💖Aching For Strength💎

Think of all the genius women who were forced to become homemakers and housewives, overburdened with 10+ children until their bodies gave in to stress, and perished their intellect - only utilised when a man would steal their ideas without credit.

just because what happened to you was "normal", doesn't mean it couldn't have also been traumatizing.

yeah, even if the same thing happened to your friends and they didn't react like you did. yup, even if the same thing happened to your siblings and they didn't react like you did.

you knew to hide it from the neighbours

you knew to threaten me not to say anything

you knew to train me to 'act normal' in front of company

you knew to pretend our relationships was different in front of guests/relatives

you knew to tell me to stop screaming so 'people won't think you're killing me'

you knew to put injuries where they would be hidden by clothing

you knew to forbid me to wear short clothing outside

you knew to convince me that god and entire population would be on your side yet to hide it from all of them

you knew whenever any of it was happening to you that it was bad

you knew to tell me it's my fault you're doing this to me

you knew to sabotage development of any knowledge or survival skills that would help me leave

you knew you kept me in conditions any alive person would want to escape

you knew if I escaped it would reflect poorly on you

you knew to convince me I was unlovable and would die without you, so I wouldn't look for support elsewhere

you knew to make sure I never had enough money to leave

you knew to crush every crumb of confidence to make sure I felt hopeless

you knew to convince me I didn't deserve anything better and was meant to live only as long as I'm useful to you

you knew to convince me my memories were wrong

you knew to persuade me I'm crazy for remembering what you did

you knew to punish me for showing trauma symptoms

you knew to manipulate other people to convince me you were right.

Europeans that think us "woke" Americans would just shrivel up and die without a protest with our blue hair and septum piercings. I'm going to hold your hand and say this as rudely as possible.

"Woke" the non-AAVE definition. You have all that in Europe. It eat, live, breath, and benefit off it every fucking day.

You don't have nonbinaries with shaved heads and tattoos marching with signs BECAUSE you benefit from all of the woke already.

You have universal Healthcare, guaranteed 4 weeks PTO, paid maternity leave (in some countries paternity leave too), livable minimum wage, prison systems based on reform instead of punishment, union protections, renter protections, pensions, unlimited sick leave. That's all woke as SHIT.

If I so much as suggest "People working a full time job shouldn't have to live on the street" or "everyone should get guaranteed 1 week PTO" I'd be called a fucking communist.

"Oh, but why don't you protest! We got all that because we all stopped working and protested!"

Yeah. People in Minneapolis are protesting because federal agents killed a woman. And guess what? They're sending in more federal agents that have killed and injured more citizens. They held a man down and shot him 10 times. TEN.

And that doesn't get into what happened at the Black Lives Matter protests. If we tried that, they'd call us violent criminals and shoot at us.

If we tried to all just protest, I bet it'd turn into a second civil war, and I'm not fucking joking. And that's another way you benefit from "woke" you don't got police and federal agents fucking shooting at your citizens because they didn't like your protest.

Europe is "woke" as shit.

I want to stop hearing people tell me [insert European country here] isn't "woke".

How I interpreted OP: writing a character as suffering a serious injury then having them kick ass and go home without being hindered in any way makes the injury meaningless. An ignored injury as a spike in drama alone and not as a tool to raise the stakes or explore who the character is under this kind of duress is a wasted opportunity. If it happens enough, it cheapens the storytelling.

If you've ever been truly sick or injured, it tends to take up a lot of your mental energy as well as physical. If I had a gaping wound in my side while trying to escape zombies in a story, my character would be actively nursing the wound, anxious about getting it infected, moving slowly to keep the blood from gushing, and internally complaining all the way to safety. Unless my writer got lazy and chose to skip all that prime storytelling.

Since disability has been brought into this, writers often neglect these things with their disabled characters too. I once read a story where a group of friends were out on the town and went down a set of concrete stairs. The writer made absolutely no mention of how the character in the wheelchair achieved this. She made it to the bottom somehow!

Now, could OP's advice be applied in an ableist way? Yes, clearly. All advice—and stories—can be misunderstood by anyone. That does not make the advice bad. In fact, if you're intentionally writing a character that is ableist or simply rude as hell, misinterpreting this advice would be useful to your writing of that character!

What if this is whiny/spoiled thing to be upset about and I look nasty complaining about it?

Is this so out of bounds of normality I'll get institutionalized for speaking up?

What if I get told off? What if I speak up and get told it's my own fault?

What if I'm making this up and it's not a real thing but just me being crazy?

What if I'm revealed to be insane and then nobody wants to talk to me ever again.

I bet a normal person wouldn't be bothered by this and I'm just the most oversensitive, annoying, unbearable neurotic mess nobody can handle

This isn't a normal amount of upset. I lost control of my life. I'm a failure.

My coping is too shameful to confess. Nobody would think kindly of me after this.

I don't want anyone to know or see this. This dies with me.

Can I get through this without ever saying anything. Can I survive it on my own.

I can't think of anyone who would care to know this about me.

Even if I said anything, nothing would change. This can't be fixed. I would only burden somebody. I'm better off suffering alone.

I can't expect someone to know this without them feeling awful. This is too bad for anyone to handle knowing.

and that’s because (1) the purpose of this website is to share things that bring us joy and (2) likes don’t share things or ensure something is seen by more people, not like they do on other sites. so, when so many people decide to only like a post and not share it (i.e. not reblog it), that tells the creator that those people didn’t think their hard work was worth sharing with others. that’s discouraging. 

and the creator isn’t the only one that gets something out of that. you get something, too. you get the joy of sharing something you like; that’s a meaningful experience for both you and for the creator. and that experience—that interaction—encourages the creator to create more, and so there’s more joy to be had for both you and the creator.

I'm so sick of being unable to use a bathroom now that I have a mobility aid.