Today I finally allowed myself to break down about those girls the U.S bombed in Iran while they were at school. I had already painted about the incident and talked to my girlfriend about how I couldn’t move on from them. There were days I thought about it and felt ashamed that I had survivor’s guilt over something that happened so far away. This country is draining us of our empathy.

175 lives too new to understand their lack of worth to the world were found by a bomb about 43 little girls long. The world didn’t stop. Nobody rioted. When you’ve already accepted your kid may get shot in school any day now, I guess you don’t blink at the thought of a bomb. At least you can hope they didn’t see it coming. Weren’t found barricading a door or trying to be brave.

Nobody’s crying for Adrianna Smith either and she was here in Atlanta. Adrianna was having headaches so she went down to the hospital where she worked long hours as a nurse. Those headaches turned out to be blood clots in her brain and before long she was declared brain-dead. Her employer decided to keep her on life support against her family’s will, and force her to give birth. They kept her body plugged in for so long she was beginning to decompose when they ripped her baby from her body.

I cried today reading the updates her grieving mother April posts on GoFundMe (because of course her family was expected to pay for that trauma). April posted about her anger and overwhelm trying to create a normal home for Adrianna’s 7 year old son. How some nights she and her husband can only sit up and shake their heads in silence. She’s getting lectured in the donation comments for buying billboard space to call for justice. One of the monthly contributors was a pro-life organization.

The world has moved on from the knowledge that billionaires are all pedophiles and possibly cannibals because we can’t find a victim they can give a damn about. The victims were all girls and now they’re grown women. Men and women alike have all decided that is not enough to organize and disrupt the system for. Our only hope is a male victim coming forward.

And no, I don’t think the power of makeup or free drinks or friendships which are easily crumbled by the right masculine presence are any consolation for how much suffering we experience. In 2026 a woman is expected to be a fool and a mother, a house servant and breadwinner, the martyr and the revolution. These expectations are sold to us from other cis women just as much as, if not more than, men mind you. Transgender women are our canaries in the coal mine and we are surrounded by women that would rather compete for the spot of bird.