Judith Braun, Diamond Dust, 2012, drawn on wall with fingers dipped in charcoal
so much talent
Basically, if you treat girls like they’re fragile and need to be babied… whether by the tone in your voice, by your ‘supposed-to-be-cute’ terms of endearment, or any of that bullshit… fuck you.
Equal Rights means being treated as an equal. I don’t need you, or any Man, for the sake of them being a man, to take care of me.
I would like to say first off: Yes. This is absolutely true.
In addition, women don’t need to be men to be equal and vice versa.
I am about to get slightly biblical. It’s my heart and the basis for my logic; I hope it doesn’t turn you off but do please feel free to ignore the next part!
Ladies and gents, women being in submission to men was part of the curse - Jesus broke the curse. Women in the OT led, spoke in courts, were Judges, prophetesses and leaders of men. Why would an inferior covenant have superior freedom? Women are not weak or lacking in the way of being less than a man - but both sides are able to compensate for things the other may lack. I believe this trait to be more specific for relationships between specific people, as opposed to being gender specific however.
God calls Eve (Hebrew for woman; Adam is man coincidentally) “help-mate” in the Hebraic text - a name He uses to describe women five other times in the OT and 11 times for Himself. It is never used for men. It means “a great power, opposite; a strength to rescue; a power that looks you in the face, intimately (eye to eye, suggesting total equality) and accomplishes what you cannot.” That Christianity has taken much of the New Testament’s statements on women in a few areas in specific circumstances of confusion and made it a statement and submission and cultural enslavement is ridiculously saddening. Women are co-heirs, e.g. equal and completely, radically-competent rulers.
Being a partner, in the biblical sense, is to be equally yoked, or to be supported as you support the person supporting you. Partnership is loving that person like you love yourself, giving to equip that person to excel.
Let me end with this: To any men that believe I’m foolish for this view, deal with this idea: Paul said to love our wives as Christ loves the church - He died for the church. An act of total self-sacrifice to equip and empower her to be greater than she could have been without his death. He gave everything for her. He did not aim for control or enslavement of the bride, rather He lived and died for her to become equal and accomplish greater things than He did himself.
Who’s more important? The secret service or the President? Who protects whom?
The Agents lay down their lives to protect the Pres - it’s a value statement.
We are to be willing to die for our spouses.
Thanks!
p.s. in anticipation of a question: No. Women are not weak or in need of empowering. People as a whole are in need of empowering to go beyond what they can achieve by themselves. (It’s about loving someone enough to be second, and loving yourself enough to have that love be a decent model of how you love others).
Greatest post I’ve ever seen.
HAHAHA the little girl in the pink stroller is hilarious!!(:
:)
best post of all time.
Confession is awesome and creates freedom due to a lack of secrecy, yet focus on a problem one aims to avoid just puts you on the path heading straight for it. If focus on victory is much the same then we become like him, with no thought to the possibility of failure past acknowledgement. Free indeed.
If I can step out and say a couple things I’d appreciate it very much. I’ve got a tendency to go on after people are finished reading, so please forgive me ahead of time.
You are so valuable.
I was running around a couple friends’ blogs and stumbled across a post of a young woman showing her slenderness. While it obviously was of a woman who was small naturally, there were hundreds of posts from other men and women who had seen this image and then criticized themselves for not being the same. I followed this blog back to its point of origin and in so doing found post after post of another young woman who is actively encouraging an unhealthy level of skinniness. My friends, or simply appreciated readers, this is not an aim of condemnation, nor an attempt to force a view down anyone’s throat; yet, does it not seem as though what is most attractive is what is healthy? What is beautiful is what is without submission to something gnarly.
You are amazing.
One can see proof of this idea in relationships that become abusive. I would like to suggest to you that, that is what eating disorders most closely resemble: abusive relationships. That person is so beautiful and you can see it. You know it in your heart. But this villain has convinced them otherwise and beats them to kill their spirit. By the time all the fighting has died down, pieces of the victim have ceased to be awake – they are not dead, they never die – they sleep because if they’re awake then life cannot continue this way. The abuser has to keep them silent – those parts of you that are powerful. If they’re awake there’s no room for that abuser to exist near you because you’d fight. You will fight. You will win. You are skinny enough. Get healthy because you being a powerful you is the most epic thing I can imagine.
You are powerful.
Submission to a lie about yourself creates an eco-system in the mind that eats and regenerates itself constantly. It stops being about reasoning and starts being about perception that can’t escape the lie. Life becomes a slave to a perception that destroys the user. Dear God, I wish I had the words. I wish I had the ability to be everywhere with all men and women who don’t realize their value. I don’t even know what to write. I want to give up looking at all the pain that people call normal. If that’s normal, I can’t tell you how glad I am to be an alien. I’ve been told so many times I don’t belong; not always in so many words. Sometimes with blog posts and letter, music and movies, stories my friends tell. I want to take a moment and say none of that has any power over me. Those things have as much power over us as we let them. You’re right. I don’t know your life, your struggles, your pain or the depth of it. But I would like to if you’d let me. I would love to listen and to talk back if you’d like.
You are insanely gorgeous.
You are one of the ways people will get to know God.
You don’t have to agree with me here. That’s really okay.
Because of Jesus, who He is – who He says I am - I refuse to let those lies control my life. How skinny or thin I am. I am Ben. I want to be healthy so that when I meet that young woman who I can’t see myself without, I am in a place to honor her as much as I possibly can. So I can please her as much as I can. But I won’t do it by hating myself. I can’t hate myself anymore: I love Jesus.
I wanted to die; I wanted it to be over when I was twelve. Out of guilt and my own belief that I could never be worth anything, I wanted life to end for me. I believed that I could never be worthy of love. But how could I ever love the author while hating what he creates? Even in the midst of my hatred of myself I loved him. But beloved I believed a lie that I was so bad. So wrong. So worthless.
But. Those. Are. Lies.
You are brave enough to let people help you.
You are brave enough to search for truth.
SEARCH!
You are strong and wonderful.
You are beautiful and worthy of love.
You are worth love that honors you and honor that is based in love.
You are no selfish for wanting things to change. How could that be true when things are not supposed to be the way they are?
You are right to hunger for change. For justice. For love , wisdom, comfort, understanding, peace. For warmth and contact.
For a righteous man or woman who will seek those things with you even as you share them with one another.
These things are true. I’ll argue it with my second to last breath.
My last breath is already spoken for.
I cannot even describe to you how much worth you have. How many things can change just by you acknowledging who you are. How valuable you are. I would absolutely love to talk with you, pray with you, speak to you and hear about your life. Let people help. Reception of love is tantamount. Love.
Love, stop trying to achieve what you have. We seem to miss it every time.
This is storytelling.
Yes ma’am - it’s a wonderful ep (She’ll Be Right) :) I had it pre-ordered for a long while thanks to Chris. They’re called Vocal Few and they sound brilliant together! They started the project to provide money for their little one’s birth and comfier style of life (diapers, bonnets, etc. =])
