No pity, no shame, no silence.

I mostly post this here for those on my flist who might not have seen it go by yet, and might get some good out of it.

No pity, no shame, no silence.

My story of sexual abuse seems kind of lame in comparison to some of those y'all are telling. ( But here it is. )

My utmost respect and admiration goes to all those of you who have suffered sexual abuse, whether you choose to talk about it or not.

late emails

Like many others on my flist, I'm suddenly getting comment emails from a month or two ago. Needless to say this is a little disconcerting. LJ, you wacky little thing, you.

I mentioned the mosquitoes yesterday, but I forgot to add that I have multiple bites on my feet, and my shoes irritate them and make them itch more. Argh! Even more death to mosquitoes! *itch itch itch* On the plus side, Isaac got bitten right on his cheek Sunday night, and by Monday morning the bite was gone, never having seemed to bother him at all. I guess he has baby immunities or something, the lucky little guy.

My lj-mood should be "itchy" but there's no such choice, so "irritated" is close enough.

core dump

Happy World Breastfeeding Week! Let me take this opportunity to say, to every woman I know who has ever breastfed (whether for one day or five years), You go, girl!

( misc news about Isaac and me )

Also, since I'm apparently core-dumping the minutiae of my life, ( books I've read recently )

And speaking of books, courtesy of Nalo Hopkinson via ide_cyan, here's the Alison Bechdel benchmark for judging a book/movie: does it have at least two women in it? Do they have a conversation? about something other than men? ( Let's apply it to the last few books I've read. )

Wow, I didn't intend this post to be nearly so long. Sorry. Heh.

(no subject)

algernonthemous has some interesting and troubling things to say about the sexual violence meme, in this post.

I do worry that once the meme goes beyond "one person telling her story in powerful fashion" and beyond "one person's friends taking her cue and telling their stories," once it becomes something that you can actually call a meme -- lumping it in with "what flower are you?" and "which of these movies have you seen?" -- once that happens, its power becomes diluted and it starts to lose its meaning.

I do also worry about people who are still fragile, people who maybe suffered some kind of sexual violence just yesterday or last week or last month, coming across this stuff on their friend-lists and being emotionally harmed by it. But then, what if some such people would be helped by it instead? To know that they're not alone, to see others speaking courageously about it, to know that there is help and hope? Which is more likely? Which should take precedence over the other? (impossible question with no real answer)

Mostly it just upsets me that we have to talk about this stuff at all. I hate that this crap has to happen to anyone, let alone so damn many people. :(

RCN update

I got a call from RCN's billing dept telling me that they are removing the $11.12 charge from my account and I now owe them nothing. The chick sounded so calm and competent, especially in contract to Pissy RCN Chick from the other day! We'll just wait and see whether this turns out to be the last of it.

As my mom pointed out, imagine how many people would just sigh and pay it. This is how big companies get away with so much crap. Yay me for refusing to stand for it. ;)