While working on a bigger post that is low-key tuning into a Kanej essay on this that I said about Inej Ghafa's trauma, I found myself thinking... for all the (very valid) "Inej's trauma isn't talked about enough" I've seen around in the brief time I've spent in the fandom so far, I think that an even truer assessment might be that at least from what I've been able to see her trauma can at times be "oversimplified" (I don't know what other word to use) in a lot of discussion- though I'm pretty sure that it isn't being done on purpose.
it's more than understandable people will focus primarily on the objectification and physical aspects of her trauma; at the same time though there are so many other elements to discuss alongside them too:
Let's not forget that Inej herself claims perhaps the worse part of her time at the Menagerie wasn't the physical part of it, rather it was was Heleen's capacity for kindness and consequent benefit of the doubt that she'd use for emotional abuse.
Let's not forget that Inej was sold as a sex slave in a country she didn't know, with a language she didn't speak and a religion she did not practice to a brothel that specialized in cultural fetish, where she couldn't use her own fucking name for a whole year and was referred to with the name of a literal animal and one that didn't make sense to associate with her Suli origins at that.
Let's not forget that Inej's natural defense mechanism isn't fight (which she had to learn) but freeze, that dissociation was what got her through her work and the one time she couldn't manage to separate herself from what was being done to her was with a man that recognized her from her prior happier life.
Let's not forget that her freeze response carried through time even after she left and it was so bad she couldn't walk the street in front of The House Of Exotics and the one time she succeeds she runs into Heleen who taunts her and she freezes again.
Let's not forget that on that day and on the one she first arrived on Ketterdam at age 14, Inej thought of killing herself.
Let's not forget that to Suli people have no land and the capacity to rely on others and find shelter in community is how you survive, and Inej was blocked in Ketterdam of all fucking places, where everyone operates for their own interest and on their own if not for family or gangs and not even these could be trusted- and Inej had to learn that with the Dregs, to be ready to defend herself even from those she thinks are her friends. In fact-
Let's not forget that when she was being hostage by Van Heck the only person she trusted would've come for her is the only unapologetically openly devoted member of the crew (i.e. Nina) and literally everyone else was some variation of 'I don't know if they'd come for me', not just Kaz (she assumes Matthias might out of honor more than anything, Wylan doesn't seem to register as an option and she didn't trust Jesper would prioritize her over the needed money).
Let's not forget that Inej called every single one of her knives after the Saints she'd pray to after using them, that her faith isn't just an anchor of hope but also near the only bit of her identity she had left to clung onto.
A key component of Inej's story is about overcoming layers of emotional destabilization, and I think it's important to not... reduce (for lack of a better term) the effects of all of this to "whether or not she's okay with being touched".
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