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She Speaks Collective

For women who love women and words

Friday, June 3, 2011

Feminist Friday

http://www.feminist.com/resources/ourbodies/viol_end.htm

Posted by Velvetlesbian at 12:54 AM

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Lesbian Erotic Fiction - Short Stories by various Authors
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
The Other Side of Paradise by Staceyann Chin

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Triple Goddess

Feminine Wisdom Maiden, Mother, Crone

A woman's life is filled with stages, milestones ushering in wondrous experiential apexes like the coming of fertility, motherhood, and wisdom. Three aspects, maiden, mother, and crone, have traditionally represented the bounties and new beginnings represented by each stage. The maiden is the aspect of new beginnings, youth, playfulness, spontaneity, and learning. A woman in the prime of her life can be said to be living under the aspect of the mother, who personifies fertility, strength, and stability. She is the gentle nurturer as well as the fierce lioness. Lastly, and by far the most misunderstood and yet in many ways the most deserving of reverence, is the crone, who holds within her all of the wisdom of the journeys of womanhood within her.

The word crone once meant simply 'wise woman' and, in antiquity, was a term of respect. The crone was a voice of wisdom, an elder, a healer, a counselor, and a teacher, who had traveled the paths of maiden and mother and possessed the accumulated wisdom of youth, adulthood, and old age. She represented the fulfillment of maturity and the knowledge that could only be obtained through a life well lived. The transition to cronehood was a rich and empowering experience, and an important rite of passage, though not one associated with a specific age. Today, though it seems eternal youth has become an obsession, women are reclaiming the status once associated with cronehood by recognizing their evolution and acting upon it. In awakening the crone, as she once was, women are acknowledging the extraordinary wisdom, grace, dignity, and beauty that comes with age.

In embracing the aspect of the crone, it is important to be aware of the fact that age, experience, knowledge, and power are profound gifts that can never be taken from you. Each stage in life is yours and yours alone, and should be embraced as a vital part of life's journey. As you pass lovingly through each stage, coming finally to the remarkable crone, you will gradually be awakened to the mysteries of each, until you hold within you the keys to them all

RIP

Letter from beyond the grave by Junie Sihlangu

When you rape and kill me, bash my head in and make me fear you with my last breath I take, do you perceive a change in me will come? How does my death justify your actions? To me it seems you are not man enough to handle my manhood that you think removing the competition will make things better. All you’ve managed to achieve is to anger my sisters and make them hone in to your kind. If I were to be reincarnated I’d still come back as a lesbian woman...because what else should I be? Should I be straight so your ego can be stroked? Sometimes I use to sit and ponder your actions, how you would swear at me when I’d walk by. How you’d go out of your way to make snide comments. And each time I’d ask myself whether it’s your pride, weakness, fear or ignorance speaking.

Funny enough, I never responded, just looked at you with concern, not concern for me but for you. I never angered you or gave you any reason to kill me but kill me you did. Not because you felt you were righting a wrong but because you were hurt by my confidence and pride. Maybe you did what you did to me because women in general show you no respect, or maybe because your father never gave you the time of day, or perhaps because your uncle raped you as a child and you’ve lived with that anger ever since. If asked you’d probably say because I thought I was a man. Lol! You make me laugh! Oh how you make me laugh because my thoughts have never had anything to do with you but you use them as an excuse. Come to think of it, I don’t remember you asking me if I thought I was a man, in fact you didn’t ask me anything...

I died because you have issues with yourself. I died because the system failed me. I died for being myself as much as you are yourself. I just hope and pray that my death won’t scare you my sisters back into the closet because the life I lived as an out lesbian was the best years of my life compared to the “straight” years. Don’t let my death be in vain. Stand up and be heard, let them know that no amount of deaths or threats will change us into what they desire us to be. To be honest I would have much rather stayed a closeted lesbian than force myself to be with someone I never desired.

We have rights that need to be upheld, demand justice, demand change. It all ends with me but starts with you..