Toxic.
In a recent Uni project, we were faced with asking ourselves
some questions…
‘As young females, what do we care about most?’
We were encouraged to think about what us personally think,
but also what our friends, and any other young female in our kind of lifestyle
would think.
Whenever I hear these kinds of serious, open ended questions,
I must admit to default, the default of Brexit, starvation, wars and equal
rights. Using these issues as my answer is not untrue, I do care about all of
these, and spend time worrying about them, and discussing them. However, perhaps
not for the best, these are not the things I ‘care’ about most. These are not
usually the first thing I discuss with close friends or spend the most time and
energy worrying and thinking about.
We care about relationships, and more recently, toxic ones.
We analyse, and worry, and listen about toxic relationships constantly. It is
something that everyone, weather personally or through others, has experienced.
We all seem to have a story, lessons learned and advice to give. Toxic
relationships go far beyond romantic, they can be friendships, and even the
relationship with yourself.
Toxic was the word deemed by Oxford Dictionaries as best capturing the “ethos, mood, or
preoccupations” of 2018 “Toxic”
was judged to “have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance."
From my own experience, and those of friends, I quickly
began to see that I am not alone in using the ‘default’ answer to these
questions, and that toxic relationships are a bigger factor in our lives than
seems to be addressed. And after talking to a number of woman, and even an anonymous
Instagram survey, it was clear that this is one of, if not the main thing that
we care about right now.
There are issues that seem much ‘bigger’ than these, however
regardless of who we are, our relationships are the closest most immediate changes
and catalysts in our lives. Therefore, addressing this newly defined toxicity, is
something that seems very pressing.
There are several lines of advice out there, however with
personal experience of the severe effects of these toxic relationships, not
only for the people directly involved, but for those who love them, the help is
not enough. I feel passionate about how important tackling this toxicity is,
and I feel the stigma around talking about these relationships as futile, or self-indulgent,
needs to end.
Comments
Post a Comment