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abuse

Gaslighting

A 101 on this classic form of abuse

Hillary Di Menna

Gaslighting, often referred to as crazy making, is a type of emotional abuse. Abusers use this technique to confuse their victims. Victims become vulnerable to manipulation in this confusion and abusers, by nature, take advantage of this pliability. The term comes from a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton. The play titled Gas Light (also known […] More »
May-June 2016

Fly Away Little Bird

Nadia Alam left her abusive home four years ago, but it was far from easy. Why we need more support— and awareness—for children and adults who are struggling to leave emotionally destructive families

Nadia Alam

Illustration by Jori van der Linde For a long time, no one understood why I hated my mother. After all, pop culture, Hallmark, and general wisdom tend to all agree that a daughter shares her deepest secrets with her mother. With her, I was supposed to feel safe, comforted, supported, and so deeply loved. I […] More »
January-February 2016

The People Do Good Stuff Issue: Samra Zafar

The survivor and award-winning academic who empowers women to leave abuse

Fatima Syed@fatimasyed401

WHILE MOST PEOPLE’S FACEBOOK messages brim with congratulatory notes on the day of their graduation, Samra Zafar’s inbox was overflowing with two words: “Thank you.” On Monday June 10, 2013, Zafar, then 30 years old, had kept her phone off for the duration of her University of Toronto graduation, where she was awarded top student […] More »

Gender Block: She Asked For It

Hillary Di Menna

I decided I need to become better at public speaking so I’ve started subjecting myself to the horror of, well, public speaking. I started as a guest speaker at a Durham Rape Crisis Centre volunteer training session, my second and most recent attempt was a literary reading at Oshawa, Ont.’s The LivingRoom Community Art Studio. […] More »

Wednesday WTF: Swine-flu freakout's unintended consequence: hand-sanitizer addiction

meagan thibeault

First, mothers were warned to be watchful of their curious children around the potentially poisonous product; and now, store owners and homeless shelters are being urged to keep an eye out for clientele who may be abusing it. The culprit: common hand sanitizers, which have been saturating not only our hands, but also store shelves […] More »

Tori Stafford and Tara Lyn Poorman: violence in silence

kelli korducki

Ever the  moral hinterland, the U.S. state of Texas has recently been in the news for an exceptionally despicable practice: charging victims of sexual violence up-front payments for their own rape kits, which pack a financial wallop of up to $1800. No one has conducted an official poll on the matter, but I’m fairly confident […] More »