Oppression is not only carried out with fists, laws, and locked doors.It is carried out with words. Words that erase.Words that confuse.Words that sa
Oppression is not only carried out with fists, laws, and locked doors.
It is carried out with words.
Words that erase.
Words that confuse.
Words that sanitize violence.
Words that make it easier to ignore the people most harmed.
Thatās why they fight so hard over language.
Because language determines what becomes real in the eyes of power.
šļø If we are unnamed, we are unfunded.
If we are uncategorized, we are uncounted.
If we are not visible in data, policy, or headlines, we are treated as if we donāt existāuntil itās time to blame us for our own harm.
Categories are not just boxes.
They are gatesāto protection, to justice, to survival.
š āNeutralā language is not neutral.
When data says āvictims,ā but doesnāt break down race, disability, or sexuality, it is not neutralāit is deceptive.
When a policy helps āall womenā but excludes those in rural areas, migrant communities, or prison cells, it is not neutralāit is neglectful.
When we say āpeople of colorā but ignore how anti-Blackness operates uniquely, thatās not unityāitās erasure.
š± Naming is a sacred act.
When we create specific language for who we are and what weāve survived,
we break the spell of silence that oppression depends on.
Black disabled women Survivors.
Deaf Indigenous mothers fleeing domestic violence.
Immigrant girls targeted by grooming disguised as āmentorship.ā
These are not ātoo specific.ā
These are truths that have been waiting to be heard.
š Language creates culture. Language directs funding. Language opens doors.
If a community doesnāt exist in the paperwork,
they donāt exist in the protection.
If a harm doesnāt have a name,
it wonāt be investigated.
If a Survivorās reality is always lumped into someone elseās category,
they will be left behind again.
We name to build altars.
We name to make room for healing.
We name to make it harder for them to deny what theyāve doneāand what theyāve ignored.
šÆļø Language is not just a toolāit is our weapon and our witness.
āWeSurviveAbuse.com
With love for every Survivor who had to name herself when the world would not.
š§ Critical Thinking + Reflection Questions:
What categories have I seen used to erase or oversimplify peopleās stories?
Have I ever been told I didnāt āfitā a category, even though I was harmed?
Who in my community is being left out of policies and protections because theyāre unnamed?
How can I use my voice, platform, or power to make sure their names are included?
What new language might need to be created so the full truth can finally be spoken?