FROM PTSD TO PTS-FREE
Providing Support for Survivors of Domestic Violence and / or Sexual Assault by Giving Them a Voice.|Let’s continue the conversation… #WhyILeft, #WhyIStayed, #HowILeft, #YesAllWomen…
SHOCKING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS
%
percent of women are victims of severe violence by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.
%
percent of homeless families identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness.
%
percent of gay or bisexual men who will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes.
%
The percentage of financial abuse that occurs in all domestic violence cases.
Speak The Truth Even If Your Voice Shakes
Listen. Look. Don’t speak. Be quiet. Can you hear in his footsteps he is angry? What did you do? Where has the light gone from his eyes? The tension in his body. Can you feel it, even when he is not hitting you? The pain. The words. You can’t run, you can’t fight. Don’t try, […]
Why the Bloomingdale’s “Spike your Best Friend’s Drink” aka date-rape ad is a problem…
Why the Bloomingdale’s “Spike your Best Friend’s Drink” aka date-rape ad is a problem… So by now – you probably gather that I feel strongly in disfavor over the Bloomingdale ad. An ad that portrays A woman, laughing, head tossed back, focused on something over her right shoulder. A man stares at her, unsmiling. The […]
Revisiting #WhyIStayed – two years post abuse
Facebook likes to remind me of memories. Today it reminded me of this Mic article, “19 #WhyIStayed Tweets That Everyone Needs to See” – If you haven’t seen/read that article make sure you do! Here are some of the tweets (both current and from a year ago) that really hit home for me. I stayed […]
Stop Survivor Pity
If you have not been living in a cave during the past two-or-so weeks, you have probably heard of the Duggar drama. Facebook and Twitter blew up with people on both sides of the issue (Yeh, I know, I don’t even understand how this issue even has more than one side) Regardless the media onslaught […]
The Boy Snapped Her Bra – and the Girl Did Exactly What She Was Supposed to do.
I ran across this story on my Facebook feed this morning, and I wanted to find out more – like who was it, where was the school, where was this story originally published. If you have not seen it yet – here is the jest – Mom of a teenage girl gets called away from […]
It is Bigger than Hypocrisy – the REAL problem with the Duggar Sexual Abuse
I get it. Hypocrites suck. However, they are everywhere; in every religion, in every wing of politics, in various socio-economic sections… Moreover, every time we see someone acting hypocritically we want to call them out on it. For some reason, it makes us all feel better. However, in the case with the Duggars – there […]
From the Editor
I could not stop the inappropriate giggles during my rape kit. Humor (especially inappropriate humor) was always my defense mechanism. I thought that it was better for me to crack jokes than to break down and cry. The nurses even asked “why is she laughing” – and that phrase stuck in my head…
It echoed for months as I worked with police and prosecutors. It echoed while I tried to focus on m “day job”. But while I heard that echo there still was a voice inside my head that reminded me that “things like this do not happen to people like me”… Like many other victims, I felt shame and embarrassment; how could I let this happen. I worked with counselors – and found an unlikely support group via a Facebook group. I heard stories from other women, and the island upon which I felt oh so isolated started to connect to the outside world.
I found myself reading stories published by other media outlets – like ThoughtCatalog, HuffingtonPost, and MindBodyGreen. While I was in love with what they published I found myself craving more – wishing there was just one site that would focus on domestic violence and sexual assault. I wanted to read personal stories. It was comforting to me that I was not the only person struggling in the way I was.
Sometimes I feel that it is socially acceptable for one, who is recovering from a severe illness, or addiction to vocalize their recovery – but it is quite jarring to admit (and probably to hear) one say “I am a recovering rape victim survivor”. This is one of the many reasons I want to bring awareness to the recovery/healing process. And thus became my desire to build a community. I wanted to build a community, a compilation of stories from real people.
~ WISL Editor