Every other Saturday we will post links relevant to survivors. Please feel free to discuss these links in the comments, or post more links! Trigger warnings appreciated, and self-promotion welcome.
There is a call for submissions by marginalized survivors for an annual event called Survivors Speak Out in September.
There is a new blog for survivors abused by women.
There was a discussion about the representation of ace survivors in The Invisible Orientation, with an announcement of planned changes for the forthcoming paperback version. They all sound really good!
Featured on our Tumblr: a good post on self-care for overstimulated nerves.
A new study suggests that tetris might help treat PTSD flashbacks.
‘It turns out playing Tetris after re-experiencing trauma significantly reduces the frequency of flashbacks. Participants who played Tetris reported “substantially” fewer flashbacks than than all the other groups.’
Ania Cebulla wrote about Beauty and the Beast, and how being abusive and being a victim of abuse are not mutually exclusive. The post also deals with how abuse can be so subtle it might look fairly benign when the pattern of manipulative micro-aggressions is not considered. [tw: Stockholm syndrome, emotional abuse, abuse being dismissed/denied, tactic of abusers using their abusive past to create a connection with the victim]
‘A lot of abuse takes the form of a series of micro-aggressions, which may or may not be combined with explicit acts of aggression and which can be practically invisible when viewed as single events. This is part of what can make it so difficult for people to explain to others what is happening to them. On the surface the event can seem benign, but when it becomes part of a pattern that seemingly benign act carries the weight of every single other micro-aggression along with it.’
Police Scotland released a new rape prevention ad targeting men aged 16-27. [Warning: ad contains graphic scenes]
President Obama stated that drugging someone to sexually assault them constitutes rape, and says that this country should have no tolerance for rape. [In the context of a conversation about Bill Cosby’s admission of doing exactly that]
Libby Anne discussed how love is used to excuse abuse. [tw: emotional abuse, child abuse]
‘Do you have any idea how much abuse parents have justified in the name of love? Love serves as a sort of get out of jail free card, as though all that matters is that you love your child, and how you treat your child is irrelevant. I’m sorry, but no. Right treatment matters. There is little I have more anger for than a parent who says they love their child while treating them like shit. What does this do to the mind of a child?’
Benny Vimes at Queereka wrote about the “born this way” narrative of queerness, and how identities are valid even if they’re not innate.
‘This narrative of queerness supports the idea that being different is only okay if you can’t help it. The “born this way” story says that having a sexual orientation other than hetrosexual/heteroromantic attraction is only acceptable if you cannot be straight. It is only okay to be trans if your gender identity is so deeply ingrained in you that you cannot change it no matter what. The utter failure of conversion therapies is seen as evidence that being queer is okay – we tried to change people and make then normal and it didn’t work, so the next best option is to accept people as they are.’
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