There are a couple of posts at Feministe about gaslighting and how it is a specific form of emotional abuse. The posts are about gaslighting in relation to women (cis and non cis alike). At the time of this writing there are 100+ comments and I only skimmed through the first 50 or so, which means that perhaps someone has already addressed this and I haven’t seen it.
For those who might not be familiar with the term, gaslighting is:
[…] a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory and perception. It may simply be the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, or it could be the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.
Now, I have been gaslit(?) gaslighted(?) many times but I also think that this is a prime example of how intersectionality presents itself within feminism because truly? the worst forms of gaslighting I have experienced have been in relation to racism. Usually, I would try to explain to someone, a member of the dominant culture, a White person, how I have experienced this or that particular form of discrimination or how I have witnessed what I considered a racist incident (not necessarily involving me, but the way people are treated in public spaces or while conducting business, etc.) and I would be told that it is all in my mind. Sure, there is SOME racism around, but it is nowhere near what I am making it up to be. Alternatively, I would be informed that what I experienced or witnessed was not racism but just an isolated “bad apple” who would be better defined by their bad manners than by racist ideas.
Gaslighting can also happen as a cultural wide phenomenon. Anyone who is claiming that indeed, we are in the presence of an oppressive practice is being told that they (we) are making it up. It is all in our heads. Any comment against a specific form of oppression is met with further gaslighting: it is part of the culture, you are lying, it is not as bad as you make it appear, etc etc.
What I am trying to say is that gaslighting is also one of the main tools dominant cultures use to protect the status quo. Anyone who points out to a systemic issue will be told that they are “seeing things” where there are none to be seen, the intention is obviously to de-center those who protest, to disorient them, lead them towards the path of self doubt. It is often used against women (hence the posts that started the discussion at Feministe), but it is doubly used on non Whites.
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