Maria > Recent Status Updates

Ch 22

Not sure what to think.

Ch 8 (ten)

Ch 6 (eight)

“America would not be America without the wealth from Black labor, without Black striving, Black ingenuity, Black resistance. So much of the music, the food, the language, the art, the scientific advances, the athletic renown,?the fashion, the guarantees of civil rights, the oratory and intellectual inspiration that we export to the world, that draws the world to us, comes forth from Black Americans …”

“Women already do the vast majority of the work of pregnancy prevention. The burden of birth control, the effects of birth control, and the consequences of failed birth control are essentially entirely on women.”

“Holding men accountable for their actions does not make women victims. Asking men to take some responsibility is not the same as allowing women to take no responsibility.”

“If you actually want to reduce abortions … If you focus on dramatically reducing the number of irresponsible ejaculations, you will dramatically reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and you will dramatically reduce the number of abortions.”

“A woman having an orgasm while a man penetrates her risks nothing and hurts no one. A man having an orgasm while he penetrates her a woman risks everything—he risks her body, her health, her income, her relationships, her social status, even her life, and he also risks creating another human being.”

“Any man who has had a vasectomy and/or who uses condoms regularly and correctly and/or declines to have unprotected sex with a woman is taking responsibility for what he does with his penis and where he ejaculates. Any man who isn’t doing these things isn’t taking responsibility.”

“Men assume women will do all the work of pregnancy prevention, that a woman will take responsibility for her own body and for the man’s body, and women assume women will do it, too.”

“… our current culture doesn’t expect men to be responsible…”

“Why would a woman ever need to ask a man to wear a condom? Why wouldn’t it be the default that men should provide their own condom and put it on without a request? Who benefits if the man doesn’t wear a condom?”

“We expect women to be responsible for their own bodies and for men’s bodies.”

“No matter how much sex she has, her orgasms cannot *cause* a pregnancy.”

“Even in the case of consensual sex, the man gets final say. This is how it works:
Step 1: Woman consents to sex.
Step 2: Man decides if he will ejaculate responsibly.”

“[E]jaculation is … men choosing to direct sperm from their body and put it someplace else.”

I’ve read graphic novels, but this might be my first actual manga.

“Dementia-cursed”

Perfect description

Like Good Material, the main character is going through a painful, messy time in his life after his breakup with Jen, yet won’t go to therapy about it. And both had a mother who died when they were young?

(Lately the novels I’m reading seem to have some element that relates to the previous one.)

"The patchouli," I say. "your scent. What is it?"
"Oh." Penelope laughs. "I make it myself. I use this aged patchouli oil I found at an Italian pharmacy near Portofino. And I mix it with a little vetiver and rose. And jojoba oil as a carrier."

"I'm wearing the moon milk, have been wearing it since that romantic bender in Penelope's bungalow. For a few months, I associated it with her ... But eventually, it started to smell like me. A Swedish girl. Spicy and moody but secretly sweet. I spitz it every morning, the tiniest amount, and the scent keeps me company throughout the day. I even bought a whole bottle ..."

"She hugs me and I smell patchouli the briefly jolts me back in time. While observing over her absence, I ordered samples of nearly every patchouli-forward scent I could find on the internet. But nothing smelled like her."

"She's wearing a bodycon dress and a cloying floral perfume ..."

"I sip some what and thing about what perfume I would wear [to a Lesbian LitCrawl reading]. Probably something off-putting and a little scary, although I haven't strayed from the moon milk in a while."

likely: Rogue Evergreens
"I greet him with a bottle of fancy body wash and cologne from an Oregon company that uses sustainable harvested plants to make craft fragrances, and he seems surprised, but touched."

"Opening my front for, I'm first hit with a scent. Orchids and metal. I look down to avoid the sun and see pink cowboy boots. Looking up, I see dar hair, eager eyes."