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A new generation of thinkers have introduced the notion of trauma into the political equation.
On Trumpcast, everyone from @davidmweissman to @BandyXLee1 to @ejeancarroll have spoken about it.
On Trumpcast, everyone from @davidmweissman to @BandyXLee1 to @ejeancarroll have spoken about it.
I have to admit that as a feminist over 50 the word “trauma” still can seem risky.
A article of faith in the 90s was that a feminists could take A LOT OF PAIN without complaining.
A article of faith in the 90s was that a feminists could take A LOT OF PAIN without complaining.
Much more talk in the 90s about freestanding mood disorders (“weakness”) than trauma induced by demoralizing, abusive & often violent relationships.
Relationships in the context of patriarchy & white supremacy—2 more millennial notions that used to seem alarmist.
Relationships in the context of patriarchy & white supremacy—2 more millennial notions that used to seem alarmist.
AOC’s revelatory video showed me that a response to trauma, even soon after the fact, does not have to be repression and self-blame.
To prevent trauma from compounding, as she says, it has to be acknowledged.
To prevent trauma from compounding, as she says, it has to be acknowledged.
It took me almost 20 years to even say that I was scared out of my mind on 9/11 in NYC. Somehow the decorous thing to do was not to say a word about it if you hadn’t lost a close relative. Even my friends who fled the burning WTC felt they weren’t entitled to claim “trauma.”
And forget about sexual assault. Black out, frame it as “adventure,” move on.
But AOC did not black out. She stayed present to the terror, acknowledged the extreme fear, & even allowed herself to imagine what her life had meant and what it could be to let go, to die.
This is the education that she and many in BLM and #MeToo 
are giving us.
Related: Is Mike Pence being tough or polite by not acknowledging that Trumpites aimed to murder him on 1/6 & he was fucking scared?
Or is he being actually insane & setting himself up for collapse?
are giving us. Related: Is Mike Pence being tough or polite by not acknowledging that Trumpites aimed to murder him on 1/6 & he was fucking scared?
Or is he being actually insane & setting himself up for collapse?
I have tried very tentatively to write about trauma lately. I have nowhere near the access to my emotions & sensations & speeding thoughts that AOC has and describes so well.
Here’s a piece about catching on fire in November: https://www.wired.com/story/something-was-wrong-my-nightgown-was-in-flames/
Here’s a belated piece about 9/11 in New York: https://www.wired.com/story/the-day-after-911/
This is what I wish I’d done on 9/12/2001 and the weeks after the trauma.
It’s what @AOC is actually doing right now. It’s a huge service to our country.
It’s what @AOC is actually doing right now. It’s a huge service to our country.
More resources: the podcast “This is Actually Happening,” with hundreds of examples of the wholehearted ways that people endure and metabolize and make meaning of trauma. + @PermatempCorp https://www.thisisactuallyhappening.com/
And Elaine Scarry’s brilliant book “Thinking in an Emergency”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393340589/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_79TNA909N8T299QPBK7A
