it’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month… and it crashes into us with the news of millions of views…

it's Sexual Assault Awareness Month... and it crashes into us with the news of millions of views of some type of online rape academy

it’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month…
and it crashes into us with the news of millions of
views of some type of “online rape academy,”
and at first, we feel rage. but then… we feel
not so surprised at all.

and it’s because we’ve already known too many
versions of this… and it feels common… and what
actually feels foreign is to even consider a world where
SA is just terrible and rare. and so i try to imagine it…
like what if we could have that world?

but then i feel more rage… because i don’t want to
just imagine it, i want it to be real. i want to live
in a world where the horrible things that we’ve
accepted as common could only
ever be terrible and rare.

– butterflies rising

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my friends & i have always felt sad about how, as girls…

my friends & i have always felt sad about how, as girls, it's not safe for us to take late-night walks

my friends & i have always felt sad about how, as girls,
it’s not safe for us to take late-night walks…
when all we wanna do is go look at the moon.

but a few nights ago, a woman left the earth, on her way to be
the first woman to go to the moon, in a rocket named after a goddess…
and the moon was pink that night…

and it felt like being told to keep reaching for a better world…
one where we’re so free to take walks under the moon
that we feel like we could touch it.

– butterflies rising

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the way we’ve just been conditioned our whole lives as girls & women…

the way we've just been conditioned our whole lives as girls & women

the way we’ve just been conditioned our whole lives as girls & women to just accept SA as an almost inevitable thing we’ll experience… it’s overwhelming to even see any consequences… like it feels foreign to even consider a world where SA is just terrible and rare… but imagine, what if we could have that world

– butterflies rising

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fire energy girls… made of fire, spark, confidence and flame…

fire energy girls… made of fire, spark, confidence and flame, they breathe in the wild

fire energy girls…
made of fire, spark, confidence and flame,
they breathe in the wild and hold the essence of brave,
so beautifully untamed… how they give this life
a pulse and light up your way… they will just
never, ever leave you unchanged.

– butterflies rising

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they tried to teach me to be afraid of my dichotomies…

they tried to teach me to be afraid of my dichotomies... to believe that dynamic girls are dangerous things.

they tried to teach me
to be afraid of my dichotomies… to believe
that dynamic girls are “dangerous things.”

but i’ve been learning that some days i will
tend to flowers, and some days i will hold fire,
and “good girls” are also passionate girls,
and “good women” are also free women…

and that will only be a dangerous thing to
the ones who want us to live afraid.

– butterflies rising

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mamas are lovers and dreamers…

mamas are lovers and dreamers and free spirits, too. and that doesn't mean you don't find yourself

mamas are lovers
and dreamers and free spirits, too.
and that doesn’t mean you don’t find
yourself in who you are to the ones you love…
but you also matter as you are,
in who you are, for you.
and you can be a lover and a dreamer
and a free spirit, too.

– butterflies rising

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