Microstory 964: Women

< > Table of Contents

I was born a feminist, and cannot at all relate to people who aren’t. It’s unclear how much of my position on the matter is because of my parents, and other strong women in my life, and how much is due to my autism, but one thing that’s clear is that it’s not just one or the other. I know a lot of people say that they’re “colorblind” even though that’s not entirely accurate. We judge the people around us on the regular, and not all of that is bad. Judgment is an important evolutionary trait that is often vital to our survival, even today. A caveman that welcomed without question any rando who walked into his cave was at risk of being bonked in the head by a club. Judgment allows us to gauge how people might receive us, and how to interact with them the best way possible; so that it’s safest for everyone. The problem comes when we start making blanket statements about say, how black people generally act, or how women think. Fortunately, my autism has been known to prevent me from making those unhealthy judgments, because it’s difficult for me to adjust my behavior to social cues as a whole. I’m pretty good at sensing other people’s emotions, but not so good at anticipating their needs. So basically, I know what you’re feeling, but I don’t know how to help you. Not once have I encountered a woman, and thought, “there’s something—beyond biology—about her that’s different than me. She would do better doing such-and-such work, whereas I’m better at this other work.” When I meet someone, I simultaneously assume they know everything, and nothing. It sounds contradictory, but I believe it’s important to acknowledge from the beginning that you don’t know what this person has been through, or how they see the world. I was recently talking about mansplaining with my sister, and struggling to understand the difference between that, and just explaining things in an appropriate way. As a man, am I simply never allowed to be an authority on a subject if a woman is around? But that’s not really the point. Mansplaining occurs when a man presumes the woman he’s talking to doesn’t already know whatever it is they’re discussing, and/or condescends to her in a sexist manner. It would be great if feminism didn’t have to exist, but it does, because women have been treated as second-class citizens for thousands of years, and when I try to fathom the timeline, it’s obvious that progress has been sluggish, and we still have far to go. So the best way to avoid mansplaining to a woman is to open a dialog of equals, which is exactly the best way to engage with others anyway, so it works out. I love women, and not because they’re pretty, or because of their body parts. I love women because they kick ass. I’m so glad that we have some really good feminist movements going on right now, and that fiction is currently tackling the issues at a higher intensity than ever before. The Bold Type, the Charmed reboot, and well...pretty much anything on The CW are some of my favorite programs, because they’ve had enough of the patriarchal bullshit. So have I, and if you have too, then come these next two elections, #votethemout.

Microstory 953: Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris

< > Table of Contents

I don’t know everything there is to know about Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris, and do not have time to research them, but I encourage you to do so. As far as politicians go, they’re two of the good ones. They fight for the rights of underprivileged and disenfranchised. They are persistent and unrelenting, and I am grateful that there are still some people in the government that want to actually make things better, instead of going back to the way things were. I have a few people on this list, but there are so many more that aren’t on here. Some individuals belong within a category of people I admire, and though I didn’t just want this to be a list of people I like, I did want to single out a few who stick out the most. To do otherwise would require a level of care and consideration I can’t commit to, since I still have a full-time job. These two deserve recognition for their efforts on the inside of a society that does not want them to succeed. They’ve had to work harder than any man, and prove themselves worthy to a degree no one should be expected to exemplify. As a woman of color, Harris has had to work even harder just to be accepted, and she’s still disregarded by so many. I was so moved by one of the speeches they each respectively gave. Of course, these aren’t the only things these two have said, but they’re the speeches that caused me personally to take notice. We all remember the nevertheless, she persisted meme, which was a classic case of an offense being co-opted by the targets as a point of pride. Yes, Warren persisted, because women have too long been silenced, and that’s exactly what they need to do. They have an intrinsic right to be heard, and anyone who doesn’t agree with that needs to try their own hand at silence. Harris’ outrage at the farce that was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings was one of the most dazzling interviews I’ve seen. Her poise in the face of such insolence showed just how unfit for the position he really is, and though everyone’s efforts to stop his appointment failed, at least the public has all the facts. Without Harris, and others like her, we would be stuck under the burden of ignorance. I’m impressed by these two ladies, and their contemporaries, and will continue to support them despite the twisted opposition from the libertarian right. I went so far as to name a fictional spaceship in one of my stories The Elizabeth Warren, and I intend to name one after Kamala Harris as soon as the need arises. We need more people like them, and I hope their actions have inspired young political warriors to one day take up the fight for truth, if they haven’t already.

Microstory 746: Wild Cards

< > Table of Contents

I want to take a moment and write whatever pops into my head. You guys are in for a real treat with this next microfiction series. I don’t know what it’s about. What I did is look up nicknames for playing cards, and put them into a table. I chose the ones I liked best, and if there weren’t enough to be choosy, then...well, I wasn’t. I randomized the list, and that’s what you’ll be reading for the next several weeks. Exactly what this series entails, I could not quite tell you. I have the titles, but that’s about as far as it goes. Are they people? Nicknames of people? Is each title merely a jumping off point for me to write completely disparate series? Honestly I don’t know, and that’s why it’s a treat, because you get to watch me slowly spiral into insanity to try and figure it out. Right now I’m listening to Max Richter, trying to calm myself down after an hour of frustration working on my website revamp, which is nowhere near ready to be released. The images won’t resize to where I want them, and twitter has some funky new system that refuses to cooperate. I’m barely halfway done with the new navigation coding, and I’ve not even begun to code the new coloring scheme. This all coming on the heels of a terrible day where nothing went right. It was the last day of one of the worst years. I lost my job...technically I got a new one, but I still don’t run the world, so that’s disappointing.

King Dumpster started his tenure as—I can’t even type it out anymore. It’s just too hard to handle. So how do we think 2018 is gonna go? Is it gonna be better? Well, that evil man is still going to be in office, regardless of how many political pundits predict his downfall. Justice is dead. Literally every man besides me and those in my family is a rapist, or at least a sexual assaultist. Gun sales are doing really well, especially for those terrorists, who desperately need automatic assault rifles to protect the country from those frightening five-year-old children. And we’re still spending buttloads of money protecting pandas, which should—scientifically speaking—just die out already. No, 2018, you’re not lookin’ so great. Because the fact of the matter is that time doesn’t fall into categories that well. Nothing magical happens at the start of a new year that resets how people think, or what they do. The world can get better, and in many ways, this process has already begun. But there is no royal road to our success. So what can we do? Well, all I have is my platform, which is the combined power of my website, and social media accounts. I’m dedicating 2018 to women, and unoriginally referring to it as the #yearofthewoman (#yotwoman). I’ve erased my male lead in my Sunday macrofiction, and replaced him with a female. All main characters in the Saturday mezzofiction are going to be women, with a strong feminist lean. I’m even changing the color scheme on my site to pink and purple, which my mother says might be a little too obvious, but it’s what I can do. It’s all I can do. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in 2018, in the real world, or even in my stories. What I can tell you is that this is not the end. We’ve only been doing this for a few thousand years, we’re still just babies. At least, we always have been. I think it’s time we start to grow up. Or maybe we wait until next year...because I woke up like this.