In this honest and brave piece, journalist Mac McClelland talks about her experiences with PTSD after being surrounded with sexual violence in Haiti, and how having consensual violent sex became part of how she healed. Given the content there is a big trigger warning on the article.
The piece gives voice to the gendered trauma that journalists doing extraordinarily important work face. I think it also offers readers a reminder that sex is extraordinarily complicated, and our motivations, needs, and desires are extremely diverse as well as cultivated in a patriarchal (racist, heteronormative, etc.) society.
I highly recommend the read, but do make sure you take care of yourself. Again, a trigger warning for accounts of sexual violence and of a (consensual) sexual encounter that is potentially upsetting for some readers.
