Posted on Sep 11, 2015
Is the label "survivor" overused and thus devalued?
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The word "survivor" is now used as a suffix to any traumatic experience (or percieved traumatic experience). The most recent one, which prompted this, was "gun violence survivors." Some were shot and "survived" the experience, others had family members killed. Should this be labeled "survivor?" It seems to build on the victim profile we continue to build for people. Honestly, unless you have been the target of a homicide, and the intention to kill is present...isn't that the only time you're really a survivor? Someone tried to kill you, but you made it. Everything else is surely tragic, but saying you survived something that doesn't involve attempted killing of some sort seems...alarmist, and just wrong.
Violence
Murder
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 13
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COL (Join to see) I agree with you and SSgt (Join to see). The title of "survivor" is used to often and sometimes people try to find whatever connection they can find to an event to have that labeled applied. For example, looking at today as the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, if very loosely applied, aren't we all "survivors" of the attacks? Just some food for thought.
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SSgt (Join to see)
I am a survivor of the show Survivor. Not because I competed on the show, but because my better half makes me watch it! (that's how ridiculous the term has gotten, it seems)
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COL (Join to see)
We're all survivors of the human condition. We have survived a whole bunch of things. I don't want to trivialize traumatic experiences, but I think the term is way overused.
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We need to change our lexicon. Hero and survivor and thrown about too freely
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SSgt (Join to see)
Perhaps new words for survivors of potential life/death experiences, and survivors who have overcome a difficult, traumatic situation...
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COL (Join to see) I would agree on both. I have said for years that the TV show survivor needs to show someone being bitten by a shark, mauled by a lion, gored by a hippo, trampled by elephants, or some other major event that has to be dealt with before the title applies. Playing games in the woods is not surviving, it is camping (a recreational activity that almost anyone can participate).
I think that in the internet age, people want to be there when it happens. Be where? the epicenter of an event that will start a national or global discussion about said event. Using gun violence as an example, if a person is close enough to here the gun shots, then they were close enough to be famous. Case in point, when the last theater shootings occurred, there were interviews conducted with people who were in the building, but nowhere near the actual event. Words like courageous, survivor, and victim were thrown around. My thought was that they were as much courageous survivor victims as I am. When someone has first hand experienced a traumatic event, they are a survivor. A person who is bitten by a shark is a shark attack survivor or shark attack victim. I personally think that the word victim is far worse. It has an implication that the person labeled was helpless to do anything in the situation. I would like to think (even if it leads to death) that there is always something that can be done to improve a situation. We need to stop the use of these spectacular words to describe average events.
That being said, those guys who attacked the terrorist on the train in France are survivors. One was shot in the neck, and the other was slashed badly across the neck and hand. That is survival. Even the man who was shot's wife would qualify, not because her husband was shot, but because she was right there in the same train car with the terrorist when it
I think that in the internet age, people want to be there when it happens. Be where? the epicenter of an event that will start a national or global discussion about said event. Using gun violence as an example, if a person is close enough to here the gun shots, then they were close enough to be famous. Case in point, when the last theater shootings occurred, there were interviews conducted with people who were in the building, but nowhere near the actual event. Words like courageous, survivor, and victim were thrown around. My thought was that they were as much courageous survivor victims as I am. When someone has first hand experienced a traumatic event, they are a survivor. A person who is bitten by a shark is a shark attack survivor or shark attack victim. I personally think that the word victim is far worse. It has an implication that the person labeled was helpless to do anything in the situation. I would like to think (even if it leads to death) that there is always something that can be done to improve a situation. We need to stop the use of these spectacular words to describe average events.
That being said, those guys who attacked the terrorist on the train in France are survivors. One was shot in the neck, and the other was slashed badly across the neck and hand. That is survival. Even the man who was shot's wife would qualify, not because her husband was shot, but because she was right there in the same train car with the terrorist when it
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