Did you notice any of these in the presidential debate? Emotional and verbal abuse are being normalized – so let’s shed some light to show what’s really going on.

10 Emotional Abuse Tactics That Trump Blatantly Used in the First Debate — Everyday Feminism

Sigh…

I get where the ladies are coming from on this but I have to admit the lens they are using and the language they use to frame it rubs me the wrong way.

Heightening the awareness of this sort of of behavior as “abuse” naturally reinforces the image of women as victims. After all, you can’t have an abuser without there also being a victim…. It allows to defaults to a rigid us against them delineation of gender. The suggestion that men are the defacto abuser and women the perpetual victim isn’t overt but is definitely present. It just seems to me that reinforcing the weakened, victim archetype of femininity (and oppressive, abusive nature of males) is counter-intuitive to the goal of empowering women.

Would the article really be all that less effective if they referred to Trump’s behaviors as “10 Classic Moves Only Assholes Employ?”