@RushHourNotes I don’t think you can be a good partner and insist on 50:50 all the time. Life changes. our situations change. It’s important to adjust the burden when your each of you needs. You step up for your partner and they step up for you. Anything less can’t be called a relationship
A woman on my flight yesterday switched seats with her husband because their toddler wouldn’t stop crying.
The second she sat down alone, she closed her eyes for maybe 30 seconds.
Just resting.
Not sleeping.
When the husband walked past with the kid later, he laughed and said loudly,
“Must be nice to finally get a break from doing nothing.”
A few people chuckled.
She laughed too.
But something about it felt off because for the entire flight she had been:
holding the baby,
packing snacks,
cleaning spills,
walking him down the aisle,
missing her own meal trying to calm him down…
while the husband watched a movie with headphones on.
And honestly I think that’s why so many women are exhausted.
Not because they’re doing everything alone.
But because they’re doing everything while someone else calls it “nothing.”
Billionaires are building a future that does not include us, and they’re using our money to pay for it.
Most people still haven’t realized what’s happening.
I fainted on the bus on the way to work this morning because of bad period cramps. I’m really thankful to the sweet older lady who helped me off the bus and checked I was ok. Even though we spoke to each other in Japanese, I was impressed that she initially spoke to me in English
I could tell her English wasn’t particularly strong so it struck me that it must have taken a lot of courage on her part to speak up to me in English on the crowded bus. She must have overcome her own nervousness out of concern for somebody she didn’t even know
We’re obsessed with the idea that poor people might take more than they need, but we rarely question why some wealthy people are never satisfied with what they already have.
In May 1860, she kissed her six children goodbye. She thought about the dinner she would cook later. She thought about the laundry. She thought about the quiet life of a mother in Illinois.
She had no idea that when the front door clicked shut, it would stay locked for three long years.
Her husband, Theophilus Packard, was a respected minister. To the neighbors, he was a man of God. But inside their home, he was a man who could not stand a wife who thought for herself. Elizabeth Packard liked to read.
She liked to debate religion. She had her own opinions about life and faith. In the 19th century, for a woman to have a brain was considered a danger.
Theophilus decided to end the argument once and for all. He didn’t need a crime. He didn't need a witness. In those days, the law in Illinois said a man could commit his wife to an insane asylum without any evidence or a public hearing. He simply had to say she was "disturbed."
One morning, a group of men arrived at her home. They didn't listen to her logic. They didn't care about her tears. They dragged her away to the Jacksonville Insane Asylum. Elizabeth was 43 years old, perfectly sane, and suddenly a prisoner.
When she entered the asylum, she expected to see people who needed medical help. Instead, she found a warehouse of "inconvenient" women. There were wives who had argued with their husbands about money. There were daughters who refused to marry men they didn't love. There were women who were simply too loud or too independent.
"This is not a hospital," Elizabeth realized. "It is a cage for the unwanted."
The doctors tried to break her spirit. They told her that if she just admitted her husband was right and she was wrong, she could go home. They wanted her to say she was crazy for wanting her own thoughts. Elizabeth looked them in the eye and said, "I cannot buy my liberty by a lie."
She didn’t give up. Instead, she started to write. She hid scraps of paper in the linings of her clothes. She tucked notes under floorboards. She recorded every abuse, every scream in the night, and every story of the women around her. She became a secret journalist inside a living nightmare.
After three years, she was finally released, but her husband locked her in a room at home. He planned to move her to another asylum in a different state. This time, Elizabeth’s friends helped her get a message to a judge.
A trial was finally ordered to determine if she was actually insane.
The courtroom was packed. Theophilus was confident. He brought "experts" to say that her religious doubts proved her mind was broken. But then, Elizabeth stood up.
She didn't shout.
She spoke with the calm power of the truth. She explained her beliefs. She showed the jury that having a different opinion is not a disease.
The jury only needed seven minutes. They came back with a single word: Sane.
Elizabeth walked out as a free woman, but she found that her husband had taken everything. He had sold their furniture, taken her money, and disappeared with their children. She was alone and penniless.
Most people would have disappeared into the shadows. Elizabeth did the opposite. She spent the next forty years traveling the country. She stood before the legislature and demanded new laws.
She said, "A woman's mind is her own, and the law must protect it."
Because of her, states changed their laws. They made it illegal to lock a person away without a fair trial and a medical exam. She turned her private pain into a public shield for thousands of other women.
She proved that even if you take away a woman’s home, her money, and her children, you can never truly take away her voice.
You know they’re laughing at us right?
While we squabble amongst our selves over the scraps. Arguing over who deserves what. Fighting to assert ourselves over those we think are beneath us. When all any of us want is the chance to lead a comfortable life.
They’re laughing at us
@piyomama63 @nekonaotuma0108 Also to add, good luck on your upcoming birth! I hope everything goes as smoothly as possible and that you feel as supported as possible when the day comes
@piyomama63@nekonaotuma0108 But god forbid something goes wrong and you need him there. It’s not just that him being drunk would be annoying but that by getting drunk he’s gambling your safety in what could be a life or death situation.