I observe that in our society at large it seems okay to paint women as co-dependent victims. It is an accepted narrative that many do not see as disempowering.

The underlying assumption here is that the woman had no choice but to accept the abuse because she is too "weak" or too "co-dependent" to choose something else. But what are we teaching our sisters and daughters if this is our primary storyline?

This is exactly the bias that Mark Wielding has chosen to build on in his recent article about the school I am a teacher at. He created a story that is built on the premise that the women training at the school are essentially dummies who blindly follow the “bad” men who are leading the school. He uses no facts to actually prove that the men have done something wrong but instead insinuates, using hearsay to fabricate a story that is entirely incorrect and only works if you buy into the narrative that women are disempowered and easily manipulated.