Killing Safety
What kills safety faster than anything else? Being dismissed, treated like a liar, pushed aside.
There’re many reasons this can happen. Sometimes a story can threaten the worldview of the listener. For them to accept that something did happen, they need to admit that their world has a cog loose. That can be very scary and threatening.
It doesn’t make such dismissive behaviour right.
Abusers would make light of what is happening. Others would only have learnt dismissive ways to deal with painful stories because when they hurt, they were dismissed. And they moved on after that – so others should too. There’re too many possible reasons.
If we’re serious about trying to make a space safe, these things should not be acceptable within the context of safety.
Discussion ¬