I’m getting really tired of the wise serene pacifist trope in fiction. Every committed pacifist, prison abolitionist, antiwar activist, etc I’ve ever met in real life has been vibrating with compressed rage at all times. Do you know what it’s like to believe deeply in your heart that doing harm to others is wrong and the goal of society should be to alleviate suffering for all people and live in the United States of America? IT’S NOT FUN. Show Us The Pissed-Off Pacifists.
Dude there might be a word for the emotion that is forged when someone’s deep abiding love and compassion for all people and living things welds itself into decades of built-up foaming fury at how those people been treated their whole life by those in power to create a sort of alloyed super-commitment to a set of ethical principles but i promise you “tranquility” is not that fucking word
It’s Lesbian Visibility day today so I spent yesterday making a comic about feelings. If you’d told me when I was a scared 16 year old that I’d have a wife and a rainbow flag outside of my house- I’m not sure what I would’ve said but I definitely wouldn’t have believed you.
One thing I’ve learned about proudly wearing the lesbian flag in a lot of contexts is that it’s not about signaling to the cishets. They’re never gonna get it, even when our clothing literally says our labels spelled out in large bolded print.
One time my partner and I were walking into a bar in the rural more republican controlled part of middle Minnesota. We were watching our backs but I was still literally flagging with my lesbian flag dress. The host was young, maybe not even 21 yet. They beamed at us and IMMEDIATELY complimented my dress immediately. I hope we made their day a little brighter, I hope they felt the same sense of solidarity.
At my desk at my internship, I have a little lesbian, Butch and genderqueer flag in a pencil holder. It’s probably less noticeable than the photo of my partner and I getting engaged that I have as my computer’s background. One day, a coworker I had suspected to be “one of us” came over and whispered about wonderfully happy we looked together. He’s in his 50s, in contrast to that younger community member. I hope that picture helps him feel the same solidarity I do when I great him in the morning.
I flag loudly and proudly because I can and because I know the unique sense of safety knowing there are people like you near by. Whether it’s someone at the same bar as you, a coworker, or a neighbor you see with their flag flown proudly. We deserve that joy and that breath of relieve.
this is coca-cola i can feel calm drinking. no bright screaming red. no anger. no hatred. just a nice sky blue. this is a soda i can feel relaxed with.
