Sarah Schulman’s, “Abandoning the Personal: The State and the Production of Abuse,” acknowledges the overemphasis of people calling out as an “abuse” when they actually mean “normative conflict.” The misuse of the word can create harm and consequences on how people are treated and seen by the state and society. Schulman further defines abuse as “power over’ while conflict as “power struggle,” and it is shown in numerous relationships other than interpersonal. She explores the context through experiences and other narratives. Instead of asking the accuser, “are you being abused,” she suggested alternative questions borrowed from Hodes to consider: “What was happening when the behavior occurred? What happened before? What was the outcome? What was the context?”
What intrigued me the most was reading “when the community encourages overreaction” section because it reminded me a bit of the Jussie Smollett incident in Chicago. A lot of people expressed their outrage and support on social media initially. However, as investigation unfolds and knowing he was indicted on allegedly filing a falsified report, most people switched their opinion. There is a divide on whether or not Jussie staged the attack. It just shows that most people tend to draw conclusions rapidly without all the information, and it can affect an individual.
I thought that this article discussed some very important themes, but I felt differently about some of them. I don’t think that I can agree with the author’s complicity of the state of power dynamics and the belief that power will always inherently exist. Power only exists because we exist in a hierarchal society that thrives off of competition of the people who live in it. Rather than challenging the people who are being affected by this system and nitpicking their cries for help, whether it be by power over or by power struggle, I think the system itself should be what is being challenged.