Mihail Pautov discusses domestic abuse in Romania, where violence is often normalized culturally. He argues physical abuse is a line that cannot be crossed and advises survivors never to return to an abuser, distinguishing between physical and mental harm.
If a man or a woman abuses you physically, don't ever, ever go back to that person.
You've talked about you being abused, physically abused. A lot of women in Romania are physically abused. And a lot of parts of Romania, it's something normal.
A lot of cultures normalize it. Yeah. Like, for example, I sat with so many moms, and she told me, oh, my daughter's husband hit her. But it's okay. I mean, he's a man, he's stressed, he goes to work. Bullshit. She wants her daughter to stay married to a toxic, abusive man because she doesn't want people to speak. If she gets divorced, oh, my God, everyone's going to say, my daughter's divorce. Everyone's going to say, who gives a shit? Who cares? It's your daughter. Mental abuse is worse than physical abuse. Physical abuse, it hurts, but the pain goes away. The body heals, right? So it's very painful, and it's. It's. Sometimes it's not recoverable. So my advice is, if a man or a woman abuses you physically, don't ever, ever go back to that person. Because if they do it once, they're going to do it twice, and it's not masculine.