Elsie

“I talked back because Internet trolls are not, in fact, monsters. They are human beings who’ve lost their way, and they just want other people to flounder too—and I don’t believe that their attempts to dehumanize me can be counteracted by dehumanizing them.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

“A century on in 1984, black feminist, activist and poet Audre Lorde wrote in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches: ‘Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs. This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master’s concerns. Now we hear that it is the task of women of colour to educate white women – in the face of tremendous resistance – as to our existence, our differences, our relative roles in our joint survival. This is a diversion of energies and a tragic repetition of racist patriarchal thought.”
― Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

“What we have internalized as productivity has been informed by a capitalist, ableist, patriarchal system. Our drive and obsession to always be in a state of “productivity” leads us to the path of exhaustion, guilt, and shame. We falsely believe we are not doing enough and that we must always be guiding our lives toward more labor. The distinction that must be repeated as many times as necessary is this: We are not resting to be productive. We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so. That is it! Rest in this proclamation for a moment.”
― Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

“The idea of justice being unrealistic is deeply embedded in our psyche. We’ve been socialized from birth to ignore our deepest imaginings, to rush and to believe that our entire lives are built upon what we do for capitalism. It is a relentless attack happening daily and hourly. Rest exists to repair this trauma, fear, and misinformation.”
― Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto