Kerry Washington Raises Awareness of Financial Abuse

Does it seem to you like we’re having a cultural moment about abuse? One we’re acknowledging all different kinds: domestic violence, parents beating children, manipulation via money. The newest face for the latter is “Scandal” star Kerry Washington.

As brand ambassador for the Allstate Foundation’s Purple Purse initiative, Washington is raising awareness about financial abuse, one tactic that is occasionally used to keep an abused person in a relationship. Financial abuse occasionally involves the abuser limiting a victim’s access to cash, which can prevent them from leaving the relationship. On top of that, career sabotage or putting the person in debt can become tactics in which abusers can be assured that their victims have no other recourse but to stay with them. … As part of Allstate’s effort to raise awareness about financial abuse, Washington took part in designing limited-edition purple purses to highlight the role of money in financially abusive relationships. Only 500 purses were produced, and most will be used as fundraisers and given to charities, with the purses going to abuse survivors.

As Washington says in the PSA, “financial abuse leaves invisible bruises that can take decades to heal.”

Cutting off a person’s access to funds, sabotaging their career, and/or making that person financially dependent on you, the abuser, is a relatively subtle and insidious way of torturing someone. I’m so glad we as a society are beginning to talk about this stuff and hopefully help lessen the stigmas a little bit. Also, Kerry Washington is on loan to us from Mt. Olympus or something, I don’t know where exactly, but I’m so grateful and I hope she stays forever.

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