Changing Attitudes About Abuse Abuse used to be a taboo
(unspeakable, avoided) topic. The idea in the past was that
parents all but owned their children, and that husbands all but
owned their wives. If you go back far enough, (and you don't
have to go back that far at all; a mere 150 years will do), you
find the idea that human beings could literally be property
(e.g., slaves) and therefore abused at the arbitrary whim of
their owners was widely accepted throughout the world. In such a
world where people could be property, abuse was rampant,
rationalized and simply not discussed all that much. Thankfully,
the idea that people could be owned, and the more general idea
that some people are better than other people because of
circumstances of their birth has been progressively discredited,
at least in public forums. Slavery was outlawed in the United
States in the aftermath of the 1860's Civil War. Women gained
the right to vote in 1919. Abusive child labor was outlawed in
the 1930s. These changes set the stage