This article draws on ethnographic evidence and argues for the theoretical significance of that evidence regarding concepts of personal agency vis-à-vis rhetorics of victimhood. The problem discussed in this article is that a dominant discourse that positions women primarily or exclusively as victims in response to their experience of sexual assault not only works to re-victimize women but imposes unnecessary boundaries on the meaning of these experiences for the women involved. Instead of privileging the dominant discourse, this article seeks to privilege the voices of women who have experienced sexual assault. How women make sense of their experiences and themselves is constituted by their discourses. Among the many ways women choose to make sense of their experience and (re)construct the self is by drawing on the alternative available discourses including their military values and identity.
The dilemma of rape avoidance advice: Acknowledging women's agency without blaming victims of sexual assault