VIRGINIA MONOLOGUES

POUR ONE OUT FOR COMRADE OPPORTUNITY 

as someone with a lot of trauma in my childhood i have spent so long and so much grief wishing i could go back and time and save that little kid, because that kid so desperately needed saving, but i’ve always thought it’s too late, bc it all already happened, and no one saved her, so she’ll never be saved and she’ll never be okay,

and i’ve spent the second half of my life mourning the first half.

but my therapist recently made me realize, that little kid is still inside me. i was her, and in a lot of ways i still am her, because i still carry her pain. it’s not too late. she needed an adult to listen to her, and i am that adult. i’m listening. i can tell her that none of it was her fault, and she can believe me, and i can believe me.

Every time I feel grief over the things my childhood trauma and mental illness stole from me, I don’t have to push it away anymore and try to move on without addressing it. I can think of that little me, and I can say “it’s okay. I’m an adult, and I’m listening. This isn’t your fault. You’re doing a good job. You are loved. I love you.”

And I know it sounds like a cliche, but that part of me, that kid that was so afraid, feels that love. And then I can move on.

[Jameela Jamil said,] “I said it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to take that role and they should find a brilliant deaf woman to play that role. I think you have to make those choices and not be too greedy and make space rather than take space.”

Jamil added: “I don’t want to be part of erasure.” Her comments come amid the ongoing debate over roles for minority groups in Hollywood.

However Cate Blanchett believes actors should be able to play any role, and said: “I will fight to the death for the right to suspend disbelief and play roles beyond my experience.”

Jamil said a “big change needs to happen” in the industry.

She said: “I think it’s a very tricky one. I can understand where people are coming from when it comes to suspending disbelief but I think the thing we should actually be fighting for is more roles for people with disabilities and more roles for LGBTQ so there aren’t just five a year and then those get taken by big names.”

We’ve got people who in theory should just be grateful for every job they get making ethical decisions about the roles they accept while people who never have to worry about when or how much their next job will be, who have secure careers, are saying ridiculous stuff to defend taking a job from marginalized people or roles that encourage the further marginalization of queer folks and poc.

And it’s not just this, Jameela is outspoken about every topic she believes in even when others would put their heads down to be more palatable.