Dear Power Thread Community,
My name is Lindsey. I’m editor for and contributor to The Power Thread. It’s so nice to meet you!
As you may know, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In light of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony last week, and in light of our current political leadership, I wanted to share with you what The Power Thread has coming down the pipe in acknowledgment of DVAM.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence defines DV as the “willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another.” Domestic violence is not physical violence alone; it can be verbal, psychological, or spiritual. DV can take the form of intimidation, manipulation, humiliation, isolation, coercion and blaming.
Even though “domestic” points toward violence in a marital relationship, or within the home, it’s crucial to understand that DV can exist in any personal relationship, regardless of marital status, gender, or sexual orientation. For this reason, DV is often referred to as intimate partner violence. It can happen to anyone.
According to NCADV, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States have been raped in their lifetime. These statistics don’t even account for non-binary folk, nor do they point to communities of color disproportionately affected by gender and intimate partner violence.
Right now, our voices matter more than ever. The Power Thread is committed to contributing to conversations around sexual, gender, and psychological violence through opening up our platform to women working to combat these issues and break the cycles of violence.
Over the next month, we will be featuring survivors and changemakers, women who have shared with us stories of trauma, healing, and drive to end domestic violence. From all of us at The Power Thread, we stand with these women. We stand with survivors. We are honored to share these particular stories with you over the course of DVAM.
We welcome your thoughts on DVAM. Drop us a line to join the conversation.
Take care of yourselves.
With love,
Lindsey
Disclaimer: The Power Thread Inc. respects all views and understands there are multiple sides to these conversations.
