“The Sound of Freedom” Isn’t Healing for All Survivors




One of the basic realities of my life is that I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and, as an adult, rape. My massage therapist, M., knows I’m a sexual abuse survivor because we’ve talked about how that impacts my body and the way she works with my old injuries. She suggested to me that I watch The Sound of Freedom. For context, The Sound of Freedom is a movie in which a U.S. federal agent works to free children from sex trafficking. I realize M. was trying to be… something positive. I hesitate to use the word “helpful.” But certainly she didn’t think she was doing something harmful. Her intentions were pure. I said, “I don’t think I could ever watch it.” After all, the mere idea of having to sit through a movie about the sexual abuse of children (or rape of adults, for that matter) is enough to give me acid reflux. I lived that life. I don’t need to see a movie portrayal of it — not the version of it that I lived, and not the sex trafficking version, either. But in that way that some non-traumatized people have, M. continued, “Well, it could be the most healing movie you’ll ever see.” No, watching a display of how other children are raped and abused is not going to heal me, even if someone saves them at the end or if the point of the film is fighting sex trafficking.Then M. said, “The director handled it very tastefully. He didn’t show the actual abuse taking place. Like in one scene, you just see the man walk into the room with the little girl. And she looks so scared because she’s already experienced all this before. And then it just shows the man close the curtains over the window.”