#94. She Said It Was Consensual. Then They Called It Trauma.

Psychobabble · Oct 12, 2026 · 19m

The Cornell 7 case has become about much more than what happened that night.

Jane Doe's lawyer says her behavior afterward — including initially describing the encounter as consensual — is a "textbook" trauma response. Across social media, people are making the same argument: contradictory behavior after an alleged assault doesn't undermine the trauma narrative; it may actually confirm it.

But is that what the research shows?

In this episode, I look at how the definition of trauma has expanded, what PTSD was originally designed to describe, what studies of forcible rape survivors actually…