Stop being a drama queen.
You're just saying that for attention.
Your imagination is getting the best of you. Chill out.
Gaslighting is a mental abuse tactic used to overwrite a person’s reality, or to manipulate them into believing their experiences didn't actually happen or aren't valid.
Self gaslighting is when someone overwrites their own reality and suppresses their thoughts and emotions.*
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*This tendency often arises in young women after existing in a society where they are continually gaslighted by their family, coworkers, male friends, the media and the patriarchy.
Building a Podcast
for Women in a Gaslit Nation
I started this project intending to discuss the emotions and challenges linked with a young woman's transition from adolescence to adulthood. I ended up on a much different path.
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When discussing my original idea with my peers, one of them suggested that I should mention how young girls are taught to suppress their emotions, and how that impacts development. I became so captivated with the gaslight effect that it became my entire project.
Over the course of several months, I experimented with various genres — like long articles, personal narratives and interviews — to find the most effective way to discuss the information I've been learning about gaslighting.
By the end of my exploration, I had four main subtopics that flawlessly fit into a podcast series. Here they are:
01/
This episode discusses the history of the sex-selective medical condition of hysteria and its byproducts, including the "crazy woman" stereotype and systemic gaslighting.
Hysteria and its aftermath
03/
The third part in this series defines self-gaslighting, and how, since gaslighting is so common in the female experience, women often internalize the abusive language and use it against themselves.
Your self-gaslighting is caused by the patriarchy
02/
Here I discuss the specific ways gaslighting oppresses women, such as silencing their voice and continuing repressive prejudices. This episode also lists examples of this phenomenon in action.
Resist! Gaslighting as a form of oppression
04/
In the final episode, I explore possible solutions to dismantling this type of abuse -- which really means destroying the patriarchy. The ideas: legitimizing the gender spectrum and "active listening."
Dismantling our
Gaslit Nation
