When did every life challenge or trauma start being “survivor” this and “survivor” that? Where did this practice start? I don’t recall this use being all that prevalent 10-15 years ago and now it’s everywhere.
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Here’s what two divorce survivors had to say about what it taught them
Probably the breakout hit 2000 reality TV series
No… it was used before that in the context I mentioned in the OP. IIRC it seems to have started about 10 years ago.
Ehh well, I didn’t think it was that usual before the reality series. It’s not an extremely unlikely term to be used every so often even without a zeitgeist reason.
Can you really see a clear jump in usage around 1995?? It might have been an early internet meme, then, since that was around the time that public web usage was starting to grow.
I think the first usage was in the 80s as a PC synonym for abuse victim. I’m not a victim of child/spouse abuse…I’m a SURVIVOR of abuse. And there it spread. I’m not a cancer patient, I’m a cancer survivor. I’m not a Back Street Boys fan, I’m a Back Street Boys survivor.
I think it was to replace “victim” by emphasizing the positive & promoting respect for the sufferer, rather than pity (from “John was a victim of child abuse” to “John is a survivor of child abuse”).