正文 家暴:幸福背後的一抹憂傷(1 / 2)

家暴:幸福背後的一抹憂傷

卷首語

作者:by Jesse Hunter

ouples fight. It happens. Disagreements arise, heartbeats quicken, tensions escalate, tones become accusatory, threats and ultimatums quickly come to pass, whether based in truth or as a bluff, and sometimes these seemingly small spats can turn violent in the blink of an eye. The key is stopping yourself before it gets out of hand.

I never actually witnessed a husband hitting a wife until I came to China, and saw it in public. (In America, that kind of abuse usually only goes on behind closed doors.) I have, on the other hand, from the lips of those closest to me, heard first (and third) person accounts of mental, physical and sexual abuse. The last thing I want is to “out” anyone with stories they wish to stay hidden, but believe me when I say that those who inflict any sort of harm on their loved ones deserve no mercy. Unfortunately, fear has a way of crippling almost every victim of abuse, so the abusers rarely face proper justice.

Our first feature, A Letter to … My Partner, Who Abuses Us, gives us an ambiguous glimpse into the mind of an abused spouse, whose partner always finds a way to justify his/her rage. In our second feature, This Is #WhyIStayed, Helen Baker writes how the growing prevalence of celebrity domestic violence in the media brought back her own tragic memories she spent years trying to deny. And Leslie Steiner explains, in A Memoir of Domestic Violence, how easy it is to fall into the trap of an abusive relationship, and how hard it is to escape from it.