You Don’t Have To Be Perfect To Be Harmed.

"There must be satisfaction gained in accurately naming the thing that torments you."

-Miriam Toews

Just finished Women Talking (both the book by Miriam Toews and the movie by Sarah Polley) and I honestly don’t know how to describe it without using all caps. It’s probably the most clear-eyed thing I’ve ever seen about what it actually feels like to live in the aftermath of harassment. If you’ve ever felt like you were losing your mind trying to name something everyone else was fine ignoring I really highly recommend this rare artwork to you all.

We whisper because when we scream, we get labeled 'DIFFICULT'

What's a 'whisper network'?

@importantdogimages

Michael A Davenport, 3,090 Degrees Fahrenheit (Oil on canvas, 2025)

30in x 48in

You don’t owe anyone a perfect story.

Maybe you forgot the exact date. Maybe your memory skips or rewinds. Maybe you didn’t document it. Maybe you didn’t tell anyone right away. Maybe you still don’t know what words to use.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean you’re lying. That doesn’t mean your story doesn’t count.

What happened is real. Even if it’s messy. Especially if it’s messy.

They called it “just a comment"

I called it

three weeks of anxiety, five skipped shifts, and a therapist

I couldn’t afford

“It’s not brave to have boundaries

it’s just basic hygiene for your soul.”

-Jenny Slate

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work.” — Wendell Berry

Theodor von Hörmann - Forest path (ca. 1878-1880)