domestic violence
Treasure Box
In Treasure Box, Jamilla VanDyke-Bailey reflects on an important conversation that came too late.
Infidelity for Beginners
A publicist engages in an activity she can tell no one about: an affair with her boss.
Flan Desparramado
A battered woman makes a crucial deal with Dominican Jesus: if she could escape her abuser in order to spend time with her dying mother, she would learn to make flan.
The Word You May Be Looking For is “Stalking”
From “Bad Art Friend” to the Miya Marcano murder to reports of femicide, writers shy away from a crucial word: stalking.
We Are The Ones Who Got Away
The Petito case challenges us to consider how we language romantic harm. Domestic violence seldom stays at home.
Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 3: “Wassup, M’ija?”
After a gang unit stopped my 14 year old cousin for driving in a stolen hoopty, they took her to Eastlake Juvenile Hall and handed her over to a new abuser: a cop.
Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 2: Chicken Soup for the Homies’ Soul
An older homegirl, a hood mom whom Desiree considered her mentor, announced, "I'm jumping you in."
Pocas Pero Locas: An Interpersonal Chicana Essay Where Two Primas Make Sure Shit Gets Told Right
Myriam Gurba writes about her cousin Desiree, female gangsters, cholas, Mexican bad asses with big hair, and the criminalization of survivors.
Writing Ourselves Into Bed
When battered women "move on," sometimes, we "start over" in a new home that's, in many ways, a reconstitution of our old home. We might not be sharing walls or a roof with the piece of shit who fucked us up but the weapons he used remain. Weapons like a bed. They don't look like weapons. They look like ordinary things. That's what's so frightening about them.
Framing Britney Spears Deepened My Desire for Justin Timberlake to Eat a Bag of Dicks
No daughter should live in terror of her dad and prolonged fear of a caregiver, especially a masculine one, indicates that someone may be experiencing coercive control, an ongoing form of gendered oppression characterized by a combination of conditions which are documented by Framing Britney Spears.