This is so thorough and thoughtfully written. I am always surprised when lawyers still try to portray victims of rape and abuse as "asking for it". Especially when so many victims have stepped forward and are all corroborating each other's stories.
As someone who escaped an abusive relationship, you capture the psychological aspects of it very well. Violence gets normalized, you shrink yourself to avoid setting him off, you apologize even when you didn’t do anything because anything other than an apology results in more fighting. Mentally you’re exhausted and the only break you get is when you’re on his good side. My family asked me too why didn’t I leave or why I went back. My sisters told me “you let yourself”… it’s really hard how abuse is still not understand well by society and survivors like us are meant to heal in silence and shame.
Excellent Alice. Very poignant. I had a childhood and relationship with my mother much like yours, but different. It made me think about things I had not thought about or refused to think about. The amount of people involved in this whole sad perverted lifestyle is so big that you may be right, they want this book closed as quickly as possible.
This is so thorough and thoughtfully written. I am always surprised when lawyers still try to portray victims of rape and abuse as "asking for it". Especially when so many victims have stepped forward and are all corroborating each other's stories.
As someone who escaped an abusive relationship, you capture the psychological aspects of it very well. Violence gets normalized, you shrink yourself to avoid setting him off, you apologize even when you didn’t do anything because anything other than an apology results in more fighting. Mentally you’re exhausted and the only break you get is when you’re on his good side. My family asked me too why didn’t I leave or why I went back. My sisters told me “you let yourself”… it’s really hard how abuse is still not understand well by society and survivors like us are meant to heal in silence and shame.
Thank you Alice - for both your dedication to this as well as sharing your story.
Excellent Alice. Very poignant. I had a childhood and relationship with my mother much like yours, but different. It made me think about things I had not thought about or refused to think about. The amount of people involved in this whole sad perverted lifestyle is so big that you may be right, they want this book closed as quickly as possible.
Poignant and heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing your story.
This was so well well written and deeply felt. So proud of you for pushing through your own trauma for this!