go read alice munro’s runaway
she’s like the modern chekhov
Every city has a sex and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and, in this, hasn’t changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.
by John Berger (via bookaddictiion)
by John Berger (via bookaddictiion)
But some people can’t tell where it hurts. They can’t calm down. They can’t ever stop howling.
by Margaret Atwood (via likeafieldmouse)
by Margaret Atwood (via likeafieldmouse)
There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep
and still be counted as warriors.
by Adrienne Rich (via clarityandchaos)
and still be counted as warriors.
by Adrienne Rich (via clarityandchaos)
(i)
the colour red is a flag pinioned on desire
at thirteen, a single drop of it on white sheets
stops the heart as a single note;
the zenith of colour. Lying back on the grass,
it glows behind my eyes like the fingerprints
of the sun. a dress can move with the musical force of it;
it feels like a plucked bowstring. like when a bee
stung my heel. like when the poppies filled the
garden like obscenities one july.
to place it beside purple is to strike a sound
like a gasping trombone; it is what happens when
love overlays rage, overlays death;
Gentlemen. This is what rape culture is like:
Imagine you have a Rolex watch. Nice fancy Rolex, you bought it because you like the way it looks and you wanted to treat yourself. And then you get beaten and mugged and your Rolex is stolen. So you go to the police. Only, instead of investigating the crime, the police want to know why you were wearing a Rolex instead of a regular watch. Have you ever given a Rolex to anyone else? Is it possible you wanted to be mugged? Why didn’t you wear long sleeves to cover up the Rolex if you didn’t want to be mugged?
And then after that, everywhere you go, there are constant jokes about stealing your Rolex. People you don’t even know whistle at your Rolex and make jokes about cutting your hand off to get it. The media doesn’t help either; it portrays people who wear Rolexes as flamboyant assholes who secretly just want someone to come along and take that Rolex off their hands. When damn, all you wanted was to wear a nice watch without getting harassed for it. When you complain that you are starting to feel unsafe, people laugh you off and say that you are too uptight. Never mind you got violently attacked for the crime of wearing a friggin time piece.
Imagining all that? It sucks, doesn’t it.
Now imagine you could never take the Rolex off.
by The Wretched of the Earth: [TW: rape] On Rape Culture (via paveo)
