"There comes a point when you either embrace who and what you are, or condemn yourself to be miserable all your days. Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself."
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"Aw, you trust me?"
"As long as I have a clear shot." I tighten my hold on the gun in my hand. “Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”
“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”
“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. There is no difference between being raped
And being pushed down a flight of cement steps Except that the wounds also bleed inside. There is no difference between being raped And being run over by a truck Except that afterward men ask if you enjoyed it. There is no difference between being raped And being bit on the ankle by a rattlesnake Except that people ask if your skirt was short And why you were out anyhow. There is no difference between being raped And going head first through a windshield Except that afterward you are afraid not of cars, But half the human race. The rapist is your boyfriend's brother. He sits beside you in the movies eating popcorn. Rape fattens on the fantasies of the "normal" male Like a maggot in garbage. Fear of rape is a cold wind blowing All of the time on a woman's hunched back. Never to stroll alone on a sand road through pine woods, Never to climb a trail across a bald Without that aluminum in the mouth When I see a man climbing toward me. Never to open the door to a knock Without that razor just grazing the throat. The fear of the dark side of the hedges, The back seat of the car, the empty house Rattling keys like a snake's warning The fear of the smiling man in whose pocket is a knife. The fear of the serious man In whose fist is locked with hatred. All it takes to cast a rapist is seeing your body As jackhammer, as blowtorch, as machine gun. All it takes is hating that body Your own, your self, your muscle that softens to flab. All it takes is to push what you hate, What you fear onto the soft alien flesh. To bucket out invincible as a tank Armoured with treads without senses To possess and punish in one act, To rip up pleasure, to murder those who dare Live in the leafy flesh open to love. The fear of the smiling man In whose pocket is a knife. "You think I’m the right man for the job of infiltrating a sex slave ring because I practice BDSM? Obviously you know fuck about it. Consent, Pearson. Consent. That’s the difference. That’s why sex is different than rape. I do not fuck women without their consent, and I never will!"
"A slut is someone, usually a woman, who’s stepped outside of the very narrow lane that good girls are supposed to stay within. Sluts are loud. We’re messy. We don’t behave. In fact, the original definition of “slut” meant “untidy woman.” But since we live in a world that relies on women to be tidy in all ways, to be quiet and obedient and agreeable and available (but never aggressive), those of us who color outside of the lines get called sluts. And that word is meant to keep us in line."
"Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men's eyes when deciding what provokes it."
"I can explain myself: If you want to be safe, walk in the middle of the street. I’m not joking. You’ve been told to look both ways before crossing the street, and the sidewalk is your friend, right? Wrong. I’ve spent years walking sidewalks at night. I’ve looked around me when it was dark, when there were men following me, creeping out of alleyways, attempting to goad me into speaking to them and shouting obscenities at me when I wouldn’t, and I suddenly realised that the only place left to go was the middle of street. But why would I risk it? Because the odds are in my favour. In the States, someone is killed in a car accident on average every 12.5 minutes, while someone is raped on average every 2.5 minutes. Even when factoring in that, one, I am generously including ALL car-related accidents and not just those involving accidents, and two, that the vast majorities of rapes still go unreported […] And, thus, this is now the way I live my life: out in the open, in the middle of everything, because the middle of the street is actually the safest place to walk."
Jessica Valenti (The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women)4/7/2016 "Now, should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course. But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped. Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them."
Trying to make my fairytale become a reality has me wondering if I will ever get there
“It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad."
“It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.”
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