Snippets

[kaberett]

Me:

I think that it's all very well to say "let's remove all labels" when you fall in the default categories for everything and have *never experienced* exactly how fucking isolating it is to look at the default categories all around you and go "... but I am not like that; what is wrong with me?"

It hurts less when they're labelled something other than "normal" and "what everyone is like", because at least that way you stand a better chance of realising you have options.

Ani DiFranco (who fucked up bigtime on racism and then doubled down; this song predates it but this stanza embodies exactly the attitude that's the issue; nonetheless I quote it because I value the last couplet so much):

Everything I do is judged
And they mostly get it wrong
But oh well
'cause the bathroom mirror has not budged
And the woman who lives there can tell
The truth from the stuff that they say
And she looks me in the eye
And says, would you prefer the easy way?
No? Well okay then -- don't cry...

Black Girl Dangerous, On Getting Free:

You survived. And because you survived, you now had a shot at more than just staying alive. You had a shot now at getting free. But that thing that you learned when you were five was not then and is not now designed to help you be free. It is designed only to help you survive. And, in fact, it keeps you from being free. You need to figure out what this thing is and work your ass off to un-learn it. Because the things we learn to do to survive at all costs are not the things that will help us get FREE. Getting free is a whole different journey altogether.