anyways if you actually wanna help black women & girls get out of sex trafficking you don’t call the police and i’m speaking from experience. most of the things nonvictims tell you to do is call the police because
they don’t know what else to do. i had a friend at the brothel who did that the second
a man gave her a tracphone and instead of helping her they raped her
and laughed about it and shaved off her hair and returned her to her
pimp. those police officers she called? the whole district received
bribes from that ring and in return the police got girls and drugs and
got to avoid a huge gang war. those men that raped her specifically went there regularly for girls under 15. the police don’t do shit for black people, we already know that so idk why y’all keep offering the police as a viable option.
secondly sex work isn’t decriminalized so black women can’t fucking press charges or go to the police about rape or anything else without getting arrested themselves. work on fighting for the decriminalization of sex work and whenever you see a situation go sideways with a man and a girl/woman step in if you can. bystanders are the reason why many of us go missing. honestly most of what could be done to bust rings won’t be done because it has to rely on vigilante work. the way i see it, the only way to minimize the epidemic is to kill off the pimps and everyone else in control to free the women and figure out a way to give them funding to restart their lives along with counseling and legal protection.
when i got older and i was no longer being trafficked i did what i could to help some of the girls i kept in touch with because we don’t have anything to lay back on when the shit happens to us. we come out of those situations with 0 trust, 0 money, and 0 friends and family, no one to talk to because if we try we could get arrested, and a lot of psychological problems. then pimps like to make rounds to snatch up girls that got free…i’ve had men come after me over the course of the past two years to put me back in it. i was freed from those men always following me only because of their deaths. jail doesn’t do shit, they’ll just put another
man in charge for the time being. most girls return by force or get sold again or become someone’s wife and move out of the country, or die because they refused to comply and that’s why women stay missing for years and years.
the police is not the end all be all for these type of cases when they actively participate in violence against us so stop spreading that shit lol. i’m urging y’all to fight for decriminalization of sex work and donate towards organizations that actually give a shit about us and help out where the fuck you can instead.
when I was a little kid (we’re talking 6 or 7 years old) I was REALLY into The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes and we owned like every The Far Side collection in print so by 2nd grade I was determined to be a cartoonist but my sense of humor was pretty warped and from time to time my “art” would draw (arguably justified) scrutiny from my elementary teachers but none so much as this piece that I tried to recreate a few months back in my childhood art style for full effect
I don’t remember getting in too much trouble over this one, but I also don’t remember it getting the praise I KNEW it deserved and if you ask me, this is still pretty hilarious coming from the hand of a 7 year old. If these are directly taken from Gary Larson, I don’t know, but I really remember thinking these up myself.
This one was captioned “Katie’s fun day at the pond comes to an abrupt end.”
Who is Katie? I have no idea. Where did I learn the word “abrupt?” Probably Calvin and Hobbes. The original version of this is actually framed in my uncle’s kitchen; he and my dad were my biggest fans.
There was another instance where my teacher asked us to illustrate our favorite part of an earlier field trip, and I drew us having lunch at the McDonald’s playground, and while everything else was in good order, there happened to be a skeleton buried in the ball pit.
“Why is there a skeleton in the ball pit” people would ask.
2nd grade me shrugged, “stayed in there too long.”
If I’m keeping it 💯 part of the reason why I don’t want children (as in I have no desire to birth and/or raise children in any capacity) is because I’m absolutely frightened of childbirth. My mom is a nurse and she was always upfront about anatomy with me and told me exactly what happens during childbirth. Everything from clitoral tearing to graphic death. Not only that but the women on my mother’s side of the family usually die during childbirth. My mother nearly died (and almost killed me in the process twice) when her blood turned toxic and I was born three months premature. Damn near all of the women in my moms family had died horrifically during childbirth. I have literally nightmares about being pregnant. While I can look at pregnant women and see their beauty, if I were to be pregnant, my anxiety/depression would be through the roof :////////
Idk, what y'all think?
This seems like an entirely reasonable and well-founded fear.
And yet people call me selfish all the time lol like I feel like women are purposely misinformed as to what actually happens during pregnancy, during the birth, and the months after giving birth because it is frightening and deadly. The more we know, the more we may not want to actually go through with it
I think you’re definitely right about that. Everyone wants to gloss over anything genuinely frightening and just instead say something like ‘oh that won’t happen to you’ and ‘oh it’s so worth it in the end’ but like…no. There really is a serious gap in education about pregnancy. High school sex ed, at least in my experience, was all about avoiding pregnancy. Then when you’re an adult and you’re pregnant people expect you to just magically know what you need to know.
But really, knowing more about pregnancy might deter a lot of people from voluntarily becoming pregnant.
So I agree, I don’t think your fear of pregnancy is unreasonable at all. And besides, you don’t need a reason beyond that it’s just not for you. I know it’s not for me either.
So I’m at the bus terminal and this guy (who’d been following me and hovering over me for 10 minutes) comes up to me and says “hey beautiful. Can I talk to you?” So I said “no thank you.” He goes “I just want to speak to you, though.”
And I said “yeah I know that and I’m not interested in talking to a strange man at a bus terminal. Please leave me alone.”
So he stands there watching me. Finally he says “listen, there’s no need to be difficult. I approached you politely like a gentleman so I don’t see why you’re saying no. Now just let me speak to you.”
I said “nobody’s being difficult my guy. You asked a question, I gave an answer so we’re done.”
Then he says “yeah but the answer you gave me made no sense. Why don’t you want to talk to me? You don’t know what kind of person I am. You’re judging me before you know me. You’re being ignorant and prejudiced so”-
Just then this other guy who’d been sitting close to me said “my nigga shut the fuck up! I saw you following her and stalking her like a fucking animal or some shit, like you didn’t think she didn’t notice? She’s probably scared of your predatory ass and I don’t blame her. Mans need to understand you don’t follow girls and shit. That shits corny.”
So the guy goes “yo, mind your fucking business.”
And the other dude says “nah because I see you harassing this girl and as a man this becomes my business. You thinking you were polite doesn’t mean a girl has to speak to you. Be nice because you’re nice, don’t use that please and thank you shit and think somebody has to speak to you. You’re not a “gentleman if you don’t respect her. Take the L and go catch your bus you fucking creep.”
So the guy starts swearing and then walks away. The guy who’d defended me is like “you okay tho? Like real talk I don’t really like men because of shit like that. They’re fucking predators man. I do what I can when I’m able to for women because you don’t deserve to be hunted.”
Tiny dirty stray kitten hanging out at the bottom of our stairs since yesterday. There are a lot of self-reliant ferals around our apartment, but this little thing was dirty & covered in burrs. We gave it some chicken but couldn’t catch it. I think it may have wandered over from the outdoor cat hoarder colony down the street; that house is awful & we saw kittens there last week.
This morning the downstairs neighbor managed to grab it for us, and I put it on this cozy towel & started combing and picking the burrs & sticks out of its fur. It calmed down immediately and has been chilling here with me in the kitchen ever since. Got a vet appointment in an hour to get my little buddy cleaned up & checked out. I hope it isn’t too sick; I think it might have a cold.
If we can, we are probably going to keep her.
What a difference a day makes! Took this little guy to the vet, got the fleas and dirt washed off him, got some antibiotics for a slight cold, but he is otherwise fine. Kneading and purring up a storm, eating a lot and being heart-crushingly adorable.
