“I’ve never laid a hand on her! Don’t you dare stand here, in my house, and accuse me of such a thing! You’re my brother, for heavens sake! How dare you accuse me of abuse!”
She doesn’t need to have a black eye, or another broken rib. Her broken spirit, her broken resolve, and the anger and disgust she feels as she runs the events of the day through her shattered heart, are enough. She doesn’t have to be lying in a heap, bleeding at the bottom of the stairs, to be a victim of abuse. The broken plate on the kitchen floor, with the remains of the meal dripping down the wall, are evidence enough. The insults being hurled at her and her children; the name calling; the manipulation, the lies and the days of silence are more than enough proof. She is an abused woman.
Perhaps this answers our question of today: ‘What Does Abuse Look Like?’ In South Africa, 90% of women are abused, and it’s the highest rate in the world. In the US, women experience more than 4 million physical assaults and rapes because of their partners and more than 3 million children witness domestic violence in their homes. This monster takes many forms, and it stays fiendishly frightening. It cannot be totally annihilated, but it MUST be tamed, or what hope is there for a woman in this world, but to be a statistic, or strive to defy those odds and flourish.
What would you say are some of the more subtle ways that women are being abused, that have sadly become ‘acceptable’?