The Commonly Unrecognized Violence
Non-violent abuse is a type of violence that isn't talked about enough. In Netflix’s miniseries Maid, the main character, Alex, portrays a powerful and realistic example of emotional abuse and its effects. I believe Maid is a good representation of how emotional abuse is just as damaging as physical abuse, even though you can't always see it. Many people aren't taught to spot it, and I think we all need to educate ourselves more on this less obvious yet serious issue.
What makes emotional abuse so harmful is that it can be hard to notice in everyday moments. It's not always loud or dramatic; sometimes it's silent, like being controlled, ignored, or doubted. These are things many people might brush off as just “rough patches in a relationship”, but in reality, they can be signs of something very harmful and serious.
My main goal for this blog is to point out the many examples of non-violent abuse in the TV series Maid. The creator, Molly Smith Metzler, shows this abuse realistically through the character Sean, who manipulates Alex into staying with him by making her feel powerless and reliant. He yells at her, cuts off her transportation, and destroys their home, but never hits her. This series explains how abuse goes beyond just physical harm, and I will also share my own thoughts to look into these issues further. Maid shows how emotional abuse has become normalized, victims often face multiple systematic failures, and in many cases, emotional abuse can escalate into physical violence. By exploring Alex’s story, we can better understand how forms of control can be just as painful as physical harm and how easily they can go unnoticed by society.