We have to be careful here. It is perfectly normal for victims of sexual abuse to appear reserved, distant, weepy, stiff, stuttering, rehearsed, or frankly any type of way when recounting abuse publicly. Some of the arguments you give in this piece are thought provoking and shed light on unfair assumptions. Presuming, however, that there is some specific way a survivor should sound or appear when giving testimony is unfair. Plenty of survivors do rehearse what they want to say before a trial or interview because they don’t want to get distracted, off topic, or forget key points they meant to include. I am not in favor of one side or the other as I am not familiar with the case. But I feel this is worth mentioning to avoid spreading this harmful belief. Consider: if she was devastated, her lip trembled, voice shook, and there were tears in her eyes, someone would easily say it was “overdramatic” or “performative”. There is no perfect way to be while giving testimony.