We may usually think of someone being physically assaulted when we hear the
term “domestic violence,” but attacks on mental health are undoubtedly a part of it.
Gaslighting is a tool of manipulation for abusers in which they make a victim question
their perception of reality. Below are a few examples of gaslighting in modern television
and novels.
Fool Me Once: Within the first episode of the limited series on Netflix, based on the
novel by Harlan Coben, Maya Stern is gaslit into thinking her dead husband is
alive. When she receives a nanny cam from one of her dearest friends, she uses it,
unaware that it can be hacked and manipulated by outside sources—like her mother-in-
law. Maya appears to the rest of the world as a grieving widow driven mad after her
husband’s death, all because she saw a false video of her late spouse with her
daughter in their own home. She eventually begins to doubt herself, denying that she
ever saw the clip.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: In this sequel to the extremely popular fantasy novel
Fourth Wing, Professor Markham, a teacher in the war college of Basgiath, blatantly
gaslights an entire class in one sitting. When a piece of paper appears on all of their
seats stating that a “province has fallen to the blue fire dragons and their riders,” he
collects all of them and asks the class: “When, in the history of Navarre, have we ever
flown a riot compromised only of blue dragons?” He changes the wording to
make the students second guess themselves. They read that the dragons were
breathing blue fire, meaning they were different than normal dragons in the series, but
he manipulates his audience into thinking they were blue-colored dragons. Leaders
can use this tool to fool an entire group of people into believing a distorted reality.
Riverdale: Cheryl, although one of my favorite characters, has long red hair and a strong camera presence, and she has gaslit her girlfriend, Toni Topaz. Wildly inappropriate even
by Riverdale standards, Cheryl has such difficulty reburying her twin brother Jason’s
corpse (that she has kept in the family chapel in a wheelchair, naturally) that she
gaslights Toni into thinking he is haunting them. She removes an old doll and moves it
A Child’s Clarity: How My Daughter Helped Me Escape Abuse and Find Healing
Through the unclouded eyes of a child, my daughter saw the truth about him long before I did. She saw right through his carefully constructed facade, recognizing the cruelty and manipulation he expertly wielded. Despite her warnings I remained blind, clinging to the desperate hope that things would change. It...
