Women, be silent because your trauma makes people uncomfortable.

[JellySaurus]

This is an article about female French Resistance fighters and survivors. It really struck me how women were actively silenced and made invisible after the war. Treatment of PTSD was developing at that time, and it was understand that talking therapies were very helpful. But by silencing the women these therapies were withheld from them.

…there was a kind of a shame around being a woman that was in a camp…

They were shamed - punished - for being tortured.

As young women, they were often told after the war to keep their stories quiet…

So, not only did their heroism go unrecognised, but their trauma went untreated.

"Women bear the brunt of wars in ways that were unacknowledged, profound ways, and I want that to be recognised and known," says Gwen.

So right about Tenko - lots of research taken from female survivors, not to mention ground breaking in terms of being a near entire female lead cast. A number of excellent actresses and the whole story told, series 3 I always find particularly moving.

Patriarchal attitude that raped women are 'damaged goods'.

I'll mention in conjunction with that the several famous westerns written around the theme of white women survivors of Native American attacks, recovered some years later.

In one, Trooper Hook, the woman has a child and faces both being rejected by society on the grounds that she should have found a way to kill herself rather than submit to rape, and she can only be grudgingly forgiven and accepted on the fringes if she parts with her child. In another, John Wayne is on a mission to recover his captured niece (Natalie Wood) and then to kill her to erase the shame and harm of her capture and rape. In the last moment of the film, he discovers while holding a gun on her, that he actually can't do it and takes her home. Isn't that lovely of him. Both popular films.

Wow, an amazing and moving story of female resistance

@Artichokeleaves

Patriarchal attitude that raped women are 'damaged goods'.

I'll mention in conjunction with that the several famous westerns written around the theme of white women survivors of Native American attacks, recovered some years later.

In one, Trooper Hook, the woman has a child and faces both being rejected by society on the grounds that she should have found a way to kill herself rather than submit to rape, and she can only be grudgingly forgiven and accepted on the fringes if she parts with her child. In another, John Wayne is on a mission to recover his captured niece (Natalie Wood) and then to kill her to erase the shame and harm of her capture and rape. In the last moment of the film, he discovers while holding a gun on her, that he actually can't do it and takes her home. Isn't that lovely of him. Both popular films.

The John Wayne film is The Searchers, often listed on "Greatest Westerns" lists. I love Westerns but think this one has dated terribly. One that I still think is timeless is High Noon; which has a rare early example of a great role for a Mexican actress (Katy Jurado).

I second the recommendation for The Unwomanly Face Of War. I also enjoyed The Garden Of Evening Mists, a novel by a male author, but with a very graphic description of the reality and consequences for women in Japanese prison camps in Malaysia.