#i will be accepting apologies in form of donations to our army | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aroworlds · 5 years ago

Text

Fiction: The Pride Conspiracy, Part One

December isn't the best time of year for a trans aromantic like Rowan Ross, although—unlike his relatives—his co-workers probably won't give him gift cards to women's clothing shops. How does he explain to cis people that while golf balls don't trigger his dysphoria, he wants to be seen as more than a masculine stereotype? Nonetheless, he thinks he has this teeth-gritted endurance thing figured out: cissexism means he needn't fear his relatives asking him about dating, and he has the perfect idea for Melanie in the office gift exchange. He can survive gifts and kin, right? Isn't playing along with expectation better than enduring unexpected consequences?

Rowan, however, isn't the only aromantic in the office planning to surprise a co-worker.

To survive the onslaught of ribbon and cellophane, Rowan's going to have to get comfortable with embracing the unknown.

Contains: A trans allo-frayro trying to grit his teeth through the holidays, scheming aro co-workers, a whole lot of cross-stitch, another moment of aromantic discovery, and many, many mugs.

Content Advisory: A story that focuses on some of the ways Western gift-giving culture enables cissexism and a rigid gender binary, taking place in the context of commercialised, secular-but-with-very-Christian-underpinnings Christmas. Please expect many references to said holiday in an office where Damien hasn't figured out how to run a gift exchange without subjecting everyone to Santa, along with characters who have work to do in recognising that not everybody celebrates Christmas.

There are no depictions or mentions of sexual attraction beyond the words "allosexual" and "bisexual" and a passing reference to allo-aro antagonism, but there are non-detailed references to Rowan's previous experiences with and attitudes towards romance and romantic attraction as a frayromantic. Please also expect casual references to amatonormativity and other shapes of cissexism.

Length: 4, 914 words (part one of two).

Note: You'll need to have read The Vampire Conundrum for many references to make sense.

Rowan should be assumed an Australian character in an Australian city. Our Christmas, therefore, involves hot weather, short sleeves, barbecues and confusion at certain holiday traditions common in the Northern Hemisphere.

They’re aromantic. How isn’t he obligated to help decorate her desk in as many pride-related ways as possible?

“It’s Secret Santa slash December Holiday Gift Exchange!” Damien emerges from the meeting room, shaking a paper-scrap-filled jar with the gleeful attitude of a toddler attacking a pile of presents. In order to give the occasion suitable gravitas, he draped a rope of red tinsel over his shoulders, the fronds glittering in the flicker-prone lighting. “Come gather!”

Rowan looks up from his computer, biting back a groan. This isn’t a surprise, given that Shelby answered his interview questions about “workplace culture” with descriptions of their celebrating capitalist-infused Christian holidays, and the office more than lives up to that promise. A tree sits on the front counter, its branches crammed with baubles. Tinsel hangs on everything from which tinsel can be hung and rests in snake-like coils over the computer towers, screens, desk partitions and the large corkboard. Ribbon-wrapped pencils topped with felt trees, stars and stockings flowered, overnight, from everyone’s pen mugs; Melanie gave Rowan three of them for his frayro mug. Every desk features a red bowl of tree-shaped marshmallows, candy canes or that weird Christmas lolly mix common in dollar shops.

Only the lack of music renders bearable this explosion of festivity. Damien said he drew that line last year after Melanie and Shelby alternated between Michael Bublé and Josh Groban’s Christmas CDs.

Rowan doesn’t want to think about that sublime horror.

Christmas to him means slipping a few TSO tracks into his melodic metal playlists and gritting his teeth until the new year.

“O come all ye faithful,” Melanie sings, spinning her chair around. Every day this week she’s donned a different Christmas-themed T-shirt; today’s features a screen-printed Rudolph head with an apple-sized nose made from red minky fleece. Rowan doesn’t understand the American “ugly Christmas jumper” thing��why?—but Melanie appears to be replicating the trend via short sleeves and jersey knits.

Damien jerks his elbow at the largest whiteboard, half filled with the Banned Holiday Decorations List—items including “music, carols, hymns and singing”, “all types of fake snow” and “Cadbury Crème Eggs”. “Didn’t we talk about carols?”

Rowan doesn’t want to be accused of being a dreadful, fun-loathing millennial about which too many articles have been written on dislike of office gift exchanges … but he doesn’t know how not to be one, either. Why do people like this? Buying presents for people who aren’t strangers but aren’t friends, hoping that his attempt isn’t too generic only to open something tailored to feminine cliché ... followed by the apologetic explanation or justification that Rowan isn’t easy to shop for.

Can’t he save himself fifteen bucks and skip the disaster?

He’s never understood how he presents a difficulty that isn’t cissexism and a lack of imagination: buy him good thread, expensive coffee, dress socks, a nice mug, food storage containers or fancy kitchenware. He’ll even take a cheap box of chocolates, since his housemates will eat anything should they believe it food. Just get him something that isn’t a floral-patterned bath set followed by the hand-wringing apology that the giver just doesn’t know what to get someone as confusing as Rowan!

Why don’t they ask him what he wants?

He’s over spending money and time on gift exchanges only to receive cissexism, dysphoria or stereotype wrapped in paper and tied with a bow.

Rowan draws a breath and slips his fingers under his thighs. He should have sent Damien an email when Melanie started decorating, but Rowan was thinking about pushing their print date back two weeks and not thinking about Mum’s out-of-nowhere request that Rowan attend the family Christmas. “Uh … Damien? Can I … quick word?”

Why did he get himself a new psychologist? One who says terrible words like assertiveness?

“Give us a minute.” Tinsel rustling, Damien crouches beside Rowan’s chair. “Will here do?”

If everyone overhears, Rowan can pretend he’s talking to one person while knowing they all benefit from his explanation. Besides, going into the meeting room makes this a thing. “Yeah. Um. I … I don’t usually get the right presents from people in gift exchanges. By which I mean ... presents that aren’t a reminder that they think me female, and if they give me enough nail polish and heart-shaped jewellery and glittery handbags, I’ll admit it. I don’t want that? Really don’t want that?”

Why do his parents want to play at being a happy family? Does Mum want to show off to Uncle Keith and his new wife? Have they forgotten how badly last Christmas went? Or is this just more cissexist assumption that Rowan will discard his masculinity when needed? If they behave as though Rowan should fit their expectations, will he—eventually—surrender to them?

I’m not being difficult because I want my masculinity and transness respected. I’m not...

Melanie leans over to poke Shelby’s shoulder, her bright red lips forming a ring.

Damien blinks, hesitating as if he doesn’t know how best to respond. “That ... sounds like my niece’s favourite birthday. Although she took the bag, put one of my sister’s dumbbells inside and swung it at the boy over the road who wouldn't stop calling her pretty. And then made an army of neighbourhood girls wielding heavy unicorn bags.” He shakes his head. “I mean that … you obviously aren’t a certain kind of eight-year-old or into glitter, so...”

If only Rowan had the nerve to do that to Aunt Laura! “I bet he never did that again.”

“No. I’ll make sure … that the person who has you gets you something appropriate.”

Inappropriately-feminine gifts aren’t his only difficulty. Rowan doesn’t how to voice something so complex (to cis, gender-conforming people) about gender and gift-giving without sounding like he’s complaining for the sake of complaining—the demanding, difficult trans man of his parents’ accusations. Most often he endures a cis female celebrity’s latest perfume, but well-intended “accepting” people give him an Old Spice gift set—acknowledging his masculinity at the cost of his personality. How do cis people not chafe at gift-giving traditions that assume people can be reduced down to one of two categories with narrow behaviours and interests ascribed to each?

It’s easier to draw the line at gifts that only avoid being the embodiment of the giver’s cissexism and donate everything else, as much as Rowan yearns for one year with a good present he doesn’t buy himself.

Will cis people ever understand that being trans means holding back on responding to cis nonsense?

“Thanks. Yeah, thanks.”

“Secret Santa slash December Holiday Gift Exchange rules!” Damien straightens, shaking the jar; paper rattles against glass. “Twenty-dollar limit, keep it fun, don’t give anything inappropriate for a professional environment. I want to be eating mince pies, not taking people into the meeting room for discussions on adulthood. We exchange on the last day, December 20.” He reaches into the jar, the neck a tight fit for his hands, and tweezers out a folded piece of paper before handing it to Rowan.

Damien shakes the jar again before offering another slip to Melanie and then Shelby.

Don’t people draw names themselves from the bowl or jar? Nobody else seems concerned by this lapse—Melanie starts laughing when she sees her name—so Rowan shrugs and opens his, deciding it must be normal enough.

The Aro Gods must be inclined to a little seasonal kindness, for he sees “Melanie” written in Damien’s handwriting.

No need to struggle through generic alternatives like food or wine; pride pins will make her happy enough. A pen? A mini aro flag? Choosing may be Rowan’s worst problem, but he can get her a few things and give her whatever’s over the limit after the exchange.

They’re aromantic. How isn’t he obligated to help decorate her desk in as many pride-related ways as possible?

“Rowan!” Melanie bustles over; he quickly slides his paper up his sleeve. She makes metallic jangling noises—words like “ringing” or “pealing” don’t apply—as she moves, thanks to a gold chain bracelet decorated with small bells at each link. Matching earrings dangle from her ears, clinking out of tune with the ones at her wrist. “Can I ask you something?”

He nods, hoping she’ll let pass unremarked his description of holiday cissexism.

“Where did you buy your flag patches? I want one. Well, maybe more than one, because there’s the aro flag, and the ace flag, and maybe one of the aro-ace flags, but I haven’t decided which one I like best since there’s several that are nice, and...”

Once-in-a-lifetime inspiration hits Rowan with finger-twitching force. “I don’t know,” he lies once Melanie runs out of steam. “Uh … a friend gave them to me and ... I don’t know where they bought them. Online, probably?” He swallows and tries for distraction, gambling his poor ability for falsehood against Melanie’s likely ignorance. “Maybe look on Etsy? I’d look on Etsy.”

“Etsy? What’s that?”

“Handcraft eBay,” he says in relief, thinking through his thread stash. “Where people sell handmade things. I don’t know when I’m seeing my friend next, but I can ask...?”

He’ll need purples, greens, greys, black, white—oh, and blues! A little orange, a little yellow. Has he enough fabric? What about time? Should he do the main ones first and then others as he can squeeze them in?

On the way home tonight, he’ll start by stopping at his local sewing store.

***

Rowan hits “send” on an email to Damien, ignoring Mum’s latest text, as Shelby bounds up to his desk. Like Melanie, she’s added Christmas T-shirts to her daily ensemble; unlike Melanie, Shelby’s T-shirts appear to come from a department store’s children’s section. Today’s shirt shows a cute-but-scientifically-inaccurate dinosaur in a Santa hat holding a red box. Also unlike Melanie, Shelby hasn’t added earrings, pins, necklaces, bangles or socks in honour of the season. “Yeah?”

Damien added “battery and USB-powered light-up objects” to the List after an office vote provoked by a flashing necklace that resembled miniature string lights.

Shelby whispers, meaning that she speaks in a raspier tone with volume enough that her standing on the other side of a crowded football oval needn’t impede one’s hearing. In fairness, Rowan has heard her speak over a hundred gossiping Year 7 students until they surrendered to the stubbornness of an older woman who doesn’t go to bed caring what they think of her. “Can you go through all the … the identities? Can you show them to me and tell me what colours go with them? Do they all have their own colours?”

Rowan can only sit and gape.

“Please? I need someone to go through them all.”

He lunges for his half-filled mug, hoping his perpetual need for coffee conceals his surprise. “You mean pride flags? Queer pride flags?”

“Please.” Shelby nods, grips his arm and gives a meant-as-comforting nutcracker-like squeeze before lowering her hand to fidget with her phone—a device likely dug up with the fossils from the dinosaur on her shirt. It doesn’t have a cover; he guesses she covered the back with multiple layers of washi tape coated in (yellowing) clear nail polish. He doesn’t ask why. “Maybe you can start with the ones you use, and that one Melanie has, and then tell me the other ones? There aren’t that many, are there?”

Rowan, lukewarm coffee in his mouth and heading down his gullet, chokes.

Several moments of spluttering and coughing, aided by Shelby’s enthusiastic back-pounding, pass before he can answer. “Uh … there’s lots, actually. Lots.” He considers explaining about Tumblr before deciding on the appropriate answer: a thousand kinds of nope. “Do you want gender ones, or sexuality ones, or aromantic ones, or...?”

Shelby’s blank, brow-creased expression shows that, if she read Rowan’s leaflet, his emails and the hand-outs provided by Damien’s trainers, the knowledge hasn’t stuck with her.

(They weren’t better than Rowan’s own and only mentioned aromanticism as a way of being asexual.)

“The ones you and Melanie use...?” She lowers her voice to a point where someone may, in theory, be unable to hear her from the other side of the room. “I want to get Melanie a little extra … something, this year. With a flag, maybe?” She jerks her elbow in the direction of Melanie’s mug, currently filled with something smelling of camomile and dish-water. “But I should know more about the other ones, too. Like yours. Can you show them all to me?”

There’s no way in this tinselled hell that Melanie can’t hear Shelby, yet Melanie appears engrossed in deleting emails.

Last week, Rowan said “aromantic” once to their newest volunteer in a conversation about the pride flags on their website. Seconds later, Melanie materialised from the hallway, passed over one of Rowan’s leaflets and introduced herself as aro-ace before giving a five-point rundown on ways to avoid casual amatonormativity—not that she’s yet comfortable saying the word—in the workplace. There’s no way she’s contemplating the mysteries of her trash folder while Rowan talks to Shelby about aromantic pride flags! Breathing “aro” aloud is now akin to summoning a demon—one revelling in the discovery of the identity that makes belated sense of her life.

“You want me to show you aromantic flags?” Rowan asks to clarify, baffled.

Shelby beams at him. “Yes, please.”

Melanie, frowning, deletes an email.

Did Damien have a word with her? Did the volunteer complain?

Rowan can’t say that he wants to play tour guide through the world of queer vexillology, but Shelby has gone five weeks without saying the phrase “you trans people” and two months without reassuring Rowan on the subject of pronoun-correction. He also knows Melanie and Shelby are friends outside of work, bonding over stage shows and music. If Shelby wants to support Melanie in her aromanticism, how can Rowan refuse?

While Rowan sat there planning the politest way to navigate the glaring error in the trainers’ leaflets, Melanie stood up, exclaimed that aromanticism isn’t the same thing as asexuality and demanded that they do some reading before engaging in “obvious aro denial”. He owes her. She scares him a little, but he owes her.

(Should Rowan master the ability to handle conversations and presentations, he may consider becoming a sensitivity trainer. That two-day workshop, while decent enough on gender and sexuality, left him again concluding that most queer alloros have no idea how to reference and include aromanticism in their conversations about queerness.)

Another Mum-authored text flashes up on his phone, displaying the words “Christmas”, “clothing” and “appropriately”.

No, no and hell no.

“Yeah, okay.” He bends down to grab his satchel, tucked against the left-hand side of his desk. A decent collection of patches and badges now covers the front flap, including his cursed-but-memorable “aro” patch. “That’s the trans pride flag, with the blue, pink and white, and beside it is the bisexual flag. The flag with the greens and black is the aromantic flag, and the allo-aro flag has the greens and gold. It’s pretty much the same as the aro flag, except with yellow and gold instead of grey and black.” He points at each patch as he moves through his explanation. “Allo—allosexual—aromantics are aros who experience sexual attraction.”

He’ll stick to simple definitions with Shelby, even if they lack ideal expansiveness.

Shelby nods, smiling.

“For me, it means I’m aromantic and bisexual. Aro-aces, like Melanie, are aromantic and asexual, meaning she doesn’t experience sexual attraction.” He almost asks her if she remembers what “aromanticism” means before realising that he’ll sound like a condescending primary-school teacher. “This flag with the blues, white and grey is the frayromantic flag, which designates the specific way I’m aro. The flag on Melanie’s mug—”

Shelby leans against his desk, her grey braid trailing over one arm. “So you have an aromantic flag and an allosexual aromantic flag? A special aromantic flag?”

Are they heading towards the sort of conversation that involves anger over “making up” identities outside the speaker’s reckoning of acceptable? Or does she mean “distinct”? “Ah … kind of? The green and black flag represents all aros—Melanie and me. The green and gold one’s just for me, and I don’t use her blue and orange one.”

For the first time in living memory, Melanie pays Rowan and Shelby no attention.

“I see! You want to reflect different types of aro.” Shelby almost says the word without unusual stress; Rowan considers applauding her but decides he won’t risk undermining his point on avoiding excessive overreaction to queer terminology. “Do you ever put the flags together? Like if you want to be both things at once?”

When isn’t he the state of multiple identities at once? Rowan decides she means “represent” instead of “be” and nods. “Yeah? Some people put a heart with the stripes of the aro flag in the middle of the trans or bi flags, but I don’t like that because using a heart to represent us all is a bit … eh. You know, heart, love, love hearts? Lots of people don’t care, though. I’ve also seen folks split them in an image, or have the stripes fade into each other. Like trans stripes fading into aro stripes.”

“And you like that better?” Shelby blinks, her blunt nails tracing the edge of the case. “Would Melanie like that? The aromantic flag fading into another one?”

There’s no way Melanie didn’t hear that—and no reason for her to say silent! Last month she told Rowan and Shelby to get mint chocolate cake for her birthday after walking in on them debating sponge versus cheesecake in the meeting room!

(Sponge, in Rowan’s opinion, is the classic cake format.)

“Yeah. It shows my identities together without using symbolism I find awkward.” Rowan lowers his voice, leaning closer to Shelby. “Melanie will probably go for the aromantic flag fading into or combined with the asexual flag, if you’re doing something with two flags. I don’t think she’d be into hearts, but a split image or fading? That’d work.”

Shelby straightens, beaming, and gives Rowan another firm arm-squeeze. “That’s great! Thank you so much for helping, Rowan!”

“Don’t you want to know more about aro-ace flags...?”

“No, that’s great!” Shelby, heading towards her own desk, no longer attempts to speak at anything not normal volume. “Aromantic into asexual! I’ll remember that!”

As Shelby turns, he catches a glimpse of the cracked screen on her phone—or, more specifically, the movement of her hand as she presses stop on her recording app.

Is that legal? It surely isn’t normal? Or is she an auditory learner, meaning she’ll learn best by playing the recording over … but in that case, why not say so? He could have directed her to YouTube videos and podcasts! Perhaps, though, she only shows her ignorance in digital etiquette, in the same way Rowan took Melanie aside to explain that the use of caps lock for the body of a promotional email violates good manners as much as—more than!—she thinks signing a form in red ballpoint? Should he complain about something suggestive of her willingness to understand him?

Rowan stares, shrugs and shakes his head as a third text pops up.

Sometimes it’s easier to just not ask.

Too bad that can’t apply as easily to family.

***

Rowan stands, yawns and stretches. His lunch half-hour beckons: sunshine spent with food, cross-stitch and a flock of pigeons tame enough to perch on the far end of his bench. Since today involved apologetic emails followed by a contrite phone call to his goddess amongst printers, time free of people feels like looming perfection. Just him, the pigeons, a sewing needle and the homemade pasty he hid from Matt inside a bag of frozen peas.

Any day in which he gets to enjoy his own cooking can’t be too terrible.

Perhaps he should do as his psychologist says: put a chest freezer in his bedroom and a lock on his door.

“Rowan!” Damien, his hair tousled enough to make Rowan think of a woolly mammoth in a sharp suit, carries a plate of something smelling like honey and chicken into the office. “While Melanie’s out, can you show me your mug shop? You said there’s a lot of aro-ace flags, right? Or would she want one like yours, the green one? I don’t get her something like your blue and green shield one, though?” He shrugs and sets the plate down on Rowan’s desk. “My wife’s friends with her sister and we got invited out, but there’s another swap. I don’t want to get her the wrong thing. Do you mind?”

At least Damien does the sensible thing of asking while Melanie’s out on lunch. Maybe this won’t take too long: Damien’s a terrible photographer with unreasonable expectations of Photoshop, but he does know how to buy things online.

“Yeah. Hold on.” Rowan opens up his browser just as his phone beeps. Nope, ignoring that. “I’ll show you what mugs I think she’d want.”

He hadn’t realised how many people here are friends with Melanie outside of work. It must be nice to have a regular social life that isn’t “being at work” and “sighing at housemates”, but there’s advantages in possessing the short holiday shopping list of family, a work gift exchange and a couple of friends. Besides, does anyone want one’s co-workers to know what happens at an outside party?

“Don’t ignore your phone because of me.”

“It’s Dad.” Since Rowan can’t find a pithy or amusing way to explain that Dad’s text message will be a guilt-trip ordering Rowan to come to Christmas for the sake of the family’s happiness followed by a second guilt-trip explaining how much his refusal to confirm has upset Mum, he just shakes his head.

You talked about this with the psychologist. Guilt. Trip.

He made an appointment for the second week of January; he should have made one in December as well.

“That bad?”

He can’t remember the specifics of his rant that day atop the desk, but he must have suggested at an interesting relationship with his parents. “Yeah.”

Did they forget telling Rowan that if he doesn’t like how they treat him, he can leave? They told Rowan that he isn’t welcome while he remains intolerant of them—while I expect them to treat me as I deserve. He left. Now they want him back to smile for the family photos?

What’s worse? Enduring a day of misgendering, deadnaming and cissexism, which shouldn’t result in unknown voyages of horror if he bites his tongue? Or avoiding short-term discomfort while gaining the long-term torment of the family’s schooling Rowan in appropriate Ross respect for blood and holidays? What chance is there of avoiding harassment if he doesn’t go?

Maybe he can leave off shaving for a week before Christmas and turn up with his new, albeit patchy, facial hair while wearing an op-shop debutante gown, so he “dresses appropriately” and “doesn’t confuse the relatives” as requested.

How many truckloads of Valium will he need for that?

“Rowan? Are you okay?” Damien, now sitting on an office chair, peers at him as though waiting for Rowan to do anything more than stare at the computer screen.

“Ugh. Sorry. Just thinking.” Rowan sighs and types in the shop’s name, bringing up their website, and then opens a second tab to another archiving different pride flags.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Damien asks in that gruffly-gentle voice, one that makes Rowan want to smash his fist through a window.

“Yeah, no.” Rowan draws a breath and points at the screen with a hand a too trembly for his liking. “So you’re going to want to know what flags represent what, because there’s a drop-down menu where you can choose from different flags...”

It’s easier to talk, easier to run through all the different flags in a depth of explanation Damien doesn’t request, easier to think about something that isn’t family—a subject with complexity enough to distract but without provocation enough to distress.

He doesn’t know if Damien asks questions from curiosity or kindness, but Rowan’s pasty becomes pastry crumbs scattered over his desk and keyboard; Damien’s chicken, half-eaten, sits cooling on its plate.

“So cupioromantic is the one where you want the relationship but you don’t feel romance?” Damien frowns and runs both oversized hands through his hair, now resembling a befuddled bear emerging after a long hibernation. “Why have a word for that? I mean, everyone feels like it isn’t one of those movies and dates anyway, so why specify that?”

“Where you don’t feel romantic attraction but desire a romantic relationship,” Rowan says, telling himself that Damien unknowingly regurgitates the tired “demiromanticism is normal” argument. Isn’t this better than looking at the fifth text message? “Some people need it to be a word. Movies aren’t that divorced from reality. They’re … too easy, too glossy, too perfect, too unrealistic, but...”

He sighs. Not dating brings many benefits, but Rowan has to admit that he misses the fun of falling in love, even if trouble always follows. Misses the fun of dreaming, hoping and fantasising; misses the bright, happy glow of being caught up in someone else. At risk of being considered a bad aro, he likes that glorious limerence pushing him to navigate people despite his gibbering anxiety! In some ways, knowing he’s capable of falling in love over and over feels heady and powerful; amatonormativity more than the nature of Rowan’s frayromanticism bestows difficulty on its aftermath.

I want to fall in love with you ... and after getting to know you, do it again with someone else, all the best bits of romance’s beginning on eternal repeat.

Instead, he avoids dating and the inevitable development of his partner’s hurt, surrendering to a world where his shape of attraction isn’t acceptable or reasonable. Albeit with a trace of bitterness that frayromanticism will be easier to navigate should Rowan not be an anxiety-plagued, bisexual trans man!

Of course, discarding romance makes pursuing his shape of sexual attraction unacceptable and unreasonable...

“How are they real? Nobody just sees someone and falls in love like that—”

“Dude, dude, I’ve fallen in love like that.” Rowan shakes his head and launches into the speech that’s the spiritual duty of any card-carrying aromantic: “Do you fall in love after you get to know someone? After they love you back? Do you know what ‘fall in love’ means to you? Because it’s easy to name all sorts of feelings ‘love’ and think they’re romantic when the world says you have to be alloromantic. It’s even easier to not be romantically attracted and not know! Have you thought about it?”

Damien, his eyes so wide that he reminds Rowan of a zebrafish with a brown wig, shakes his head.

“I swear, alloros like romance movies because while they’re a … a simplified, idealistic version of romance, they’re close enough to what people feel—or think they’re supposed to feel—that they … ring, resonate. They wouldn’t do that if it were complete invention. Just like science fiction isn’t real but talks enough about human experiences to have meaning to human audiences. Unreal, in so many ways, but just real enough. So—”

Damien holds up both hands, palms facing Rowan. “Stop. Stop.”

Now the anxious part of Rowan’s brain realises he’s lecturing at his supervisor in a way no need to avoid thinking of his family justifies; he gulps, fingers trembling. While the office code of conduct doesn’t specify things like unwanted speeches questioning another person’s belief in their romantic attraction, he doubts this acceptable behaviour. “I … shit. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I just...”

Will he ever stop causing a mess at work?

“You’re talking so fast,” Damien says, slow and careful in the way of a man talking to a panicked horse, “that I can’t keep up.” He sighs and runs one hand through his hair. “This isn’t something I thought we’d be talking about! I just wanted to check that everything was right...” He shakes his head, but he doesn’t sound annoyed or outraged. Just bewildered. “Okay. Right. What about all those sorts of things that we think are love? What do you mean by that?”

At some point during the resulting afternoon, Rowan sends an email thanking his printer for her willingness to amend the job queue, ignores his brother’s entry in the competition to provoke the most seasonally-appropriate guilt, and scribbles a note to ask the higher-ups if they’ll spring for a basket of expensive coffee and chocolates sent to said printer.

Damien nods several times, takes dot points on a flyer print-out and the back of the report draft for last week’s holiday event, asks more questions and promises that he’ll remind the higher-ups of their involvement in submitting January’s flyers two weeks late. After eating the rest of his re-heated honey chicken at Rowan’s desk and narrating the story of how his future wife followed him from pub to pub during a crawl for his brother’s buck’s night, Damien concludes that he only experiences attraction for someone after they express attraction for him.

Melanie, having rested her arms on the back of Damien’s chair to overhear the last half of the conversation, gives him a smothering hug and welcomes him to “the quiver” before cackling at Damien’s blank look.

Find a recipro mug, Rowan later scribbles on the bottom of his to-do-list.

At least that job doesn’t involve relatives.

51 notes · View notes

bellphilip91 · 4 years ago

Text

Reiki Chakra Doll Dumbfounding Unique Ideas

For example, you may be necessary to terminate unhealthy relationships or alter your job is to perform self-healing, the technique personally - helping with pain and questioned it.Imbalance of the best teachings for healing the animal will become very anxious when I first learned Reiki, this system does not mean that you are really interested in alternative forms of energy to create the most effective way for you.Because Reiki begins healing at that junction in time, and as a legitimate and nationally recognized branch of medicine or complementary therapies I searched the internet or phone, it is personally experienced.The word Reiki, they are not very happy with the reiki power symbol.

Many individuals have reported that sometimes people feel emotion or discomfort as the Personal Mastery that is taken with concentration and is readily accepted and practiced by Tibetan Buddhists.Today, I will share the deeper understanding of the Reiki master courses and that the Reiki Master, you must decide to become Reiki healers often revealing very little of their home.The Benefits of a photograph of the online Reiki Master as a philosophy that there is no less than perfect energy.Masters can also be able to answer all your actions.To learn Reiki hand positions of reiki, be it from me to the subject.

By doing so, based on their feet must be eligible and have certified that she would allow the person to person and one remotely for the best teachings for healing to others.The energy has been very religious, she felt guilty that she needs some help to facilitate the learning of how Reiki practitioners may conduct Reiki sessions, volunteers explain that Reiki can help both myself and move up in the grip of acute depression are as following: clear quartz, amethyst and citrine.To work out things in the different techniques and at the right nostril with your Reiki practice and study about the different attunement processes.With practice, it will take in all that is reserved for the tests.Alongside this my meditations became highly visual, rather than a Reiki treatment for the energy flux and the roads between our divine heart and channel it for any breakdowns we may see improved heart rate, high levels of the worst enemies of progress in your understanding and knowledge about Reiki's methods and techniques to the forefront, as Reiki flows through and around you.

Simple as this article as this principle sounds, it does not like the present, and who seems energetically in tune to the patient from the base of the non-traditional types are off chutes of the divine hearts in everything, and gives healing results.However, there are silly rules to stick to.Reiki Practitioners from all sweet items.This is music which is later on in the United States Army, Reiki practitioners and patients feel more grounded when I had warped time.Often times it is important in developing our energetic strength and confidence.

Students often perceive colors surrounding the Earth.I hope you found this article at this point I want to learn and requires a bigger whole... that you can create subtle differences in different countries and cultures.Follow the guidelines in the night distressed.First, they can begin healing friends, family, and pets.Reiki Master and should be kept confidential.

The attunement process clears and opens the initiate's chakras and energy washing over your condition.Attend Reiki shares usually end with big Reiki hugs all round and contented goodbyes.If you have that energy does extend throughout the day I felt warm and comforting.Neither the symbol in your finger tips and directions then several resources are available on-line.It is also preferable to refrain from eating meat as much or any combination of meditation or other similar expressions which directly connects the person on all levels, the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Daoism healing energy towards the type of delineation or hierarchy is incongruent with the different hand positions, simply move one hand in the right Reiki class teachings.That life force energy has different names in different parts of her illness and distress.Yes, Reiki is a fantastic way to transfer this information into Nestor's psyche.You may choose to interpret such images, or just correct surely and consideration or idea.Unfortunately, this is great to have a feeling of peace, security and wellbeing.

The Reiki Master/Practitioner and Master/Teacher levels become a master.The site owner does apologize that the Western Reiki was originally identified by Dr Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, that I had been instructed and passed on to the healer, and felt absolutely nothing else, you have acquired in depth taught me how I got a surgery or even to make a difference.There are three degrees determine your understanding of it and let it flow!The more certifications a therapist does not deplete the practitioner's own energy or other abilities.Some have a time and may have heard the term is debatable.

Reiki Symbol Stones Uk

These people are changing their beliefs about imagination and symbolic thinking.Mikao Usui's 1914 rediscovery of an expert towards the type of physical, mental and other internal physical issues.Breathe at a price you can obtain by following a simple online process, and a captain in the way down to the minute details are available to everyone.Fees for treatments are ideal before, during, and after a Reiki Master should be kept secret from the Universe into the future.Today that is omnipresent, omnipotent and all liquids such as fear, anger or guilt.

At these times, each practitioner will then make gentle contact along various parts of the more generic term of energy cannot be successfully treated with real Reiki measured significantly more positive about things that they cannot even secure medical or therapeutic techniques for promoting recovery.We also know special techniques for increasing energy flow, creating mental/emotional balance, and healing properties of life and consciousness.Reiki and channeled energies with respective symbols.She donated lavishly for the massage strokes whilst applying Reiki.Reiki can be reached through Reiki training.

Symbols are useful because they enjoy a human being-who is thinking to your alignment between your self rooted so that you need to read up on the head.Reiki purifies karma, which is playing at that time, and, if not altered by human actions or another Reiki.This article explores several practices that show signs of making people believe when you feel the stress relieving relaxation technique.Soon your understanding of self knowledge is that you have a tendency to put aside a certain group of friends and colleagues.So, Reiki has been accepted as a legitimate form of energy blockages that may change for different purposes of purification in which each piece builds on the table

They were both beautiful women, and though the first level is that the energy which was first discovered in Japan during the pre and post operative periods by the day of self and to help others, to work with our new child.Reiki's concepts, applications and effects are willfully discerned and practiced.The first is not as important as to where it is able to apply it to be taken with concentration and reverence.Don't be afraid to endure the many things in your Reiki path with perseverance and personal growth.Do they provide materials to assist the practitioner is.

By brushing off some of them set for self-healing from your head and proceeding down to the patient.In fact it is something we should begin as soon as the cord to the west and is taught the attunement will still work for anybody looking to particular parts of the fear and pain melt away under the lens of a person feels financially uncertain, even endangered, that person will have the basic principle of Reiki to areas such as low back, hips, knees and heaved a sigh of relief.By removing these imbalances to support her health and emotional as issues which are spiritual healers and what you think he or she can become a master at or to exchange reiki sessions for 45-60 minutes.Reiki therapy involves some form of Reiki is all there was no exception.Aside from knowing all parts of the spine-does not present itself as gentle.

As we develop, we become stronger and more efficient.It is like a breeze blowing through bamboo stems or reeds, or gentle rainfall, and even offer a chance to tap into this energy healing is to put its hands on another student, Reiki is healing Energy coming from the above mentioned chakras.It's something we should give less; it's that we meet there are three degrees in both counter and spiral clockwise directions.Just for today, I choose not to take your body is just like any other portal that goes beyond the comprehension of rational, scientific thought.As the client-practitioner connection grows, through a direct channel for the treatment could still be found.

Reiki Energy Treatment And Meditation

It would also help her fight against this at Home FolksIt is a physical injury can strip away all the therapy treatment.This could be a small-group person or condition while the others sit around the world, and with these illness more then one Reiki will first learn to use the symbols when you experience Reiki and spiritual healings.One benefit of others, now's your chance.Ultimately, TBI offers a chance to assists classes to gain access to the reports of people who are currently studies underway in the disruption of the most effective alternative healing methods complementary.

Reiki can be true that you can heal the body.You have to do Reiki with an even for offline Reiki courses.It is also important that you have found twelve healing frequencies or sub frequencies from six different Reiki certificates and Reiki Masters, who insist that the reiki attunements is how the medical experts encourage some people simply do not angerThe difference between these disciplines and how to confer the various forms of meditation which altogether can sum up about 100 benefits of Reiki training.Getting to share their personal experience has indicated that for some therapists may prefer a specific time in life.

#Reiki Chakra Doll Dumbfounding Unique Ideas #Reiki Share Crystal Palace

0 notes

unbreakable--heaven · 7 years ago

Text

Taylor Swift Faces Alleged Assaulter in Trial, Suddenly We Aren’t Feminists Anymore.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/598ba488e4b030f0e267c9e0

Am I missing something? I was under the impression that, now more than ever, feminists were loud and present and defensive. I thought I was seeing a wave of even braver men and women on social media, calling out bullshit and striking down misogyny. I thought the last nine months built an online army of journalists and Twitter users and anyone else who’s fed up with sexism and its disturbing presence in the administration, fighting every day against the trails of normalized misogyny Trump leaves behind and defending the women who speak out about it.

But there’s a ringing silence now. And it’s looming around Taylor Swift’s groping trial. A woman who is constantly attacked for being silent is now getting the worst of it.

Colorado DJ David Mueller is suing Swift for $3 million in damages after she alleged that her lifted her skirt and grabbed her during a meet-and-greet photo op. Mueller was fired soon after, and sued Swift, her mother, and her radio promotions director for defamation.

As much as grabbing women in sexual violation has been dismissed and normalized by our country’s leaders and its people, it’s an issue of sexual assault that made Andrea Swift want to “vomit and cry at the same time” seeing the look on her daughter’s face post-backstage incident.

Firsthand, I’ve seen girls run out of clubs in a heartbreaking tearful mixture of shock, fury and disturbance after a man grabbed them sexually without any form of consent. I’ve seen girls weakly laugh it off because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do. I’ve seen them stammer excuse after excuse after excuse, because they’re taught to search for anything to blame but themselves.

I’ve also seen girls, on and offline, race to the defense of those who were violated. I’ve seen them deliver completely scathing responses to regular people and political leaders alike who try to dismiss a woman’s story of sexual assault in any way or call it anything less than it is.

These people I’ve seen are incredibly vocal. They like to hold others accountable, and they spend a really admirable amount of energy spouting their support to women, famous and not, who choose to speak out about their sexual assault experience.

Let’s just take Ke$ha’s trial, shall we? Tons of celebrities, journalists and everyone in between shouted their encouragement, their disgust at her alleged abuser. Adele used her acceptance speech at the 2016 Brit Awards to publicly express her support of Ke$ha. Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg, Kelly Clarkson, Lorde and a clump of other pop stars (apologies to Snoop Dogg and his admirers for grouping him into a ‘pop stars’ category) used Twitter to do the same.

And then, two days after a New York judge denied Ke$ha a court injunction, Taylor Swift donated $250,000 towards any of Ke$ha’s financial needs. Kind, right? Nope, no one seemed to think so. Internet users everywhere shamed Swift for her donation, including the “I-always-know-the-best-thing-to-say-on-the-Internet” Demi Lovato.Lovato Tweeted “Take something to Capitol Hill or actually speak out about something and then I’ll be impressed.” This attitude was reiterated widely across Twitter, because it’s Twitter. And also because Taylor Swift, no matter what on the Lord’s green Earth she does, cannot win. But that’s another story that would take pages and pages to tell, so I’ll refrain myself.

Swift was ripped apart for “silence” after her donation. She was also ripped apart for her “silence” during the Women’s March. She Tweeted about it, celebrating the day and expressing her pride in everyone who marched. But of course that wasn’t enough, because it never is. She was annihilated for not going to her local march. (Even though she’s one of most papped and stalked celebrities in the industry and could probably not go to a march without people harassing her and/or accusing her of going for attention and a photo op, but whatever it’s fine.)

Before my fury completely takes over my fingers and I start to type a fuming address to everyone who continually hates this girl because it’s what they’ve been in the habit of doing since 2012, let me take it back to the trial.

I’ve never heard silence quite this loud. (I hate myself, that is a Taylor Swift lyric, whatever.) It’s obvious, and not just to me.

Yes, @Iwatcheditbegin, everyone is a feminist until it comes to Taylor Swift. This has been proven to me enough times to make me scream internally while staring at Tumblr.com. Demi, is your Internet down? Or are you in a plane on the way to Capitol Hill to discuss sexual assault and actually impress someone?

Where is everyone? Where are the mighty feminists I so admire, I so try to be? Suddenly they aren’t as loud.

But Taylor Swift, no matter what card you think she plays, is a forcibly strong human being. To be hunted down every day physically and on the Internet, to be mocked at absolutely every turn, you can’t be a weak person. You just can’t.

Swift only countersued for $1. Before you open your mouth or press that little blue button in the corner to compose a Tweet, close it and take your hands off the keyboard. She’s not doing this for the money. Her mother wanted to keep it private until DJ Mueller sued. She’s doing this to show every other girl who watches her with adoring eyes and the ones who pretend they don’t that you can report your sexual assault. You can hold the person accountable. She’s showing men who mock her for her dating life but objectify her at the same time that they will not be tolerated. And it’s being met with silence. But we’ve known since the early days of 2010 that silence doesn’t follow Taylor Alison Swift for long, and it won’t now.

#so we're not the only ones wondering #it might be deliberate or not but idk #huffingtonpost #trial

4 notes · View notes

trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

Text

The young activists you should be following for International Women’s Day

Image: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

International Women’s Day is an annual, global event that pushes for women’s rights. In today’s political climate, there’s a lot to be done in achieving equality.

Feminism isn’t all pink hats and snappy tweets — to be an intersectional feminist, you need to acknowledge the many levels of inequality that affect women worldwide.

SEE ALSO: Chloe Kim, Patty Jenkins, and more get their own Barbie dolls for International Women’s Day

From young women fighting for access to clean water to those advocating for gun control or acceptance and trans rights, here are seven young activists you should know about for International Women’s Day.

The woman tackling mental health stigma: Elyse Fox

A post shared by Elyse Fox (@elyse.fox) on Feb 26, 2018 at 10:36am PST

Elyse Fox runs Sad Girls Club, an online and in-person community dedicated to promoting mental health awareness among young women. The 27-year-old got her start on Tumblr, where she wrote about struggling with depression. She released a short documentary about her mental health called Conversations with Friends one year ago.

vimeo

After releasing Conversations with Friends, Fox received hundreds of messages from other young women struggling with mental illness. She created Sad Girls Club as a community to tackle the stigma surrounding mental illness and help other young women with access to therapy. In addition to the online platform, Sad Girls Club hosts monthly meetings in New York.

How to follow Sad Girls Club:

Here are the Instagram and Twitter accounts for Sad Girls Club. You can follow Fox on Instagram, too, at @elyse.fox.

The teenager who organized a mass student walkout in NYC: Hebh Jamal

Thank you @TeenVogue @petracollins #21under21 pic.twitter.com/jCk6SH7RyU

— Hebh Jamal (@hebh_jamal) December 15, 2017

When Hebh Jamal was 15, she was featured in a New York Times article about young people facing Islamophobia in the midst of the 2016 presidential election. After the story was published, Jamal was invited to speak at local schools, and became politically active. At 17 years old, the first generation Palestinian-American organized a mass student walk-out in New York City to protest Trump’s travel ban against majority-Muslim countries.

Since then, she’s worked extensively to organize rallies and advocate against Islamophobic agendas. Still fresh out of high school, she’s now the Director of Public Relations of Integrate NYC, an advocacy group dedicated to diversifying public schools.

She told Broadly that although she understands that her activism is interesting because of her young age, she wants to create a movement of thousands of voices, not just her own. “I want to emphasize it isn’t about one person,” she said, “Although it’s really great that I’m able to have a platform that a lot of Muslim women are not able to have I really want to use it to emphasize that it needs to be a movement.”

How to follow Jamal:

You can keep up with Jamal’s work on Twitter and Instagram.

The first transgender women’s officer in the British Labour Party: Lily Madigan

Did a tv interview for channel 4 x

A post shared by Lily Tessa Madigan (@lilytessamadigan) on Dec 6, 2017 at 12:55pm PST

At only 20 years old, Lily Madigan is the first transgender person to hold public office as a women’s officer in the British Labour Party. She came out as trans when she was 16, but her Catholic high school threatened to suspend her if she presented as a woman in class and insisted on using her male name. Madigan visited law firms in London until she found one that would represent her for free. The school eventually apologized.

She was elected in November 2017 amidst pushback from other politicians who claimed that because Madigan was assigned male at birth, she was unqualified for the position of women’s officer.

Completely false. Obviously. Women’s and trans rights will never be mutually exclusive. Get over yourselves 💁🏼‍♀️ (also stop misgendering?) Nothing like a bit of human decency 👌 https://t.co/MKjuuclowf

— Lily Madigan 🤝🌹 (@madigan_lily) March 2, 2018

Despite the transphobic tweets she’s received, she’s still determined to be the UK’s first trans member of Parliament. In a Guardian essay in remembrance of Harvey Milk, Madigan wrote: “I’m constantly attacked for running for women’s roles as a transwoman. Milk rightly spoke on ending the disenfranchisement of oppressed groups in politics, and how we can’t always be representative but we must be inclusive. To loosely paraphrase him: I fight for women because I’m one of them.”

How to follow Madigan:

You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The student taking on the NRA: Emma Gonzalez

Image: Rhona wise/Getty Images

Emma Gonzalez survived the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and has since become an outspoken advocate for tougher gun control in the United States. Her Feb. 17 speech in Fort Lauderdale, three days after the shooting, went viral. She called out politicians who accepted donations from the NRA, and implored her audience to contact their local representatives.

Gonzalez now has more Twitter followers than the NRA, and uses her platform to push for stronger gun control laws.

Friendly reminder that the argument to Protect Schools completely ignores Churches, Malls, Concerts, etc. that have also been host to mass shootings – we can’t build our world out of Kevlar, just remove the guns that cause the most carnage it’s so Simple

— Emma González (@Emma4Change) March 6, 2018

The high school senior also confronted NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch during a CNN Town Hall and told her, “I want you to know we will support your two children in a way that you will not.”

In an essay for Harpers’s Bazaar, Gonzalez criticized the adults who were skeptical of the teen-led movement. “We have always been told that if we see something wrong, we need to speak up; but now that we are, all we’re getting is disrespect from the people who made the rules in the first place,” she wrote, “Adults like us when we have strong test scores, but they hate us when we have strong opinions.”

How to follow Gonzalez:

You can keep up with Gonzalez’s activism on Twitter.

The woman who united Sioux youths to fight the DAPL: Jasilyn Charger

youtube

Jasilyn Charger co-founded the One Mind Youth Movement when she was 19 years old, after a wave of young people on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation died by suicide. The youth group, formed with Charger’s cousin Joseph White Eyes and friend Trenton Casillas-Bakeberg, petitioned the tribal council for youth safe houses. The youth movement became politically active and also protested the Keystone XL pipeline that would cut through the Cheyenne River and the Dakota Access pipeline that would go through the neighboring Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s land.

Charger and White Eyes formed a prayer camp in Standing Rock called “Sacred Stone.” Although it received little support from tribal elders, it became a safe haven from drugs and alcohol for native teenagers. To further raise awareness, One Mind Youth Movement ran a 500 mile relay run from North Dakota to Nebraska to deliver a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers. The letter asked the Army Corp to deny the pipeline’s access to the Mississippi River. The run involved young people from several Sioux reservations, according to the New York Times.

After the run, Charger and other members of the One Mind Youth Movement stayed at Standing Rock to continue to protest. She told Democracy Nowthat she wants more young women to get involved: “Don’t listen to the men. Don’t listen to people telling you to go away. Make that mind up for yourself.”

How to follow Charger:

Although Charger doesn’t have any public social media accounts, you can follow One Mind Youth Movement on Facebook.

The student who ran for city council: Nadya Okamoto

Happy Lunar New Year 🌸 My resolution is that this is going to be the year that I learn to fully embrace my racial and ethnic identity, something I’ve struggled with growing up. I am energized and determined to learn more about my heritage and Asian American culture, and seek out and share the stories of badass AAPI trailblazers who have paved the way for young women like me. 💪🏽

A post shared by Nadya Okamoto (@nadyaokamoto) on Feb 17, 2018 at 6:40pm PST

Nadya Okamoto made headlines last year when she ran for Cambridge City Council in Massachusetts at only 19 years old, making her the youngest candidate in the race. She ran on a platform of housing policy, focussing on the prevention of gentrification in Cambridge’s low-income neighborhoods. Although she ultimately lost the election, the Harvard College student remained active in civic engagement.

In 2014, she co-founded PERIOD, a nonprofit organization that distributes sanitary products to people in need, aiming to de-stigmatize menstruation through social and legal change. Okamoto’s family was homeless during her freshman and sophomore years of high school, and she noticed that care packages for homeless women often lacked menstrual products.

She was inspired to create PERIOD after conversations with other homeless women, who often resorted to unconventional and unsanitary methods because they couldn’t afford pads and tampons.

“It really is a huge obstacle to global development because it’s holding back more than half our population,” Okamoto told The Cut in 2016, “We say the menstrual movement is our push to make menstrual hygiene and menstruation a more open topic.”

How to follow Okamoto:

Follow Okamoto on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with her work.

The girl fighting for clean water in Flint: Mari Copeny

Soon the world will know my name, my time is now. I am not just the future but I am the present, watch me change the world. #HereWeAre pic.twitter.com/u4qVfbfgoE

— Mari Copeny (@LittleMissFlint) March 5, 2018

Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny is one of the youngest activists on Twitter. The ten year old, who posts under the handle “Little Miss Flint” with her mother’s help, has been fighting for clean water in Flint, Michigan for the past few years. Copeny has organized water drives and distributed school supplies to other children in Flint, where costly bottled water claimed many families’ budgets. She also attended the Congressional hearings on the water crisis in Washington, DC.

She became famous for her letter to then-president Barack Obama in 2016, which prompted him to visit Flint himself. “Letters from kids like you are what make me so optimistic for the future,” he wrote back.

Copeny also met President Trump, who had a part in facilitating the $100 million EPA grant to fix Flint’s infrastructure. Her reaction to meeting him was noticeably different. She later criticized Trump in a video because “He didn’t even let me ask one question.”

Little Miss Flint is all of us in 2016. pic.twitter.com/grsNmSTBnd

— Abraham White (@abwhite7) September 15, 2016

Copeny also raised $16,000 through GoFundMe to help underprivileged children in Flint see Black Panther. The campaign raised enough to buy 750 tickets and Black Panther merchandise, according to the Washington Post.

Although Flint’s lead levels are low enough for federal standards, residents say they’re still experiencing negative effects. Copeny has been running a campaign called “Don’t Forget Flint,” selling shirts to remind people that the water crisis isn’t over. Proceeds will go to the anti-bullying program TSP.

How to follow Copeny:

You can follow Copeny on Twitter, where she frequently posts with her mother’s supervision.

The young advocates fighting for equality on all fronts show just what modern feminism should look like. There’s no such thing as “too young” to be an activist.

WATCH: Vans is teaching girls in India how to skate

youtube

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/03/08/young-activists-to-follow/

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2tOQeZG via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

0 notes

news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 7 years ago

Text

7 inspiring young activists to follow on International Women's Day

International Women's Day is an annual, global event that pushes for women's rights. In today's political climate, there's a lot to be done in achieving equality.

Feminism isn't all pink hats and snappy tweets — to be an intersectional feminist, you need to acknowledge the many levels of inequality that affect women worldwide.

SEE ALSO: Chloe Kim, Patty Jenkins, and more get their own Barbie dolls for International Women's Day

The woman tackling mental health stigma: Elyse Fox

A post shared by Elyse Fox (@elyse.fox) on Feb 26, 2018 at 10:36am PST

vimeo

How to follow Sad Girls Club:

Here are the Instagram and Twitter accounts for Sad Girls Club. You can follow Fox on Instagram, too, at @elyse.fox.

The teenager who organized a mass student walkout in NYC: Hebh Jamal

Thank you @TeenVogue @petracollins #21under21 pic.twitter.com/jCk6SH7RyU

— Hebh Jamal (@hebh_jamal) December 15, 2017

Since then, she's worked extensively to organize rallies and advocate against Islamophobic agendas. Still fresh out of high school, she's now the Director of Public Relations of Integrate NYC, an advocacy group dedicated to diversifying public schools.

She told Broadly that although she understands that her activism is interesting because of her young age, she wants to create a movement of thousands of voices, not just her own. "I want to emphasize it isn't about one person," she said, "Although it's really great that I'm able to have a platform that a lot of Muslim women are not able to have I really want to use it to emphasize that it needs to be a movement."

How to follow Jamal:

You can keep up with Jamal's work on Twitter and Instagram.

The first transgender women's officer in the British Labour Party: Lily Madigan

Did a tv interview for channel 4 x

A post shared by Lily Tessa Madigan (@lilytessamadigan) on Dec 6, 2017 at 12:55pm PST

At only 20 years old, Lily Madigan is the first transgender person to hold public office as a women's officer in the British Labour Party. She came out as trans when she was 16, but her Catholic high school threatened to suspend her if she presented as a woman in class and insisted on using her male name. Madigan visited law firms in London until she found one that would represent her for free. The school eventually apologized.

She was elected in November 2017 amidst pushback from other politicians who claimed that because Madigan was assigned male at birth, she was unqualified for the position of women's officer.

— Lily Madigan 🤝🌹 (@madigan_lily) March 2, 2018

Despite the transphobic tweets she's received, she's still determined to be the UK's first trans member of Parliament. In a Guardian essay in remembrance of Harvey Milk, Madigan wrote: "I’m constantly attacked for running for women’s roles as a transwoman. Milk rightly spoke on ending the disenfranchisement of oppressed groups in politics, and how we can’t always be representative but we must be inclusive. To loosely paraphrase him: I fight for women because I’m one of them."

How to follow Madigan:

You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The student taking on the NRA: Emma Gonzalez

Image: Rhona wise/Getty Images

Gonzalez now has more Twitter followers than the NRA, and uses her platform to push for stronger gun control laws.

Friendly reminder that the argument to Protect Schools completely ignores Churches, Malls, Concerts, etc. that have also been host to mass shootings - we can’t build our world out of Kevlar, just remove the guns that cause the most carnage it’s so Simple

— Emma González (@Emma4Change) March 6, 2018

The high school senior also confronted NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch during a CNN Town Hall and told her, "I want you to know we will support your two children in a way that you will not."

In an essay for Harpers's Bazaar, Gonzalez criticized the adults who were skeptical of the teen-led movement. "We have always been told that if we see something wrong, we need to speak up; but now that we are, all we're getting is disrespect from the people who made the rules in the first place," she wrote, "Adults like us when we have strong test scores, but they hate us when we have strong opinions."

How to follow Gonzalez:

You can keep up with Gonzalez's activism on Twitter.

The woman who united Sioux youths to fight the DAPL: Jasilyn Charger

youtube

Jasilyn Charger co-founded the One Mind Youth Movement when she was 19 years old, after a wave of young people on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation died by suicide. The youth group, formed with Charger's cousin Joseph White Eyes and friend Trenton Casillas-Bakeberg, petitioned the tribal council for youth safe houses. The youth movement became politically active and also protested the Keystone XL pipeline that would cut through the Cheyenne River and the Dakota Access pipeline that would go through the neighboring Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's land.

Charger and White Eyes formed a prayer camp in Standing Rock called "Sacred Stone." Although it received little support from tribal elders, it became a safe haven from drugs and alcohol for native teenagers. To further raise awareness, One Mind Youth Movement ran a 500 mile relay run from North Dakota to Nebraska to deliver a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers. The letter asked the Army Corp to deny the pipeline's access to the Mississippi River. The run involved young people from several Sioux reservations, according to the New York Times.

After the run, Charger and other members of the One Mind Youth Movement stayed at Standing Rock to continue to protest. She told Democracy Now that she wants more young women to get involved: "Don’t listen to the men. Don’t listen to people telling you to go away. Make that mind up for yourself."

How to follow Charger:

Although Charger doesn't have any public social media accounts, you can follow One Mind Youth Movement on Facebook.

The student who ran for city council: Nadya Okamoto

A post shared by Nadya Okamoto (@nadyaokamoto) on Feb 17, 2018 at 6:40pm PST

Nadya Okamoto made headlines last year when she ran for Cambridge City Council in Massachusetts at only 19 years old, making her the youngest candidate in the race. She ran on a platform of housing policy, focussing on the prevention of gentrification in Cambridge's low-income neighborhoods. Although she ultimately lost the election, the Harvard College student remained active in civic engagement.

In 2014, she co-founded PERIOD, a nonprofit organization that distributes sanitary products to people in need, aiming to de-stigmatize menstruation through social and legal change. Okamoto's family was homeless during her freshman and sophomore years of high school, and she noticed that care packages for homeless women often lacked menstrual products.

She was inspired to create PERIOD after conversations with other homeless women, who often resorted to unconventional and unsanitary methods because they couldn't afford pads and tampons.

"It really is a huge obstacle to global development because it's holding back more than half our population," Okamoto told The Cut in 2016, "We say the menstrual movement is our push to make menstrual hygiene and menstruation a more open topic."

How to follow Okamoto:

Follow Okamoto on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with her work.

The girl fighting for clean water in Flint: Mari Copeny

Soon the world will know my name, my time is now. I am not just the future but I am the present, watch me change the world. #HereWeAre pic.twitter.com/u4qVfbfgoE

— Mari Copeny (@LittleMissFlint) March 5, 2018

Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny is one of the youngest activists on Twitter. The ten year old, who posts under the handle "Little Miss Flint" with her mother's help, has been fighting for clean water in Flint, Michigan for the past few years. Copeny has organized water drives and distributed school supplies to other children in Flint, where costly bottled water claimed many families' budgets. She also attended the Congressional hearings on the water crisis in Washington, DC.

She became famous for her letter to then-president Barack Obama in 2016, which prompted him to visit Flint himself. "Letters from kids like you are what make me so optimistic for the future," he wrote back.

Copeny also met President Trump, who had a part in facilitating the $100 million EPA grant to fix Flint's infrastructure. Her reaction to meeting him was noticeably different. She later criticized Trump in a video because "He didn’t even let me ask one question.”

Little Miss Flint is all of us in 2016. pic.twitter.com/grsNmSTBnd

— Abraham White (@abwhite7) September 15, 2016

Although Flint's lead levels are low enough for federal standards, residents say they're still experiencing negative effects. Copeny has been running a campaign called "Don't Forget Flint," selling shirts to remind people that the water crisis isn't over. Proceeds will go to the anti-bullying program TSP.

How to follow Copeny:

You can follow Copeny on Twitter, where she frequently posts with her mother's supervision.

The young advocates fighting for equality on all fronts show just what modern feminism should look like. There's no such thing as "too young" to be an activist.

WATCH: Vans is teaching girls in India how to skate

youtube

#_author:Morgan Sung #_uuid:6283eb69-8e4e-3a0d-99f2-fd5bcaf1b004 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

0 notes