My boyfriend noticed I’d been quiet for a few days and didn’t pressure me to explain. He just started doing small things. He charged my phone when it was low. Filled my water bottle before bed. Sent me “I’m here” texts instead of “what’s wrong” texts. One night, I finally broke down and told him everything I’d been holding in, and he didn’t interrupt me once. He didn’t try to fix it. He didn’t make it about himself. He just held my hand and listened.
A week later, nothing had changed between us. He didn’t treat me like I was fragile. He didn’t bring it up to use against me. He just loved me the same, steady and normal.
That’s when I realized real love isn’t loud. It’s safe. It doesn’t rush you. It doesn’t punish you for being human. It stays.
We heard Nandi loud and clear. Her point was that Black men deserve grace because the system crushes them hardest: no money, no government support, 400 years of stacked odds, and constant pressure to succeed.
Our point is this: that same system hits Black women just as hard, often harder. Patriarchy. Single motherhood. Unpaid care work. Higher poverty rates. Sky high GBV risks but when women survive those exact conditions through informal hustles or sex work just to feed their families, they are shamed. Insulted. Called slurs. Told they have no dignity.
So men deserve grace for trying, but women are humiliated for trying to survive? You cannot demand grace from women while denying it to them in the same breath. That is selective empathy.
Grace is not a one way demand from women to men. It has to be mutual. Otherwise it is just another burden placed on the group that is already carrying the most.
As a neuroscientist, here are 8 ways to maximise misery:
1. Check your phone immediately after waking.
Flood your brain with news designed to make you anxious and angry.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR AURA:
1. Stay calm. Don't react to everything.
2. Speak less. Mean what you say.
3. Keep your promises to yourself.
4. Rest your body. Move a little every day.
5. Let go of old anger and hurt.
6. Spend some time alone. Silence helps.
7. Stop trying to impress people.
8. Be real. Be honest. Be kind.
Your aura grows when your mind is peaceful,
your heart is clear, and your life feels right.
You’re not a rapist, but you look for the drunkest girl to approach in case you score.
You’re not a rapist, but you made sure she missed her last train home after she said she didn’t want to stay over.
You’re not a rapist, but you made sure she drank lots of alcohol/got high before you took her back to yours.
You’re not a rapist, but you target women who look traumatised or abused for sex.
You’re not a rapist, but you had sex with your girlfriend when she was passed out on the sofa.
You’re not a rapist, but you offer food/shelter to desperate women for sex.
You’re not a rapist, but you didn’t tell the police after your friend confessed to raping a woman.
You’re not a rapist, but you select women who will have sex they don’t want to as a duty to you.
You’re not a rapist, but you threatened to break up with her if she didn’t have sex with you against her will.
You’re not a rapist, but you go to fresher’s week to pick up young 18 year old girls who are encountering alcohol for the first time.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR AURA:
1. Don’t talk about your plans, show results.
2. Smile with your mouth closed.
3. Nod, instead of saying yes.
4. Don’t talk that much about yourself.
5. Don’t always be available.
6. Have a firm handshake.
7. Speak calmly and deliberately.
8. Dress in a clean, confident style.
9. Be comfortable with silence.
I'm going to piss some men off with this, but the reason a lot of your parents and grandparents stayed married so long is because the women in those generations were financially trapped. When a woman makes her own money, the only thing a man can truly offer her is how he treats her.
That's why there's a male loneliness epidemic.
Consent to sex is consent to pregnancy no matter if you like it or not.
You may kill your baby but that just makes you into the parent to a dead child, not magically un-impregnate you. Their cells will remain in your body as evidence of it for the rest of your life. You will never be able to escape physical reality by murdering the human life that was produced through your actions.
There will always be evidence that you were pregnant and that your baby existed. You will always be a parent from that point on, you just choose if it's to a child that is alive or not.
The biggest ick isn’t just someone who lies. It’s someone who lies to themselves. A flip flopper, fantasy addict, emotional con artist. A validation addict & emotionally unavailable love bomber who performs closeness but has no real anchor inside. Let me explain:
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