Today, in the spirit of the Ms. Foundation’s Outrageous Acts campaign, I want to give some shout-outs to folks doing great stuff. My hope is that we can all stop feeling alone in the wilderness and start building a vibrant virtual community to bring an end to the violence.
Physical abuse is no longer just about bruises and broken bones. Emotional abuse is about more than hurt feelings.
The long-term health impacts of domestic violence (DV) are being characterized as “epidemic” and a “national scourge” by Robert S. Thompson, MD, because DV affects between 25% and 54% of women in their adult lifetimes, and a disproportionate number of these women experienced physical or sexual abuse as a child. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,200 women are killed (three each day) and 2 million are injured each year from intimate partner violence (IPV). This impacts 15.5 million children.
Yes, everyone tells us to leave. But, nobody tells us how. That’s what this web site is about. We need to figure it out, and those of us who have lived to tell the tale must leverage our professional expertise to help the women and children walking in our shoes until the violence stops.
We all have talents. My hope is that while visiting this web site you will be inspired to leverage your talents to change the current domestic violence paradigm. While we may not be feminist activists like Gloria Steinem, we can certainly accept her invitation to do one outrageous act in the cause of simple justice. She believes we’ll discover the world will be a better place and we’ll have fun in the process.
To celebrate Ms. Steinmen’s 75th birthday, the Ms. Foundation launched their Outrageous Acts campaign which flows from Ms. Steinem’s essays in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.
The NoVo Foundation has decided to invest $1 billion in women and girls around the world. Their mission includes ending violence against girls and women.
Slowly, I discovered I could find mentors, role models, and friends in books. I am indebted to the generosity of authors who shared their stories and became my life rafts. The book that has been my most valuable life raft is Gloria Steinem’s Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. She has helped me understand and appreciate how the intellectual constructs of researchers like Alice Miller manifest in the reality of our lives. As this web site grows and evolves, I will do a more in-depth explanation of what I have learned from both women.
We hear about the shooting rampages. People say “he snapped.” But, in each case, the violence started at home before it blew up in the headlines. How many more stories […]
Anne Caroline Drake 