After the nomadic podcast, here is the sexological podcast.
Ever wondered about pornography, and whether or not it’s good for you?
We have your answers.
Find Lissa at @Lissa Godin
SEXtalk: Pornography and the couple
Dandelions, building a home and the power of speaking French: An Interview with Marion Coppleston
My interview with Marion is a beautiful twin to my interview with Laura, not only because I met both of them while staying in Marion’s home. Like Laura, Marion bought land in the Canadian Maritimes and built an off-grid home on it. And also like Laura, Marion traveled solo as a young woman, including in hitchhiking in Europe. Only Marion was doing it all a few decades earlier. In this interview she also speaks about how studying french and teaching industrial arts lead her to these adventures, as well as her involvement in choirs and PEI’s Earth Day Expo and Dandelion Festival.
Rebecca
Solo travel, flower farming and living off-grid: An Interview with Laura Besaw
This April I had the pleasure to cross paths with Laura Besaw. Hailing from Nova Scotia, Laura has fascinating stories from travel all over the world, running her own organic flower farm and hearing the call of the sea…
Rebeccah
How to step outside of your comfort zone – 3 Key lessons from my real Yes Man experiment
How to step outside of your comfort zone
3 Key lessons from my real Yes Man Experiment
Each year, I choose a new experiment to live my life by. Can you imagine completely giving up control and saying ‘Yes’ to every opportunity that comes your way, regardless of the consequences?
Lesson 1 – The Universe constantly provides opportunities
…But we are too stuck in our own routines to notice. Take a moment to imagine that you have just given a gift to your friend. To your shock, they act disinterested, or ungrateful or, worse, it causes them to worry even more than usual. Would you want to ever give them another gift again?
How about if, when you imagine the same scene, they receive your gift with warmth instead? They marvel at it, and watching them take time to fully enjoy the experience brings a smile to your face. The art of giving becomes a gift in itself. You can’t wait to do it again.
Opportunity is allocated in exactly the same way. How do you receive the opportunities that life gifts to you? Do you seize them with joy, or do you begin a debate? Do you exhaustively weigh up the pros and cons, whilst considering each potential outcome and, on occasion, talk yourself out of making a decision at all?
Yes Man releases you from this internal conflict because there is only one possible answer. You can be free to fully immerse yourself in the experience. You become aware that opportunity surrounds you. You let go of your need to constantly control the outcome. After all, the consequence is no longer linked to your personal decision or choice. You just enjoy the ride. With this approach, you will be rewarded with more gifts than ever before.
Lesson 2 – The Earth is your training ground
As you begin to pay attention to the opportunities gifted to you, you will begin to develop a natural curiosity. What does this ‘yes’ mean? Will it have a positive outcome? If not, why did this happen to me? What is it trying to teach me?
The mysterious nature of the universe will become obvious. You will be provided with all of the resources, people and lessons that you might need to guide you along the path of becoming the person you were meant to be.
I lay on the sofa, facing upwards, looking at the ceiling. The dog felt my pain and tried to lick my feet, to heal me. I couldn’t risk the infection. Second-degree burns blazed across the soles of my feet following a firewalk. I searched for a meaning as to why I was in this position. Why I had been left my most vulnerable, reliant on another human to lift me naked into the bath and help me use the toilet? I would still try to be independent. In the hour and half, it would take me to walk the 8 minutes to the grocery store, I had time to stop and chat to homeless people. I would choose to feel blessed, and feel abundant, and ensure to provide to make sure that they had a warm bed to sleep in that night. I vowed to myself that when I was able to walk again I would treat my health as a priority, as without that we are incapacitated in many areas of life. I would later trek 2-3 hours per day as I felt so lucky to have my legs back.
Your inability to control the outcome, or feel that you can control the outcome, will place a demand on you to trust the process. Everything is unfolding exactly as it’s meant to be, exactly when it’s meant to be. You will frequently find yourself in the right moment, at exactly the right time. I would find myself running into old friends in bizarre locations, such as walking through the back streets of residential Bangkok. On these occasions, I would hang on every word the person said – trying to understand what I was supposed to learn from this chance occurrence.
I became alive and switched on. This high level of presence improved my memory and I was able to make people feel more special as I learned to truly listen to them.
Lesson 3 – New possibilities can change the direction or focus of your life
Letting your fears rule your path is a sure way to miss out on life. If you ask me now what my deepest fear is, I’m most afraid to never have truly lived.
My YesMan experiment somehow led to me becoming a location independent digital nomad. I write this, sitting in Florence. It had always been a dream of mine to live in Italy, and this is truly one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. I also became deeply contribution driven which inspired me to start a social network in North Thailand, designed to be a platform to showcase the most talented members.
I learned to open my mind, and as I was forced out of my comfort zone, I was led to my soulmates. During this experimental year, I met the two loves of my life. If I had met them in any other moment, there’s no way that I would have let them anywhere near to my heart. One because he was my opposite. He embodies Chaos, while I was Law & Order. It turns out that he is my perfect balance. He is wonderfully creative, an artist, and completely covered in tattoos and piercings. The other was practicing an open relationship, which I’d never heard of at the time. He showed me what it means to be a powerful, feminine force as we became the best versions of ourselves in each other’s company. Thanks to this experiment, this is the most loved I’ve ever felt.
About the Author
Serena Rach is a British entrepreneur and Chiang Mai’s #1 Events host, who founded the widely popular Digital Nomad networking group – CNX Social. Experienced in course creation, Serena built the newly designed product for IGotAnOffer: McKinsey PST & Case Interview Preparation, downloaded by 20,000 students from over 180 countries. Serena is the host of the Course Creators Conference 2019.
Orgasms: How we need to stop conflating the gender axis with the gender cause.
What is gender? In this article we will treat of mainstream gendered matrix, as well as heterosexual encounters.
Many authors define it differently. a materialist definition proposes that gender is a set of socially dictated norms that place two binary poles in asymetric opposition to one another. These poles, masculine and feminine, represent classes or groups that an individual can belong to.
Now, there can be other genders, these binary walls can be broken, and subverted. But the maisntream discourse (hegemionic discourse) proposes the model we’ve just exposed.
This model creates a system which values the masculine over the feminine and is iterated through institutions, discursive practices and identity formation.
We can round this up to patriarchy.
The word. We know it. It has a ring to it that is nearly ominous.
It is, in a sense, ominous. Patriarchy is the source of immense suffering, multiplied by billions of people to different degrees. Wherever you are on the spectrum, you are part of that system.
This is a key information to keep in mind.
This also means that the needs it creates are important, and sometimes necessitate shortcuts. One of those shortcuts is identity politics.
We round up people under an umbrella term that doesn’t completely represent them in order to be able to gain momentum to push some aspect of their rights forward that may have been infringed on.
Women fall under that category. The concept of woman is a controversial one in feminist circles for good reason. Even if a materialist approach recognizes that the category has social weight, it does not mean that all people falling under that umbrella experience being a woman the same way, face the same struggles, or even consider the term to have the same meaning.
This is a great example of linguistic shortcut that has a political aim, and understands its intrinsic contradictions. The benefits seem to outweigh the costs depending on the context.
Other linguistic shortcuts are used often to carry a similar momentum.
The ends justify the means, and we accept that the shortcomings of such shortcuts are a necessary ill to fight an uphill battle.
The problem is that knowledge also gets disseminated this way.
People who had the intention of carrying a complex message through a simple memetic package had that complexity in their mind and stayed careful when they were asked to formulate their thoughts in more detail.
But this is not what gets disseminated the most. Television interviews, soundbites, memes, quotes do not allow for such a complexity.
And since most of the accessible knowledge is that simple (simple ideas carry faster, easilier and reproduce more than complex ones), we end up with many proponents of that simple idea who take it at face value as opposed to the careful flawed reduction that it is.
This is where our orgasm comes in.
I read an article recently that proposed that even though a man could focus on a woman’s pleasure, it may still be testimony of his sexism.
https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/12/focusing-on-her-pleasure/
The idea has political appeal.
Real life appeal too. We’ve all had that encounter with the sleazy creep who proposes to give you orgasms, when really, what he’s saying is that he wants to have sex and wants to bait you into it by thinking that orgasm is an obvious tradeoff, with no actual intention or capacity to follow through on it.
It’s usually more of a way to impose his sexual prowess than a true desire to be selfless.
But at the same time, the simple profession of such a desire isn’t in iteself problematic.
The article basically states that men want to offer orgasms to feel rewarded. And this may very well be entranched in gendered scripts about male sexual prowess. But that’s the thing. That’s a filter.
Everyone feels that way about partner pleasure.
The question of reciprocity may be influenced by gendered scripts, but it is still a concern for men and women in heterosexual encounters.
We all want our partners to feel sexually pleased, and it’s not all out of selfless love.
We want to feel validated because sexuality is a very vulnerable time, and we seek any reassurance that comes our way. We also seek to have the encounter again, possibly. What better way to make sure that you’ll have sex again than doing it well enough that it’s enjoyable to the other partner. This does not mean we should feel pressured into faking orgasms, but we also shoudln’t demonize people for wanting to feel validated.
This is where I think it’s important to draw an important distinction that isn’t made often enough.
People cannot be equated to their place in a system, or to how the system affects them.
We are fundamentally more similar than we are different, and the differences that exist do not have to dictate our actions.
Furthermore, participation in the system is relatively mandatory, lest you feel ready to actively fight it.
We can’t blame people born in a system for partaking in it unconsciously.
We can seek to change that system, and we can try to let people see what they are doing so they become more conscious.
But demonizong people over it is a shortcut that doesn’t help us see what can truly be done about a situation.
For instance, considering the urge to feel validated into giving orgasms is fundamentally sexist, and thus makes the person doing it sexist too, is missing the point of the human experience.
It’s a useful template to motivate someone to possibly change their ways, but it certainly doesn’t tell them how to change, since the urge is human to begin with.
We already know that there is an orgasm gap between cis men and women. Women have less orgasms on average than men ( roughly 60% for heterosexual women against roughly 85% for heterosexual men).
Striving to change the gendered scripts may change how men view orgasms and promote better reasons for them to recirpocate. But it won’t change the fact that people care about pleasure reciprocity, and that caring about it isn’t a selfless desire.
Asking people to be anything but human isn’t realistic, and it’s not helping. This means that we need to stop conflating the gender axis, which provides filters of signification, and gender as a cause.
On this note, some women get the orgasm they desire and that’s just wholesome: http://hystericalliterature.com/
sources:
Garcia, J. R., Lloyd, E. A., Wallen, K., & Fisher, H. E. (2014). Variation in orgasm occurrence by sexual orientation in a sample of US singles. The journal of sexual medicine, 11(11), 2645-2652.
Frith, H. (2013). Labouring on orgasms: embodiment, efficiency, entitlement and obligations in heterosex. Culture, health & sexuality, 15(4), 494-510.
https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/12/focusing-on-her-pleasure/
The Science Genius Myth, or the importance of supportive spaces
This quote, taken from an article in the New Scientist could have been a direct quote from my life. I started my career in science with the aim of deconstructing deeply helfd beliefs about myself and my place in the world. During this process, I was faced with challenges upon challenges, most of which were due to a crucial lack of support. This lack of support was both abused and heightened by the specific circumstances of academic surroundings.
Let’s start at the beginning. I am a humanities graduate. You would think that a humanities program would be shielded from the sexism and biases that are rampant in more stemy fields. You’d be wrong. Sexism isn’t only perpetuated by men. Sexism is institutional, and perpetuated by everyone. Everyone, in a sense, stands to gain from partaking in the system in place. It’s game theory 101. If the game has rules, you probably have easier gains by following the winning strategy than by breaking the game so that your group as a whole may benefit.
It follows that women, men, students, teachers will often play the game in a way that benefits them personally rather than the group to which they belong, regardless of where that group happens to fall when the strategies are applied. So you find that, even in female dominated fields, women will possibly be worse off than men because the strategy that they use is one that allows the system to be maintained.
How science is widely believed to be the field of geniuses
Now, let’s talk about science for a little bit. We see science in society as a field meant only for a select few. Most of us don’t really understand how it works, and if someone labels themself as scientist, and god forbid gives us numbers behind their assessments, we tend to take them at their words, as though a gospel from the mouth of the science God. It follows that we consider the people who call themselves scientists like we would consider wizards. Mysterious creatures with powers beyond the comprehensible. And since most people don’t really understand science (and who can blame them, since it is a heavily guarded knoweldge source: aka a gate that needs gatekeeping), they wrongly assume that the magic resides as an intrinsic quality of the scientist, or more precisely, their intelligence. This is a known bias called the fundamental attribution error. This bias makes us believe that we can judge a person’s character based on contextual data. This makes us believe that only intelligence wizards can be scientists.
But the silly truth is that science isn’t some gift a few people have. Intelligence really helps, and there’s no denying it. : The average IQ for scientists is as follows.
Social scientists: 121.8
Agricultural scientists: 121.6
Mathematicians, biochemists, and chemists: 130.0
Biologists: 126.1
Medicine: 127.0
Physicists: 127.7
Source: http://www.religjournal.com/pdf/ijrr10001.pdf
As you can see, The average IQ is still way beyond the average of the population. Ranging from 121 to 132, we are skirting the gifted line. So there is a fire to this smoke.
But you don’t have to be a genius either. According to Charlton (2009), creativity and intelligence are being somewhat weeded out by grueling normative processes and politics.
And this is the crux of our article. First of all, Science is a process. A method. It requires industriousness and the capacity to care about details. A good scientist is one that can spend a long time doing the same thing over and over again to make a bsolutely certain that the results shown are representative, as well as the method is applied properly. This shapes the way you think.
This is why a GREAT scientist is one that is likely to be very high in openness and creativity, but those two are not very compatible with a rigid system. And so very creative and open scientists may be pushed aside, because they are less easy to constrain in a given normative process. The people scoring high in creativity and openness are also usually correlated with a psychotic nature, and a low agreeability. This does not help with politics.
So let’s once and for all put to rest the idea that science is for geniuses. Being a genius can help, but also hinder your path as a scientist. You’ll have a better time being an average industrious person in that type of work.
How women are consistently pushed down
Now, we’ve seen that agreeableness is valued in sciences as well as industriousness, and those traits are associated on average with women. However, we’ve also seen that higher intelligence and creativity is linked with lower agreeableness. So More intelligent women are also more likely to score low on agreeableness. However , it is expected of women that they be higher in agreeableness. That’s a sort of stereotype. Now, what happens when women break the stereotype associated to them? Women will be judged more harshly when they derrogate to the stereotype associated to them, as shown by Heilman, and Parks-Stamm, in 2007.
Source: Madeline E. Heilman, , Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm, (2007), Gender Stereotypes in the Workplace: Obstacles to Women’s Career Progress, in Shelley J. Correll (ed.) Social Psychology of Gender (Advances in Group Processes, Volume 24) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.47 – 77
Men and women will thus not be judged the same if they are being less agreeable. This defacto puts women at a disadvantage when intelligence is on the same level.
Now, how about when they are higher on the agreeableness scales?
Other factors come into play.
The system in which academics evolve is still one steeped in the myths of the genius and other sexist myths.
Women need to have higher achievements than men to access similar positions. They are often subject to sexual harrassment from their superior, or even by people who are not their superiors.They are perceived as being less capable than their male counterparts.
The general athmosphere of the scientific fields is that for the most part, women are still not welcome.
How we fail to support one another in necessary spaces
We are at the point where it is difficult to be as a woman in the scientific fields. Add to this the fact that sciences are heavily competitive. Departments and chairs fight for funding, because there is little to go around. But this way to think about the field is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we consider that the best way to assign limited resources is to fight for the said resources, we come to a system of competition. Professors find proteges, departments play cut-throat politics, students become wary of one another. This is partly why people who are high in agreeableness tend to do well in depeartments. Playing the politics will allow you to easily have an edge over the competition. This does not, however, entail that you will seek to help your colleagues. And it is often the case that we don’t. Isolation is a real problem in academics. You spend long hours working on your projects, trying to think, reading. Most of what you do is in your head, and it cannot be a constant collaboration. Adding to that the burden of learning, or teaching while you’re in school or a professor.
But we don’t seem to do much about this isolation. Sure, there are some associations, and there are some events. Some help IS there. But it’s certainly not systemic, and it clearly isn’t benefiting most people. This shows that we fail at supporting each other. In certain fields, there are less than 30% of women, who fight their way against all odds.
- Among STEM graduates aged 25 to 34, women accounted for 59% of those in science and technology programs, but accounted for 23% of those who graduated from engineering and 30% of those who graduated from mathematics and computer science programs.
source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11874-eng.htm
There are very few of us, and we could support one another. So what’s happening?
Some people take advantage of the isolation, and this isolation makes many women fall off the scientific wagon, specifically in stem fields.
How science is an intrinsically collaborative process, and by that fact an intrinsically feminine process
We mentioned it earlier, the scientific field pushes academics to be competitive. Having an edge will ensure more funding, and a better career. We are status driven animals. Having your name as first author on an article can do wonders for your resume.
But science is a method that doesn’t just build on nothing. Every piece of data that you wish to add rests on countless bricks laid by previous scientists, and even perhaps your peers.
Creativity is believed to be the domain of geniuses (as explored earlier). But not all authors agree on this topic.
Steven Johnson wrote a wonderful book about creativity. Where Good Ideas Come From.
He looked at the environmental factors that surround innovation, and he found that ideas actually stem from a large overlap of data and paradigms. When people share information, and process it in collaboration, the best work comes forward. He even found that the best ideas came from scientific lab meetings, as opposed to when working on your own.
Ideas do not materialize from thin air. They come from a long mulling process and an eventual effervescence based on collaborative knowledge building.
He also found that women tended to collaborate at these meetings in ways that allowed for more creativity, tending to see the possibles of a new idea, as opposed to shooting down any novelty to pursue known areas.
Women are socialised to be social. Science is intrinsically a social endeavour. We should be better at supporting and fostering one another to produce better innovation and science. Making those spaces and giving them importance is key to finding a better space in academia.
On Shaming in the polyamorous community
I’m so done with poly-shaming:
“If you love someone you’re not possessive. True love is not the desire to possess”…
I come accross this sort of comment on facebook group dedicated to help and support new members of the community, as a response to cries for help. It happens too often.
Polyamory is nowhere near mainstream yet. Which means people are raised (for the most part) in a society that only promotes one type of love, one type of relationships, and idealises it until it is all you can see, all you desire.
Success, in your mind, is the capacity to fulfill that ideal, and it will feel good when you do.
But humans are also programmed to respond to other types of stimuli, and being surrounded with all types of love, many relationships can also feel very very good.
For many long-term practicioners of Polyamory, it can feel so wonderful and fulfilling.
The missing gap here is that it takes a crazy amount of work.
you will probably have to break yourself over and over to reform what you considered to be ideals.
You will have to break what you thought was love, and what you thought was self-love.
It takes time, it takes hurting, it takes learning.
The process is sometimes a dirty one, but you can come out on top, and discover emotions you never thought you could feel.
And you can also fall off the wagon, because relationships are also messy, and people are not perfect, and we hurt one another even if we don’t always want to.
Some people become quite good at transitioning, and feeling compersion for one another.
Others were much luckier.
They seemed born this way.
Whatever happened, they never had a problem having compersion, and letting go of other people.
And that’s truly wonderful.
But then they fail to have compersion for other people outside of their polycules. They judge harshly people who struggle to find these burgeonning emotions in themselves, and get carried away in the difficult path. Fall off the wagon.
For a community who prones compassion and compersion, what a disconnect! What judgement!
I came accross the comment up top, one morning:
“If you love someone you’re not possessive. True love is not the desire to possess”…
That’s not the full comment, i don’t want to put it exactly as it was, because I wish for this person to remain anonymous. They’re not the point, and I don’t wish them harm. I just want to fuel a reflection on the topic.
TRUE Love … There is no “true” love. There are people, connections, past, traumas, memories, moments.
Neurological reactions
Two people do not live the same thing, even in a relationship. What is more, it is possible to live many emotions at the same time, including Compersion and jealousy.We are not monolithic, and we can have fears desires, which are not rational.
To want to possess someone is to want to respond to insecurities, and it is natural. We may want to work on it, try to refrain from guiding the life of the other because of our own insecurities, to grow, but that does not make the emotion as such “bad”. And that certainly does not invalidate any love there may be.
There must be no confusion between abusive relationships which are indeed ONLY based on the desire to possess, and which consider that they are entitled to, with relationships that have as one component among others: the desire to possess.
This kind of judgment is not positive, and it makes it difficult for those who are new to communicate these feelings. It also makes their progress more difficult if they aim to diminish this kind of possessiveness. One does not improve if one has to be made invisible and repress difficult feelings because the host community tends to be recalcitrant towards the less experienced members. It’s pure and simple shaming.
It’s ableism, and it considers that neurotypicals (or a specific ideal of them) are the desirable norm.
I am more and more disappointed with marginal communities I come accross who simply reproduce mainstream oppressive structure, with their name tag on top.
[Edit: someone pointed out that I am not clearly enough laying out how ableism is at play. Here is a bit of the answer.
Ableism is at play here in that it promotes a view of the possibles and expected from everybody, based on a normative and ultimately impossible ideal of mental health.
It shames people for not living up to it without flaws.
It also assumes that the work to put in to repress possessiveness requires the same energy for everybody, and demonises those who struggle to maintain this level of energy.
This does not minimize in any way the emotional labor being put in by people who are neuroatypical. In fact, it is a recognition of that work and of its great cost.]
Be better, accept flaws and novelty.
Accept failures and attemps.
Accept pain and difficulty.
Use the compassion you so often preach.
De la femme à la mère – Partie 1
Étrange monde que le nôtre pour y faire pousser un marmot.
Énorme responsabilité que celle de créer un environnement favorable à un enfant, que de lui donner ce qu’il y a de mieux quand le reste du monde semble s’acharner à te compliquer cette tâche.
Égoïste geste que de choisir d’être parent quand cela signifie que ton enfant se retrouve balancé dans un système qui déteste et rejette toutes les différences, quand ces différences sont pourtant ce qui construit le système.
Toute cette histoire de féminité, de maternité, puis de parentalité aura engendré chez moi un ouragan de questionnements, et semé les graines de réflexions infinies sur ce qu’implique cette aventure d’un point de vue individuel et sociétal. On remarque bien que les jeunes parents semblent n’avoir plus que des histoires de gosses à raconter ( et c’est souvent relou pour les autres ), mais il faut l’avouer : c’est passionnant.
Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash
Pourtant le regard posé sur la maternité est erroné, parfumé âprement des fragrances d’un patriarcat qui n’y a pas sa place et d’une moralité surannée et rétrograde parfaitement difficile à vivre pour les nouveaux parents, et insupportable pour une femme.
Ce petit morceau de vie raconté ici reflète ma vision des choses et ne se veut en aucun cas être l’étendard de la vérité. Il s’agit de mon vécu personnel, mais qui, je le pense sincèrement, est un bon exemple de ce qui se trame en France, et de la façon dont la société pense la maternité.
Ces 10 commandements de ta vie de femme-mère sont les miens, et sûrement ceux de beaucoup d’autres femmes, et auront été ponctués d’absurdités moralisatrices et misogynes toutes plus ridicules les unes que les autres. D’en prendre conscience, avant, pendant et après contribue à mon sens à enrailler ce système désuet et dangereux.
PARTIE 1 : De la femme à la mère
1/Tu enfanteras. Et plusieurs fois.
Parce que apparemment, c’est un putain de devoir quand tu es une femme.
De mon côté, je n’ai jamais douté de cela. Je voulais faire un enfant. Résidu de mon éducation en solo avec un papa qui m’adorait et à qui j’ai donné vie autant que lui m’a donné naissance, ou semblant d’injonction sociétal ou hormonal imposé par mon corps et mon genre, peu importe. Le tout était cohérent et évident pour moi.
Passée la question de l’égoïsme assumé de cet acte, la sécurité de la solidité d’un couple qui nous donnerait un ciment heureux pour l’aventure, et nous nous sommes lancés. Idéal non ?
Sauf que je n’ai par conséquent jamais remarqué ces petites questions insidieuses qui parsèment la vie d’une femme. J’ai fait un enfant, ok. J’ai mis mon égoïsme devant le reste et j’ai balancé un môme dans un monde qui peine déjà à nourrir les siens.
Et à peine 6 mois après la naissance de mon fils, les premiers « et le deuxième c’est pour quand ? » ont doucement bourgeonné. Dans tous les milieux, toutes les bouches (des amis encore étudiants et sans le sous à la famille de classe moyenne bien éduquée en passant par ma prof de français-philosophie de collège) : partout. Mon moral et mon utérus traînait encore au sol que tout mon entourage se jetait sur ce deuxième enfant imaginaire tandis que le premier, abordé comme un élément de décor joli mais bruyant, ne nous avait pas encore offert notre première nuit de sommeil.
Photo by Laercio Cavalcanti on Unsplash
Ce n’est pas la question de faire d’autres enfants qui me pose problème, mais bien l’obligation informelle qui en découle, et qui m’est épidermique.
C’est en écoutant cela avec mon oreille neuve que j’ai repensé à avant, quand la question sur les lèvres qui m’était adressée concernait mon premier enfant hypothétique. Si ça n’avait pas choqué la Morgane du passé, le trouble est grand aujourd’hui. Qu’en est-il de ma copine qui n’a jamais voulu d’enfants? À qui, dès la seconde, on assénait des « tu changeras d’avis plus tard ! » ou des « tu es encore trop jeune pour savoir » à sa décision? Qu’en est-il de mon copain homo qui veut des enfants mais qui doit se contenter de regarder les autres poser cette question à ma copine agacée et ignorée, sans jamais avoir l’opportunité d’y répondre lui-même ? Quand tu sais que la ligature des trompes est légale en France, mais refusée par la quasi majorité du corps médical parce-que « vous êtes jeune, vous pourriez changer d’avis et vouloir des enfants » ou pire « Vous allez peut être finalement vouloir d’un deuxième, ou d’un troisième enfant, attendez donc votre ménopause ! ».
Une femme ne doit pas avoir d’enfants. Une femme doit pouvoir choisir la vie qui lui sied et cela n’a rien à voir avec le fait d’enfanter ou d’être mère, un point c’est tout.
2/ Tu emmerderas ton entourage pendant ta grossesse, mais tu t’en fous car tu seras épanouie.
« Et ça va, Morgane n’est pas trop chiante ? »
Par ce copain qui s’adresse à mon mec quand j’agonise en sanglotant du haut de mes 8 mois de grossesse, étalée sur le canapé comme un vieux cachalot échoué.
Sans déconner, cette phrase je l’ai entendue une bonne dizaine de fois pendant ma grossesse, de façon plus ou moins détournée.
Oui, j’étais chiante. Pas plus que ça, mais j’étais bourrée d’hormones et d’angoisses, coincée dans un corps qui n’était pas le mien et qui se transformait en prison au fil des mois, bannie de tous les plaisirs qu’on s’offre pour compenser habituellement le mal-être. Pas de bouffe, pas d’alcool, pas de clopes, et à la fin, même pas de possibilité d’aller pisser toute seule. Le sommeil se délite pour n’être qu’un vague souvenir et la jalousie s’enflamme sur mon mec qui peut glandouiller pépouse et ose se plaindre de mal dormir la nuit à cause de mes gémissements. Je ne sais pas quel genre de femme s’épanouit pendant sa grossesse, si ça arrive j’en suis heureuse pour elles, mais il faut arrêter de répandre ces clichés à tout le monde et de continuer de perpétrer cet idéal de sérénité et de féminité dans la maternité.
Alors, tu demandes parfois à internet si ce qu’il t’arrive est normal, et les sites comme MagicMaman, ou BabyCenter t’expliquent que c’est important de prendre conscience que tes maux ne sont rien comparés au bonheur d’être une future mère, de t’accorder du temps pour toi, de faire ta baby shower, ta manucure, et de ne pas oublier de sortir avec tes copines faire du shopping pour te détendre. (!!)
Quand tu as la chance de pouvoir avoir de jeunes parents dans ton entourage (ce qui n’était pas du tout notre cas alors), tous semblent victimes d’amnésie collective et t’assurent que tu oublieras tout une fois venue la naissance du bébé. Je pense sincèrement que la faute incombe encore une fois à notre société, construite de tabous, qui t’interdit de t’éloigner de ce moule patriarcal, archaïque et désuet qui impose aux femmes d’être mères en leur assurant que c’est la seule façon pour elles de s’épanouir.
C’est faux, et c’est inadmissible de continuer de propager ces stéréotypes. La grossesse n’est pas un moment qui doit forcément se vivre bien, et rassurez-vous, ce n’est pas grave. Ces 40 semaines chaotiques sont primordiales pour passer de l’état de femme à celui de mère, longues et courtes à la fois, et elles ne devraient en aucun cas être vécues en solo, tes angoisses prisonnières des tabous sociaux. Elles devraient être partagées, entendues, écoutées et transmises enfin. La grossesse n’est pas ce que l’ont croit, et d’en parler rendrait les futurs parents plus éveillés sur ce qui les attend, les futures mères justement plus épanouies et en phase avec le bouleversement qu’elles vivent ou vivront, et leur entourage plus compréhensif aux chamboulements vécus et donc à l’attitude empathique à adopter.
3/ Tu oublieras tout quand tu tiendras ton enfant pour la première fois dans tes bras.
La fatigue, exacerbée par les nuits blanches de tes derniers mois de grossesse, atteint son paroxysme à ce moment. Je crois que je n’ai jamais frôlé la folie d’aussi près de toute ma vie, et je doute m’encanailler encore avec elle de la sorte.
Je ne parle pas de l’accouchement qui est finalement le seul moment dont on parle à peu près honnêtement et auquel on s’attend. Ça fait mal, c’est long ( bon, oui, sauf ça, parce-qu’on pense que ça fait comme dans les films : pouf, tu perds les eaux, poufs, tu arrives à l’hôpital et pouf, quelques minutes d’agonie plus tard à insulter la sage femme ou ton mari qui te soutient, c’est fini!), c’est pas romantique, c’est hardcore, mais comparé à la grossesse, ça passe « vite », une petite quinzaine d’heures au bas mot pour un premier accouchement sans complication.
La suite en revanche. Quand on te pose ton enfant sur le ventre. Cet autre qui n’est plus toi. Toi qui a déjà bien galéré pendant 9 mois à accepter de vivre à deux dans un seul corps, qui a du apprendre à oublier ton intégrité. Tu te retrouves brutalement divisée, déchirée. Ton ego se transforme en alter ego et c’est un traumatisme.Tu n’oublies rien, rien du tout, et au contraire tu accumules. Alors oui, c’est beau, vraiment, c’est unique, c’est intense, mais c’est aussi irréel, parfois cauchemardesque, souvent très dur.
J’ai tout de suite « reconnu » mon bébé et même si j’ai été complètement perdue et déboussolée, je l’ai accepté et aimé dès le début. Ce n’est pas le cas de tout le monde. Certaines femmes bloquent pendant un temps plus ou moins long (de quelques secondes à plusieurs jours, semaines, ou années dans des cas pathologiques) et n’identifient pas cet enfant comme étant le leur, comme étant réel. Certaines encore admettent plus tard que de faire un enfant était une erreur magistrale et ce malgré tout l’amour qu’elles lui porteront.
Ensuite, fourbue de douleurs, mon gros ventre vide pendouillant lamentablement entre mes seins gonflés et mon sexe déchiré que je n’osais plus toucher, emplie d’une fatigue d’une intensité inénarrable, je me suis dis que non, je n’oublierai jamais. Je suis passée par une jolie petite dépression post-partum légère que j’ai traité par la discussion avec mon cher et tendre, j’ai repris du poil de la bête, et je suis passée à l’étape suivante. Mais jamais je n’oublierai, et j’en parlerai autant que je le peux autour de moi.
Ta vie ne sera plus jamais la même, pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Ton Moi d’avant n’existe plus, il est transformé, transcendé. La grossesse te consume le corps, l’accouchement te déchire la chair, et les premiers jours ( voir semaines et mois ) te brisent l’esprit. Il est primordial de savoir cela, d’en prendre conscience et d’en parler avant d’évoquer enfin le bonheur de la reconstruction qui s’en suit et les apprentissages fantastiques qui ponctuent la vie des jeunes mères.
C’est une chose magnifique que cela, je me sens personnellement heureuse et amoureuse de cette nouvelle vie qui est la mienne, mais il est aberrant d’omettre de parler de la moitié de ce chemin, si l’on veut savourer l’entièreté de ce qu’il implique et offre.
4/ Tu apprendras à être mère, seule en 4-5 jours top chrono.
C’est le temps que tu passes à la maternité quand l’accouchement et les premiers jours se déroulent normalement. Tu seras accompagnée et « testée » : sauras-tu faire prendre son premier bain à ton enfant malgré les violentes contractions de ton utérus qui se reforme ? Parviendras-tu à changer les couches alors que tu n’oses pas quitter ton lit ? Parviendras-tu à allaiter ton enfant malgré un manque consternant d’informations et d’accompagnement, dans la douleur, l’angoisse et la culpabilité de ne pas y arriver ? Sauras-tu passer outre la déferlante chute d’hormones qui te plonge dans un état dépressif et quasi catatonique ?
Mieux enfin : Sauras-tu passer toutes ces épreuves, SEULE ?
J’étais la seule mère de la maternité, sur une vingtaine de jeunes et pimpantes mamans, à avoir mon mari avec moi. On a demandé -imposé- un lit de camp, et monsieur a squatté ma chambre toute la durée du séjour. Pas un seul bonhomme ne restait dormir, même la première nuit. Que ces messieurs bossent, soit, je comprends bien que la vie des autres n’est pas aussi libre que la nôtre ( mon mari ne bosse pas, il est père au foyer sans revenus, et c’est un choix volontaire – mais on y reviendra plus tard – ), mais comment est-il possible qu’on laisse les choses se dérouler ainsi ? Que ce soit le père, le compagnon ou la compagne, ou même un.e ami.e, ou de la famille, nous devrions toutes pouvoir être accompagnées sans avoir l’air de transgresser les règles des maternités ! Sans oser parler des 11 pauvres jours de congés paternité qui sont censé suffire à prendre ses marques en tant que père, à épauler la mère épuisée physiquement de son accouchement, et à se remettre de ses émotions…
Passée l’épreuve du séjour à la mater, dont j’ai à peine souvenir tant cela a été un calvaire, tu devras ensuite rentrer chez toi, et tout savoir faire. Dormir 4 fois par jour par à coups d’une heure. Compter les minutes sur la pendule qui te donnera le seul et unique repère temporel pendant au moins un mois. Accueillir les 120 membres de ta famille, tes amis, en étant dans un état lamentable. Si tu allaites, tu devras te cacher des regards ou essuyer des commentaire graveleux, si tu n’allaites pas tu seras répudiée et culpabilisée à la fois par ton propre regard, mais aussi par celui des autres, du carnet de santé de ton enfants, aux pubs pour lait infantile, ou à l’encart de ta PMI qui te démontrent à quel point ton enfant serait en meilleure santé si tu n’avais pas échoué.
Maintenant, connaissez-vous le syndrome du bébé secoué ?
Il survient lorsque l’on secoue violemment un bébé ou un jeune enfant, ce qui peut causer des lésions cérébrales importantes et être fatal. Chaque année, plusieurs dizaines d’enfants très jeunes en sont victimes, à la suite de secousses pratiquées par des adultes de leur entourage, le plus souvent exaspérés par ses pleurs (père, mère, nourrice…).
A première vue, comme ça, on se dit juste « quelle horreur ! » ou « comment peut-on en arriver là ? » ou même « quelle bande de tarés ferait ça ? ». Et quand tu rentres chez toi, avec ton bébé, souvent avec un mec absent, tu comprends.
Coup de chance, ma sage-femme m’avait prévenue et m’avait dit que j’aurais envie de balancer mon bébé par la fenêtre (oui, ma sage-femme était exceptionnelle). Sur le coup je me suis dit « ben voyons ! », et quand j’y suis arrivée, je l’ai remercié de tout mon cœur de m’en avoir parlé de façon humaine et objective, car c’est grâce à cela que j’ai pu conscientiser mes gestes et mes pensées et contrôler la folie sous-jacente à l’asthénie.
Un humain, quand il est privé de sommeil trop longtemps ne se contrôle pas, ou mal, et peut friser la démence. Une mère, qui a traversé toutes ces épreuves, souvent seule, peut perdre le contrôle. C’est normal. Le sujet est grave, mais une fois abordé il peut être enrayé. Il faut impérativement parler de cela avec les femmes, futures ou récentes mamans, les sensibiliser elles, et surtout impliquer le reste de la société afin qu’elles puissent être accompagnées. Ça n’arrive pas qu’aux autres, aux cas sociaux, ou aux cas pathologiques. Nous, nous sommes des gens sains d’esprit et de corps, éduqués, et pourtant, j’y ai pensé, mon mari y a pensé, et c’est déjà énorme. Encore une fois, discuter, partager, transmettre est essentiel et contribue à faire évoluer et à mettre à jour ces tabous ridicules qui loin d’arranger les choses, les transforment en abcès. Ces tragédies peuvent être évitées si l’on prend simplement la peine de les énoncer, et qu’on commence à porter un regard empathique et humain sur toutes ces femmes perdues et délaissées, si on ne les force plus à avoir un enfant parce-que-c’est-comme-ça-et-puis-c’est-tout et qu’on abandonne pas une fois qu’elles sont mères.
C’est ce que je m’évertue à faire ici, et ailleurs, et ce malgré le regard mortifié de ceux qui reçoivent ce discours et qui me pensent probablement être une bien piètre maman d’avoir autant de mauvais souvenirs de cette période.
5/ Tu seras mère, tout en n’oubliant pas trop ton devoir conjugal non plus. Ni ta vie domestique. Ni ta qualité de femme, faut pas déconner.
J’ai « du bol », si on peut appeler ça comme ça le fait d’avoir un mec très présent, qui m’a accompagnée dans chaque étape de cette aventure, qui est pro féministe et avec qui je partage chaque aspect du quotidien. C’est môsieur qui m’a encouragée à arrêter de m’épiler ou de me maquiller si je n’en avait pas envie, de couper court à ce qu’on m’a appris devoir faire et être en tant que femme, et à vivre de la façon qui me procure du bien-être à moi et non aux autres. Ça devrait être normal et ne pas relever de la chance, mais dans la société dans laquelle on vit, en l’occurrence, j’ai du bol.
Ce n’est pas le cas de tout le monde, et le net regorge de forums recevant les témoignages de femmes désabusées et perdues, forcées par leur compagnon à ouvrir rapidement leurs cuisses à nouveau. J’ai été consternée quand j’ai pu lire des horreurs telles que « mon mari en a marre et a vraiment envie, depuis le temps qu’il se retient, le pauvre » à une nénétte ayant accouché quelques jours avant.
Le sexe, n’est-il encore aujourd’hui vu que comme l’assouvissement du plaisir des hommes, vraiment ?
Comment est-il possible de s’épanouir sexuellement quand les hommes sont élevés avec ces valeurs, et les femmes avec le devoir de s’y plier et de les perpétrer ? Comment peut-on continuer à nier nos choix, notre propre plaisir sous prétexte que c’est comme ça ? Comme le sexe est triste vu sous ce prisme…
Parce que c’est à ça que doit ressembler ta vie maintenant, tu es une mère, mais tu ne dois pas oublier d’être aussi une amante, et une « femme ».
MagicMaman ( encore lui ce coquin!) insiste : « tant pis si votre ménage n’est pas bien fait pendant quelques jours, prenez du temps pour vous, allez chez le coiffeur pour être désirable et vous sentir belle !». Mais va te faire foutre, MagicMaman ! Laisse moi et mes cheveux gras, mes cernes de 10 kilomètres, et mon ménage pas fait depuis 2 semaines tranquille ! Tu ne peux pas plutôt m’enjoindre de juste… communiquer avec mon mec et lui expliquer, dans le cas où ça ne lui paraîtrait pas évident, que mon froufrou vient de subir un gros choc et que lui et mon cerveau ne sont pas trop dans le mood ? Ne peux-tu pas t’adresser autant aux femmes qu’aux hommes en leur rappelant que les plaisirs sexuels n’impliquent pas forcément une pénétration, et qu’au pire, si ces messieurs sont vraiment en chien, il existe des techniques révolutionnaires qui n’impliqueraient qu’eux-même ? Ne peux-tu pas m’inviter à partager mes épreuves avec mes amis ? Souffler de la façon qu’il me sied sans impliquer forcément une paire de godasses neuves ou une manucure d’enfer ?
Je vous mets au défi de trouver le moindre site de conseils sur les bébés francophones qui s’adresse au père, ou au deux parents. C’est établi : on te tutoie, on te prends pour une pimbêche vénale et dépensière et on te parle au féminin uniquement. Dans notre cas c’était insupportable pour deux raisons : déjà car passé l’agacement relatif à la superficialité induite de ma personne, et ben, ça te fait culpabiliser, toi la mère qui ne t’occupe pas de ton enfant à plein temps.
Ce n’est pas moi qui reçoit la plupart des câlins, et non, ce n’est pas « maman » que mon fils a dit en premier ( il ne le dit d’ailleurs toujours pas). Ce n’est pas moi qui était la plus fatiguée car je me levait peu la nuit. Ce n’est pas dans mes bras que mon fils se réfugie quand il a peur, est triste, ou a mal. Voilà donc de quoi faire turbiner le cerveau et la culpabilité injustifiée de toutes ces mères qui ne sont pas le parent 1…
Et d’une autre part, n’oublions pas que cela nie également complètement l’éventuel rôle d’un père au foyer. Lui n’est mentionné nul part, ou seulement comme gros boulet qui ne comprend rien puisqu’il ne s’occupe pas du gosse, qui n’est ni doux ni patient, et qui ne pense qu’à queuter sa dame (si il n’est pas trop dégoûté de savoir qu’un bébé est passé par la porte de son temple privé).
Et encore, je suis mignonne avec mes agacements, mais je suis quand même bien tranquille dans mon couple de jeunes français blancs cisgenres et hétéros, hein, je passe au travers de moult filets injustes…
Tes seules solutions seront de passer outre ces subtilités de langages, ou de chercher du côté de sites anglophones qui ont tendance à parler aux parents de façon plus générale sans passer par le cliché de maman materne et papa bosse.
Bref, Mesdames, Messieurs, bousculez les règles, révolutionnez la société en secouant simplement l’intérieur de votre foyer. Partagez tout, et le monde s’en portera mieux.
Quand elle est réfléchie, choisie et partagée, la maternité est vraiment une aventure magique, unique, fabuleuse et d’une richesse incroyable. Elle est ce qui peut permettre de transcender un corps, un couple, un cœur, et apporte un bonheur incommensurable et si puissant qu’il est très difficile à expliquer.
Mais dans le meilleur des cas, avec des bases aussi saines et idéales, elle n’en reste pas moins extrêmement difficile, bien plus complexe que l’image qu’elle véhicule. La grossesse et la maternité sont dures, parsemées d’embûches et de doutes, et effroyablement mal connues. Elles sont une petite mort et un deuil violent de ce qui ne sera plus jamais, et bouleverse jusqu’au moindre atome du corps et de l’esprit d’une femme.
Il suffirait que chacun prenne le temps d’en parler, d’être compréhensif, ouvert et indulgent, et surtout honnête envers soi-même et dans son rapport aux autres pour débloquer bon nombre de situations tragiques, pour endiguer ces clichés obsolètes qui ne permettent aux femmes ni de choisir ce qui est bons pour elles, ni de les accompagner dans leurs choix.
Transgressez, communiquez, et révolutionnez ! Que vivre soit pour vous et non pour ce que vous devez supposément être. Ce ne sont que des petits pas, un joyeux mélange de riens, qui ne changent pas grand chose mais qui j’en suis sûre, contribuent à faire avancer ce grand tout.
Quantitude Quantique
Les vibrations quantiques de la vie physique chantent la promesse chancelante des possibilités infininiment possible de la réalité véridicte dans laquelle je suis née.
Nez à nez avec le reflet de mes actions, je crée l’horizon qui dessine ludiquement le portrais de mes sentiments. Empereur de mes erreurs, victime de ma réussite, j’imprime le temps fatidique de par ma composition chimique. Les cellules se divisent et savisent de la traîtrise de la vie qui les conduira inévitablement dans l’envoutement mortel des céquels du tendre passé présent.
Je me meurt d’envi existentielle. La vibration des cordes temporels m’agripe tangiblement au pendule du début de ma faim. Je me nourri de connaissance. Je m’abreuve de la quintécanse.
Mon coeur bat au rythmes de mes émotions, car dans la charadre des dérivés, il peine à s’intégré. Je suis un mélange mécanique et non homogène. Cela fait partie de mes gênes. Je suis un alliage intellectuelle jeune et pur. C’est pour cette raison que je ne m’intègre à aucune moulure. J’ai du en forger une sur mesure.
Je suis un unique atipique. Je souffre de persévérance chronique. Je suis le héros de mon histoire, le créateur de ma gloire. Les autres vous, ceux-ci, ceux-là, Oui eux. Ils pourront rire de tout se que j’aurai écris, mais sachez qu’a jamais c’est mots auront ambrassés leurs souvenirs. C’est pourquoi que d’un jour incertain, ils comprendront. Alors pour l’instant, leurs oreilles nous recolleront.
Poème par Naomie
Following your gut when interacting with predatory people. PART 2
– Having integrity
Now, as a liberal, you might tell yourself that you must uphold a certain type of values and principles. That anyone breaching them is a direct threat to you, and you should either push 
them aside, prove them wrong, or avoid them altogether.
You might tell yourself that this is better for a certain purity of thought.
But I’m here to tell you that this is not necessarily a sign of integrity.
Integrity is being able to look at yourself and finding that you have respected an ideal that you identified with.
But that does not mean that you shouldn’t accept to change ever.
Perhaps your ideal will change. Perhaps you will find that somethings are not the way you thought.
That you have been wrong.
This does not mean however, that you are always wrong.
And having this capacity to doubt yourself can sometimes also lead you astray , and fall prey to predatory people.
– Falling in love
Now, remember how predatory people can be seductive? That’s right! Being mentally challenged can be so envigorating, stimulating. Having a conversation makes you feel listened to.
That someone takes you seriously enough to take the time to disagree with you means that they actually considered your point. This can be very charming.
– The candy guilty pleasure effect
You can mix all this with the fact that anything taboo is enticing. We fall for the bad boy, for the forbidden. As a liberal, certain things have become avatars of “evil”, never to be touched, 
never to be frequented. What better to way to make something appealing than to make it out of reach?Easily then, you will find a liberal mind weirdly , and sort of against their own better judgement, attracted to an ideologically opposite predator.
– Noticing slight red flags as you are fallin love
This is when your defense mechanisms kick in.
You notice certain patterns you are already aware of, that you have studied . You are in fact always aware of it when it comes to situations outside of yourself. You fight those daily. But we humans are funny little creatures. We can know about biases, and still fall prey to them. We’re in fact more likely to fall prey to them, the more ware we are of them, because to us, it doesn’t feel like a bias. This is called the Bias Blind spot.
| Bias blind spot | The tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself.[25] |
“This is more evidence for the “bias blind spot”, a term coined by Pronin which refers to the head-spinning fact that we have a cognitive bias to the effect that we’re uniquely immune to cognitive biases. Take the famous better-than-average effect, or Lake Wobegon effect, whereby the majority of people think they’re above average on any number of measures – their driving skills, their popularity, the quality of their relationship – when clearly they can’t all be right. It turns out the bias also applies to bias. In other words, we’re convinced that we’re better than most at not falling victim to bias. We seem to imagine we’re transparent to ourselves: that when we turn our attention within, we can clearly see all the factors influencing our decisions. The study participants “used a strategy that they thought was biased,” the researchers note, “and thus they probably expected to feel some bias when using it. The absence of that feeling may have made them more confident in their objectivity.”
Back to our liberal. Remember how you’re numbing yourself to not constantly be in a fight? Well, if you’re aware of certain red flags, yet do not feel them from your numbness, you may tell yourself that they are not, in fact , present.
This is especially true if you are in the process of falling in love, or making friends, or living surrounded by people who become part of your everyday life.
– How conflict sparks interest
Why would you fall in love with people who put up red flags? Arguably, these red flags should be distasteful to you, even if you choose to not suffer from them.
It’s not that simple.
Humans crave motion, drama, emotion.
While being relaxed may feel good once in a while, we are inherently social beings, and we enjoy the tumult that comes with social life.
If anything, drama is entertaining. It’s physically enthralling, when you start producing adrenaline and cortisol.
Some dramas are harder to control, and while you probably won’t be able to pry your eyes away, you probably won’t seek a drama that is dangerous to you.
However, controlled dramas such as lively conversation is most of the time very pleasurable.
It’s a bit like an emotional superstimulus.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181986/
The risks are higher, but the reward is also higher. We are wired to focus on dangerous things, as much as on pleasurable things. You can find both in social interactions.
Challenging people have a greater effect, and allow to maintain your attention for longer; You focus by anger, or by joy, by curiosity or simple entertainment. But regardless, you are focused. These people make you tick in a way that is a little bit addictive.
Not everybody has addictive tendencies, and in this sense, not everybody falls prey to ideological predators. Similarly, an ideological predator is not exactly playing an unfair game. Everyone takes part in the same superstimulus, and everyone uses different tools to achieve their goals, but it must be highlighted that in certain situations, you can come out a little hurt from interactions that are not inevitable.
These challenging people are thus superstimuli.
And what is love if not wanting more of the contact with a person or a thing? The feeling of craving their presence, their existence in your vicinity?
To be continued in part 3.
Macro Grrrls 