#patterns of abuse

[lorynna]

credit: obelis.art on Instagram

[my-funked-up-life]

[weirdcultstuff]

“Covert resistance is the idea that sometimes seemingly passive, victim-like behaviors, pleasing behaviors, are the sanest and smartest response to living in a violent culture, in a culture and a country that is making it clear every single day it has no fucking interest in protecting you. In the case of, say, my grandmother, covert resistance is all the invisible, brave actions a woman takes inside a violent relationship she can’t leave because she doesn’t make as much money as a man, because the police might not show up when she calls, or depending on the color of her skin, they might show up and something terrible might happen. Because she doesn’t have decision-making power over her own fucking body. Covert resistance doesn’t really fit into our traditional narratives of heroism. It involves a lot of tiny, daily actions. It involves things like a woman feeding her kids, working twelve hours a day for them, helping them get a good education, helping them graduate at the top of their class. It can also involve less positive things, things like getting sick, maybe dying of melancholia, and...not running away. Because in this country, the moment a woman decides to run away is the moment her life and her kids’ lives are in the most danger.”

- from the play What The Constitution Means To Me, by Heidi Schrek.

[lioninsunheart]

“You know all that sympathy that you feel for an abused child who suffers without a good mom or dad to love and care for them? Well, they don't stay children forever. No one magically becomes an adult the day they turn eighteen. Some people grow up sooner, many grow up later. Some never really do. But just remember that some people in this world are older versions of those same children we cry for.” ― Ashly Lorenzana