(no subject)

[alexseanchai]

So I forgot to set my alarm last night, and therefore did not wake up until nearly noon. (Having gone to bed before midnight.) The localish Women's March I was planning to attend, about an hour's drive from here, events started at nine...oops. (I mean, I wasn't sure I was going anyway, because lotsa people lotsa driving lotsa aaaagh, and I knew I wasn't marching because exercise-and-winter–triggered asthma makes marches in January a foolish plan, but.)

I am queer. I am genderqueer. I am not a woman, but I am an ovarian-morph, and consequently I am a target of efforts to control women, especially via restriction of reproductive rights. I am a religious minority. I am neurodivergent. I am multiply disabled. I am one of the scary-high number of USians who haven't got a thousand dollars in savings but have got most of two years' pay in debt.

My existence is resistance.



Today I march by getting my laundry in the washer. (It's also the second day of the two-day Women's Strike, but if my laundry doesn't get clean, it bothers no one but me.)

Today I march by tending my shrines. (Hestia Poluolbos, bring us blessings. Athena Nikephoros, bring us victory. Zeus Eleutherios, bring us freedom.)

Today I march by setting up my new desktop computer. (The peace of mind that having a desktop that doesn't bluescreen at irregular but frequent intervals will bring is vital. Peace of mind is, I think, part of the difference between living and merely surviving.)

Today I march by creating art in which people like me have agency, creativity, power, freedom. Not to mention happy endings!

Today I march by taking a goddamn nap, if I can't scrape together the spoons and executive function to accomplish anything else.

My existence is resistance.

Today I march.

Also: important reading. tl;dr: Morénike Umoye, a black autistic activist, says of the Women's March in DC, "#WhiteFeminism and #ableism strikes again - and today, they win. I'm attending the rally and then skipping the march for my own mental health and #SelfCare." Further down, "In the span of one day I have been extremely disrespected, disregarded, and gaslighted by the very people who are in town supposedly fighting for the rights of people like me!" I am not here for that. I am not marching to free myself at the expense of people of color, and I am not marching to free abled people at my own expense. And let us not forget: If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression. —Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977.

(hat tip UntoNuggan)

Comments

[syntaxofthings]

♥

[alexseanchai]

♥

[alatefeline]

>> My existence is resistance. <<

<3 Yes. <3

[alexseanchai]

♥

[ghostgum]

This is a great post. I have been crying over the images I have seen of women marching; there is no march near me and, realistically, my anxiety would have probably kept me home anyway. I needed to read your words!

[alexseanchai]

So you're marching from home too, then? :)

[ghostgum]

I guess I am! :D

[alexseanchai]

\o/

[raze]

Thank you for continuing to march on. And also for the important reading.

[alexseanchai]

:)

[silveradept]

<3

[alexseanchai]

:)

[redsixwing]

<3

[alexseanchai]

:)