aaron bushnell knew exactly what he was doing. he states his intentions with total lucidity and sense of purpose. he knows what he's about to do is extreme--he says so. he speaks calmly, but he's clearly terrified. he takes a deep breath after pouring the accelerant over himself. he has to psyche himself up to light the flame. he struggles with the lighter. he says "free palestine" normally once before he starts to scream it. even through his agony he manages to say it one last time before he stops being able to speak at all. this is a man with total conviction. he wanted to help people, in any way possible. this action was a moral one, and any news outlet painting this as simply a mental health issue is a disservice to his memory. he knew what he was doing when he burned himself in uniform. he knew that there was a chance that sacrificing his own life could go on to save many others. this was the ultimate act of selflessness, and it should be treated as such. may he rest in peace.

when sylvia plath said “being born a woman is my awful tragedy. from the moment i was conceived i was doomed to sprout breasts and ovaries rather than penis and scrotum; to have my whole circle of action, thought and feeling rigidly circumscribed by my inescapable feminity. yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars - to be a part of scene, anonomous, listening, recording - all is spoiled by the fact that i am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery. my consuming interest in men and their lives is often misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to intimacy. yet, god, i want to talk to everybody i can as deeply as i can. i want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to walk freely at night“

Hey all I can't find the comments mentioned on this post. I'm not the best with technical shit and I haven't been active on here in a while so if anyone can help me out and point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

I was with a man who raped me and I thought well at least he doesn’t beat me.  I was with a man who cheated on me and I thought well at least he doesn’t rape me.  I was with a man who called me vile things and broke my spirit and I thought, well at least he doesn’t cheat on me or rape me. When it escalated to physical confrontations I thought, well at least he’s never really hurt me, at least we are financially stable. I learned to excuse and rationalize all forms of abuse from men because at least I had won, at least I hit that ultimate goal of womanhood, to become someone’s other.  We accept what we think we deserve and I, not being the epitome of beauty as told to me by the media, thought it was what I deserved, that I could not do better, that it was as good as it was gonna get.  It wasn’t until I realized that no one should be treated in these ways regardless of reason, until I realized that being alone was actually an option, that I started to see the past 35 odd years of my life clearly.  I grew up being told that being a woman means striving to be a wife, being a woman means we aren’t truly happy until we achieve that ending of every romantic comedy we were brainwashed into watching, being a woman means accepting the unacceptable because we just can’t make it on our own.  If that’s all there was to being a woman, I wanted no part of it. It takes a long time to unlearn learnt behaviors, internal narratives and ideas about how we should be, but it is attainable.  I am still going through it.  It may take the rest of my life to achieve, but I refuse to continue to let the supposed to overrule my want to.    

Just needed to be reminded of this today.