My god. First of all, thank you. Second of all, I really could unpack this for years. Perhaps the very strangest part of this - even stranger than the notion that the majority of people aren't deeply upset by discussion of childhood sexual abuse "in graphic detail" - is their apparent belief that all abuse follows a straightforward trajectory from emotional to physical to sexual abuse? I mean, I'd agree freely that sexual and/or physical abuse can't exist without emotional abuse, but there are plenty, plenty of people who are physically abused without being sexually abused, sexually abused without being physically abused, and of course, emotionally abused without being sexually or physically abused (e..g, Steph). As if the presence of one automatically implies the other?
Ironically, they're actually downplaying emotional abuse here, by implying that it is only a prelude to physical and sexual abuse, the "real" trauma.
What the fuck.
