People of color, women, and gays — who now have greater access to the centers of influence that ever before — are under pressure to be well-behaved when talking about their struggles. There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner: newspapers love to describe words or deeds as “racially charged” even in those cases when it would be more honest to say “racist”; we agree that there is rampant misogyny, but misogynists are nowhere to be found; homophobia is a problem but no one is homophobic. One cumulative effect of this policed language is that when someone dares to point out something as obvious as white privilege, it is seen as unduly provocative. Marginalized voices in America have fewer and fewer avenues to speak plainly about what they suffer; the effect of this enforced civility is that those voices are falsified or blocked entirely from the discourse.

Tomorrow is Fibromyalgia Awareness day guys! I’ll try not to spam your dashes with it, but if you could reblog this and it helps even one person want to learn more about Fibro or contribute to an organization that does Fibro research, that would be AWESOME.

Here’s a link to donate to AFSA: The American Fibromyalgia Association

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Posted on May 11, 2012 via the words get confused with 92 notes

Source: hannahjohnstana

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Posted on May 4, 2012 via I'm a little teapot. with 13,759 notes

Source: cadet-skittlezx

oppressionisyucky:

mentalscubadiving:

Ugh! I hate these! Another one of those “everything is so simple for me because I have mental health privilege, so you should just think like I do because it’s so easy” posts.

TW: PTSD, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Relationship Abuse, Child Molestation

Life with PTSD is awful and makes it very difficult for me to just “live it” like a normal person. I spend most of my time indoors and away from most people because it’s easier for my mental health. Going out to the mall once in a while is kind of a big deal for me mentally and physically (because I have chronic pain disorder and it’s difficult to do a lot of walking around).

I am lucky enough to have someone I love who loves me back and treats me right, but it’s not that fucking simple. You shouldn’t just “grab” any opportunity to have “love”. I’ve experienced false love before and ended up staying in abusive relationships because of the “love” that I thought I had. I don’t really like the “take what you can get as soon as you can” vibe that I get from this.

Okay, the whole “anger is bad, dump it” thing is a little too much for me. Sometimes anger is healthy and important to hold onto. If I wasn’t angry with my rapist, I don’t know where I would be. If I weren’t angry with him, I would probably still be blaming myself for what happened. And another thing, my anger towards him and the others who abused me is completely reasonable. If anybody wants to tell me to “let it go” because “anger is bad” (and I have been told that before) they can shove their ignorant excuse for advice right up their ass.

The “fear is awful, face it” thing also made me cringe. As a person with PTSD, I deal with intense fear on a daily basis. Going out in public is always a scary thing for me, especially when I have to be in an area where I know that my rapist likes to hang out (which luckily doesn’t happen often). But it’s not just the outside world that’s scary. Just watching TV or going on the internet everyday can be scary because I know that I could see something that could trigger horrible flashbacks and mental breakdowns at any moment. Even just talking to people is scary, because I was taught to believe (by an abusive boyfriend, not my parents) that saying the wrong thing or just talking too much or talking out of turn could result in punishment (which was usually rape or sexual abuse). So yes I do have to just “face it” everyday, but I don’t appreciate the way this post trivializes that.

This is probably the part that bugs me the least because some memories are sweet and I always cherish those memories, but most of my memories are very upsetting, so it always makes me a little sad when I see stuff like this. Stuff that talks as if memories in general are good things, when for me memories in general are bad things, really just makes me feel sad about my life. This is the kind of stuff that gives me flashbacks about my childhood and how it went from innocent games to horrible trauma in minutes.

So, when you post stuff like this that talks about how simple it is to live a normal, happy life, please think about how many people would think you are so, so wrong. A little more thought could help to avoid ignorance.

Yes! All of this! Thank you!

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Posted on May 4, 2012 via TEENAGER POST with 10,110 notes

Source: teenagerposts