domestic violence

Treasure Box

by | March 7, 2023

In Treasure Box, Jamilla VanDyke-Bailey reflects on an important conversation that came too late.

A Black mother comforting her teenage daughter

Infidelity for Beginners

by | January 10, 2023

A publicist engages in an activity she can tell no one about: an affair with her boss.

Serious blond woman deep in thought

Flan Desparramado

by | September 27, 2022

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.

image of flan

The Word You May Be Looking For is “Stalking”

by | October 8, 2021

From “Bad Art Friend” to the Miya Marcano murder to reports of femicide, writers shy away from a crucial word: stalking.

Woman being stalked by man

We Are The Ones Who Got Away

by | September 21, 2021

The Petito case challenges us to consider how we language romantic harm. Domestic violence seldom stays at home.

arizona highway

Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 3: “Wassup, M’ija?”

by | June 1, 2021

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.

Desiree Gurba

Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 2: Chicken Soup for the Homies’ Soul

by | May 27, 2021

An older homegirl, a hood mom whom Desiree considered her mentor, announced, "I'm jumping you in."

Desiree Gurba

Pocas Pero Locas: An Interpersonal Chicana Essay Where Two Primas Make Sure Shit Gets Told Right

by | May 18, 2021

Myriam Gurba writes about her cousin Desiree, female gangsters, cholas, Mexican bad asses with big hair, and the criminalization of survivors.

Myriam and Desiree Gurba, 1988

Writing Ourselves Into Bed

by | March 15, 2021

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.

Arcelia

Framing Britney Spears Deepened My Desire for Justin Timberlake to Eat a Bag of Dicks

by | February 11, 2021

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.

Jamie and Britney Spears