After reading a recent piece by
:
I kept turning one word over in my head – coercion.
This word always seemed a bit extreme to me. I had not used it in the context of maternal stress. But, turning it over, I thought “should I use it more?”
So I did the lamest thing a writer can do and looked up the exact definition of coercion: the act of compelling someone to do something by using force or threats.
In the context of how other people can affect the way we think about our own bodies, I often think about medical gaslighting as something that predominantly affects women (vs. men). I have brought it up before (as have many others) and how medical gaslighting shows up in the context of women’s pain and pain dismissal. Gaslighting seems passive compared to the use of force or threats defining coercion. Gaslighting exists in the dismissal of concerns, the nothing-to-be-worried-about response that makes someone feel crazy for feeling/ noticing/ bringing up an issue. But now that the word coercion has stuck in my brain, I think it’s closer to what is actually happening with maternal martyrdom. Instead of the gaslighting effect of making us feel crazy, the use of coercion aligns with the ways society compels women to sacrifice our body, our health, our identity, by making it seem like it is just another part of motherhood.
So, is coercion the new gaslighting?
Ok, here me out…
Read the full piece here:
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