Many here have said to be under the impression that NV may likely be a (narcissistic) abuser.
What y'all guessing about HC's perspective on this, though?
Like, you reckon he sees it this way too, or is it more likely that to him, it's just someone whom he happens to have a gigantic type of quarrel with?
And do you reckon the fact that he's a man might impact his ability to acknowledge that he may have been experiencing abuse?
-- full train of thought:
I just dawned on me that almost all the people who I can come up with off the top of my head, who have survived narcissistic abuse or other severe cases of abuse and managed to come out the other end with their sanity intact, and whom I've heard speaking on that - either in person or when they were sharing about their story publicly - are either women or queers.
And for the men amongst the latter, it's more specifically queer man who are out, and also clearly not trying to fit with the culturally still somewhat dominant version of "traditional masculinity".
Now, this obviously isn't to say that there aren't any straight men, or men who are projecting a more "traditional" type of masculinity, who've managed to do the same - there definitely are.
I also realize that these groups of men may be less likely to speak of their experiences openly, as unfortunately some might question their masculinity over the fact that they have experienced abuse.
On the flip side though, I can easily think of a whole number of men projecting a more traditional type of masculinity who have, in fact, experienced abuse, and who either are still in the same or similar situations, or very much don't seem to have their mental health in check at all (well, or - both of these). And when I've heard these men speak of their experiences of abuse, they themselves have usually not labelled it as such. Like, they would mentioned things that have happened, but typically didn't define or even seemed to think of them as abuse.
On an additional note, for example, when I find myself in some corner of the internet where people are sharing their experiences of abuse with one another, there'll often be someone popping into the conversation going like "What the heck, what y'all talking about, that ain't abuse! In fact, it isn't even harmful at all, it's normal! It happened to me to - and I turned out just fine!!!"
It's always quite awkward when this happens, since most likely everyone in a space like this is going "yeah, no, you are very likely very much not fine" in their heads - and then you'll see some brave ones going for their best attempts of expressing this notion to the "visitor" - but, ya know: gently.
Now, in my experience, these people bumping into those conversations like that, not exclusively but in the biggest majority of cases are dudes.
Which brings my thoughts back to the anon who repeatedly expressed frustration about the firmness of my feeling that HC likely isn't doing so well.
This almost reflexive insistence that someone's mostly fine, within a context of conversations that probably have about thousands of things mentioned that should make it reasonable to assume that there's at least a good chance he might not be, is kinda reminiscent of "that one dude" crashing into online conversations about abuse or trauma. It's also one of the things that to me "gave that anon away" as someone who I'd assume has been raised as a man.
Now, it's definitely not like "non-dudes" can't be unaware about how seriously something may have affected them, or in denial about having experienced abuse or trauma, or in the dark about how much they're actually struggling. Heck, I'm not a dude and I've certainly been there, big time.
However, I rarely see "non-dudes", who might be in a spot like this, getting quite so insistent about it. Most of the times, when I see people getting real frustrated about someone suspecting they might not be okay, or showing a lot of determination at pushing back anything that might suggest that they aren't, these people are cisgendered men.
I've also taken a look at the FamousFix stuff mentioned, and personally, I don't feel comfortable with the way people are talking over there - especially since it sounds a lot like they're mostly just trying to tear someone down. However, I don't think that the points of "bragging" or "compensation" are entirely off, either. Granted that this might also be part of the PR, and its likely a business-quid-pro-quo of some sort anyway, and also in light of the flavours of his nerdy interests, I can see he might genuinely just be excited about a loco-bbq like that - which is fine, and having activities that one can genuinely enjoy is always a good thing in my book.
But well, also, that post even has been brought up on here as "evidence" of how he's doing better. So I have a hard time not seeing it as at least partially also being a "look at me, look at my cool (manly, and expensive = successful) stuff, and see how I am obviously doing quite alright!" - which I'd say could be seen as a form of compensation.
And well, all of this now got me thinking: I wonder whether HC is even thinking of NV as someone who's likely an abuser? I think that in my head it's been like "yeah, at this point surely it's gotta have dawned on him", but now I'm thinking, well, how likely is that, actually?
Cause I'm thinking after all, if he was to see her as an abuser, he'd also have to acknowledge to himself he'd have been abused. Which if he acknowledged that, it might make the possibility feel a little more pressing that this might have emotionally targeted and affected him in deeper ways that might actually need some serious untangling and working through. It might also make it harder to convince oneself of doing pretty well.
Also, if she was a narcissistic abuser, that would mean he couldn't win her in a game, or ever gain control over her - which I don't know, might clash with his ego? Or worst case, even with his kinda looking up to heroic characters?
My oh my, the more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm feeling this might just end up turning out as another sad episode of "Toxic Masculinity hurts men, too".