“Desperate, heartbroken, and angry” text messages can also be astoundingly abusive—I’m so sick of them diminishing ACTUAL VERBAL & EMOTIONAL ABUSE to just a couple of frustrated correspondences. That’s not what that was. She was berating him, threatening him, gaslighting him, harassing him, insulting him, attempting to goad him, the list goes on and fuckin on.
I hate this behavior for so many reasons but I think what upsets me most is the possibility that folks in here (including lurkers) are reading this GROSS minimization of abuse time and again and might finally start to doubt the legitimacy of their OWN traumas.
When FM’s call Alice’s cruelty just “desperate and heartbroken,” it can be so easy for victims of abuse to think that, hey, maybe THEIR former loved ones weren’t really being abusive but were just “upset” and “sad,” and that they don’t have a right to be traumatized or that their pain isn’t valid. I probs sound dumb but like, it can make you question or even SYMPATHIZE with your aggressors.
If anyone needs to hear it, or has ever needed to hear it: Your trauma is valid. NO amount of rhetorical gymnastics can redesign the behavior of the people who’ve hurt you.
THASSIT, family.
Hope you’re having a great day/night/morning/existence.
I lurve y’all.