rhetoricand its relationship to progressive social politics

with regards to the change in use of rhetoric.

This article is a great representative of how the ideal female body image harms women’s

mental health through its anatomical inaccuracy. This article serves as a foundation for further

research on how the objectification of women has allowed society to disregard women’s trauma.

While there is not much research inspiration within Tthis particular article, it is useful for

guiding future search parameters when it comes to further research. The article also inspires

some of the questions that will be used in the interview stage succeeding this annotated

bibliography.

Platz, Jenny. “Return to the Grindhouse: Tarantino and the Modernization of 1970s Exploitation

Films.” Enthymema, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 528–542., 2012

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/2730. Accessed 2022.

This article mentions how the modern “powerful woman” is someone who rejects all

femininityanalyzes Tarantino’s attempt at modernizing the exploitation films that were common

in the 1970’s. Tarantino reworked the female characterization into a strong lead who had the

ability to challenge patriarchal ideals. Despite his goals, Tarantino portrayed femininity as

weakness by having the lead woman reject all things considered feminine. Tarantino’s visual

rhetoric hypersexualized feminine characteristics to encourage the powerful woman as those who

are considered to have more masculine characteristicsThis has largely contributed to the societal

norm that femininity is weakness. The misrepresentation of women stemmed from the media

coverage of second-wave feminist movement, in which women were taking the power men
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refused to grant them. Many of these ideals have been translated into modern misrepresentation

of femineity, thus encouraging society to objectify and silence women. Furthermore it explores

Tarantino’s films and the constraints they have put on womenthe article explores the evolution of

constraints placed on women and how they have been modernized as we, as a society, have

progressed. Platz analyzes the visual and verbal rhetoric found in Tarantino’s films as well as

that of the exploitation genrethe original exploitation genre and compares it to the evolved

concepts common in Tarantino’s films.

This article, while not majorly helpful to my research, indirectly pertains to my research

by has allowedgranting me to the perspective of the evolution of societal treatment of women.

Much of this treatment leads to the questioning of femininity’s role in society’s treatment of

trauma.direct my questioning of femininity with regards to societal treatment of women. There is

also room for further exploration of societal attitudes to women.

Schwartz, Agatha, and Tatjana Takseva. “Between Trauma and Resilience: A

Transnational Reading of Women’s Life Writing About Wartime Rape in Germany and

Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Aspasia, vol. 14, 2020, p. 124.,

http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/asp.2020.140109. Accessed 2022.

Schwartz and Takseva compare wartime rape stories from multiple countries in an effort

to emphasize sexist ideology in the retelling of history. Their research follows along the different

cultural attitudes towards wartime rape. Attention is called to the parallels between mass rapes at

different time periods and the change in ethical analysis during wartime. This change in ethical

analysis is evident through the misdocumentation of accounts of mass wartime rape in historical

texts.
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This article allows me to see how the narrative of women’s trauma is influenced by

external pressures. These pressures are prevalent in the altering of a victim’s account through

minimization. This has furthered my research scope with regards to how I should address the

historical minimization of such trauma and its impact on modern society.