Stop Shaming Women for Protecting Themselves
updated from September 24, 2025 Too often, when a woman dares to speak up about her own safety needs, she is shamed. Other women tell her she’s “overreacting,” “paranoid,” or…
updated from September 24, 2025 Too often, when a woman dares to speak up about her own safety needs, she is shamed. Other women tell her she’s “overreacting,” “paranoid,” or…
How we slowly surrender our boundaries, judgment, and needs, and what it means to begin returning to ourselves. There is something about Nina Simone singing I Wish I Knew How…
12 ways women are pressured, persuaded, and sometimes punished for refusing to organize their lives around men. Women are human beings in our own right. Yet across cultures, religions, families,…
I have spent more than 30 years working with women and children who have experienced abuse. And one of the things that experience has taught me is that people are…
If someone can convince you that speaking about mistreatment is worse than the mistreatment itself, they have found a powerful way to protect those responsible. In 2017, when Chimamanda Ngozi…
Emotional abuse can be difficult to explain in a society that struggles to respect women’s safety boundaries in the first place. So much of emotional abuse involves someone knowing what…
Why women’s refusal, independence, and desire for safety are so often treated as offenses against men. There is something deeply troubling about a man hearing a woman say no and…
When a woman asks for safety, listen to the danger she is describing before you begin searching for something wrong with her character. We absolutely must reflect on how we…
There is something strange about repeatedly telling women and girls that they need to be kinder. Because when we look at what women and girls are already doing, we do…
Consent is not only the right to say yes. It is the freedom to say no without punishment, persuasion, or a campaign to change your mind. Consent is not only…