Trauma

Some people self-care with a massage or a spa day. Me? I find the nearest Ethiopian restaurant, even if it means traveling hours by car, bus, train, airplane, or all of the above. It may seem like extreme lengths to go for a family serving plate of injera, doro wot, lamb tibs, and shiro, but […]

While a writer searched for her Latinidad, a narcissistic abuser exploiting his status as a Cuban dissident found her.

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.

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

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

A story of workplace abuse: “Saftey words are for Pussies!” read the misspelled Roy-Lichtenstein-does-BDSM faux pop art painting displayed in the office of the Anonymous Sex Toy Company. "Safe, Sane, and Consensual" was the company motto. None of the men running the company understood those slogans were incompatible.

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.

Using the word "brave" exalts certain traumatized people as heroic and casts others as failures. All victims of assault deserve to have their experiences dignified with validation, not just those who earn it through "bravery."