Womanism + Human Rights

It’s hard to admit that your sex life has been a series of boundary-violating encounters that you rationalized because everyone told you it was normal.

He wasn’t my first but he was the first man who wasn’t a one-night stand.

In a life where boyfriends were mythical creatures and I was constantly characterized as a trap, he chased me. Told me he wanted me. Convinced me to go on a date with him.

He talked to me. Called me. Wanted to hear my voice. Wanted to see me. This was before phrases like “love bombing” and “gaslighting” became common lexicon…

I’d originally titled this “How I Survive in Spite of Whiteness” but it only took one sentence for me to realize that I have and continue to seek more for myself.

It’s all about the framing, isn’t it?

I used to spend my time writing about the horror that is whiteness. I would write about the constant lying and gaslighting. I’d write about the not so random violence that spews from them. I’d talk about surviving in a culture that thrives from consuming people like me. …

I want some of y’all to fail. Not because I’m jealous but because you are dangerous and see harming and silencing people as the acceptable cost for your material and social gains. You are the rotten flesh protecting the corrupt core of so many things and rather than excise the corruption and heal the rot, you spread your shitty values to others and make them complicit in your foulness.

You destroy those who see you as you are. You silence those you think may reveal what you are. You band together and cover for each other, maintaining the putrid mess…

Choosing more than survival in white supremacist patriarchal capitalist amerikkka

To be a writer you must believe 3 things:

1. You have something to say;

2. People want to hear or read what you have to say;

3. You can change the world.

I’m oversimplifying, but on some level writers think this because if we didn’t then why write? We write because we to be read. Personally, I have plenty to say and in 2016 I believed I could help change the world if people read it.

Oh, the arrogance of it all. The belief that I had in some higher purpose to fulfill with my pen. I truly believed…

My Name is TaLynn Kel and I am an Only Fans model

Well, I run an Only Fans account. It’s not what one would call successful — I’m not paying my mortgage with the money I make on there. I’m not even covering the costs of my outfits. The thing is, I didn’t create the account to earn a living- I did it to create a safer space where I could share the fun I have in dressing up, showing off my lingerie, and enjoying the sensuality and sexuality of my body without the casual violence people enjoy inflicting on fat Black women online.

Safety is a funny concept for me, as…

We have a language problem in the United States. It isn’t new because the power of language has been known for centuries. To deny people the ability to communicate, to punish people for communicating is to control what is known and shared which helps consolidate and maintain power. This is one of the reasons why the internet has been so powerful and why there are ongoing efforts to limit who and what is seen and shared there.

We’ve seen it. We’ve seen social movements happen online. Feminista Jones wrote about this in her book Reclaiming Our Space. Moya Bailey discussed…

I’ve been attending conventions for over a decade and if there is one area that I 100% opted out of, it’s cosplay contests. Some people love them. They use cosplay contests as motivation to level up their crafting skills. They enjoy embodying their cosplay character on stage. The stage part I get — it’s fun knowing that all eyes are on you. It’s the competition that I take issue with and for a number of reasons.

Cosplay is subjective as fuck

Just like with any art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. People who are skilled at sewing, appreciate sewing more. People who…

TW: Abuse, self-harm, suicide

My childhood makes me cry.

In my 20s I didn’t look back at my childhood because it wasn’t that far away. New to adulthood, I spent my time exploring the new boundaries that I could set for myself and learning that they could apply to everyone. Could, but often didn’t as people tried to convince me that my boundaries didn’t matter and used every manipulative technique they could imagine to do so. In school, at work, in my friendships and romantic relationship, people used humor, ridicule, guilt, shame, rage, threats, and infinite combinations of any tool…