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Horrible, but so, so true.
Why doesn't she leave?
Scroll down to the comment by bbrugger (the third one). Read it.
This is the reason why I am so, so glad that I officially removed myself from the LD debate circuit before the November/December 2006 topic. I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to judge or participate in those debates, particularly for anyone who (god forbid) had ever actually experienced domestic abuse. Because I can imagine what all the negative cases must have sounded like. Or at least a good chunk of them. (*cough*)
It's also a little bit sad that Stephen King's Rose Madder is still one of the best fictional treatments of a woman leaving an abusive relationship that I've ever read. And I'm saying that it's "sad" not as a slam against King, because he's a fantastic writer, but because I would have expected that by now we'd have more fictional novels able to deal with the subject matter in a realistic fashion. I mean, this isn't exactly an experience alien to a good chunk of humanity. Then why is it still so taboo? (Outside of romance novels, that is, which tend to involve either a time-traveling viking in shining armor who rescues the heroine from her abusive pirate Arabian shiek boyfriend, or will glorify the rape and abuse as sexually liberating.) Anyway, I've read very few books that accurately portray what it's like to leave an abusive relationship - the psychological terror, the practical financial difficulties, the constant threat of retribution - in a realistic fashion. Rose Madder is definitely the most realistic among what I've read. And here I'm using "realistic" to describe a book that involves magical moving paintings and bull-demons and travel across alternate universes. Yeah.
Sorry for the depressing post. I actually have some more fun linkspam backed up in my harddrive. Maybe I can get around to posting that soon.
Scroll down to the comment by bbrugger (the third one). Read it.
This is the reason why I am so, so glad that I officially removed myself from the LD debate circuit before the November/December 2006 topic. I can't imagine how horrible it must have been to judge or participate in those debates, particularly for anyone who (god forbid) had ever actually experienced domestic abuse. Because I can imagine what all the negative cases must have sounded like. Or at least a good chunk of them. (*cough*)
It's also a little bit sad that Stephen King's Rose Madder is still one of the best fictional treatments of a woman leaving an abusive relationship that I've ever read. And I'm saying that it's "sad" not as a slam against King, because he's a fantastic writer, but because I would have expected that by now we'd have more fictional novels able to deal with the subject matter in a realistic fashion. I mean, this isn't exactly an experience alien to a good chunk of humanity. Then why is it still so taboo? (Outside of romance novels, that is, which tend to involve either a time-traveling viking in shining armor who rescues the heroine from her abusive pirate Arabian shiek boyfriend, or will glorify the rape and abuse as sexually liberating.) Anyway, I've read very few books that accurately portray what it's like to leave an abusive relationship - the psychological terror, the practical financial difficulties, the constant threat of retribution - in a realistic fashion. Rose Madder is definitely the most realistic among what I've read. And here I'm using "realistic" to describe a book that involves magical moving paintings and bull-demons and travel across alternate universes. Yeah.
Sorry for the depressing post. I actually have some more fun linkspam backed up in my harddrive. Maybe I can get around to posting that soon.
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Because it goes against a ton of built-up cultural expectations about love and loyalty. Just look at "Stand by Your Man." That, and people don't really like thinking of love going wrong. It makes them second-guess things.
Though there is a fair amount of decent "leaving an abusive relationship" song material out there.
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It's just easier to pretend that it doesn't exist.
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