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This was a comment that I posted a while ago on the lovely Miss Bruja's blog

Since the issue of Violence against Women is something that I'm personally tied to for obvious (and not so obvious) reasons, I felt it was important for me to post this on my own blog. Just to ensure that it gets a little more attention.

To be honest, I'm at a different place from where I was when I posted this comment just a few months ago. There's a lot of things I would have included, and some things I would have taken out. The main thing I want to express super quickly is that MEN suffer from this too, let's not forget about them :)

"This issue, and reality really, of HATE-most specifically in regards to women- is one that really hits home-obviously as a woman but more specifically as an aware woman who spends lots of time reading-and lately engrossing myself in many articles on the exploitation of women in the porn corporation (yes people, it’s a straight up BILLION dollar businesses like any other and therefore women are treated as simply “workers” who just bring in some serious cash).

I've been feeling so helpless recently—I’m always getting the label of "the angry woman," (almost always from MEN naturally), and at times- to my own deep regret- I find myself keeping my mouth shut and ignoring my physical repulsion at the sight/sound of a man talking "at" "HIS" woman, and turning my head at all the other looong lists of injustices that we women face by the men that we both choose to have in our lives and the men in our families, just so that I don't have to have my words and -yes- my ANGER fall on deaf ears. And being made to feel that because I am angry and expressing my feelings I can be overlooked and dismissed as an “emotional” “angry woman” and therefore do not have to be taken seriously! So I let myself inwardly cry while many of the men in my life laugh me off and brush me to the side, instead of staying strong and FIGHTING.

And I do find myself feeling like I HATE men, but you're right, hate is the opposite of love, and it's not men I hate- it's the dynamic of men/women relations that is so distorted that sometimes I find it hard to breathe. When I read things like this brilliant post you’ve just written, it helps me realize that I’m not alone, and there are plenty of -rightfully so- “angry women (and some men, I’ll give credit, where credit is due)” out there. The truth is, I don’t want to be angry anymore, I want to fight with love, especially since with this problem, I am fighting so many men that I do love: my father, my uncles, my homeboys, my little cousins that will later be men, etc. It’s hard and it’s a struggle, but I have to, WE all have to-fight, and the real truth is that this is a battle where we NEED men. We need men to truly realize what’s going on, to try to empathize, and to FIGHT alongside us, because despite what we’ve been taught, women AND men all live on EARTH, I don’t know anything about Mars or Venus."

There it is people, I would love to hear your thoughts...