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If you ask most women, you'll find that they know at least one other woman who has been raped or subjected to serious sexual assault. Most women also know at least one other woman who has experienced violence within a relationship.
Off the top of my head I know around 6 women who have experienced one of those.
One of the women who was abused in a relationship was my old boss when I taught literacy. By the time I knew her she'd left the guy and remarried. But I also knew her kids. And her kids remember the time their dad kicked their pregnant mum so hard she lost the baby she was carrying. That assault was the culmination of several years of brutal abuse and mind games - including locking the doors and windows when he went out to make sure she and the kids didn't run and making threats as to what he'd do if she ever left.
That final assault left her black and blue, with a broken cheekbone and a miscarriage - why was it so brutal? because he found a piece of note paper with the number of a refuge on it. She'd already sorted out a place - she got out with the help of the police and her husband served a few years for battery.
I know too many women who've had the shit kicked out of them by men who didn't know how to control their temper, or who had a profound need to control their women, not to find this whole thread kinda icky.
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