If you haven’t seen #MaybeHeDoesntHitYou (started by Twitter user @bad_dominicana) come across your timeline, brace yourself. This hashtag has become the story of women who’ve dealt with and survived domestic abuse. Through their pain, they remind us that we often forget domestic violence is not limited to physical abuse.
Emotional abuse is REAL, and we ignore it perhaps in the very same way that our community has historically failed to address mental health issues.
#maybeHeDoesntHitYou but threw a huuuge raging weeks long miserable fit coz u cut your hair ‘without his permission’.
— Planet Thickness (@bad_dominicana) May 2, 2016
Regardless of how much you know about emotional abuse, the facts these women share are as telling as they are heart-breaking. Here’s what you can learn from these experiences:
Your feelings are real and they should never be invalidated or ignored.
You shouldn’t even have to feel like your feelings are wrong.
Love is a two-way street. You shouldn’t have to give without receiving.
Or compete for someone’s love.
This includes bending over backward to please them.
You’re perfect just the way you are and no one should try to change that.
