Sophie

I think perhaps I may be a cat, born into a human body. I have my cautious curiosities bundled in a mistrusting parcel of whim. I didn’t think this until I lived thus, daily, with a pair of felines. They had to tame me, as much as I tamed them. They crawl in my lap now, curling their warmth in a half moon on my thighs. They sleep in a circle near my face, their back so often walling up my side (they like to physically make sure I’m there, my announcement of arrival into bed isn’t enough). Sasha, the blind one, waits for hours on my blanket (I have been a late sleeper lately). I sometimes wonder if their previous bedmates, that still man this house, notice – the absence of a warm half-moon in their beds.

Today for the first time, they both convened for space on my small lap – until sasha, my older companion, let sophie stay… He knew she was newer to trusting this newcomer in their house.

‘There is nothing inherently wrong in a person, one could come to find comfort in anyone reasonable’ –Sophie taught me this. By curling in my lap today, by correcting my faulty fear that she inherently disliked me, she taught me this simple insight. She didn’t bound off every time I stepped nearby because I was un-get-alongable – No. She had a different taming timeline. That was all.

And this is why I think I may be a cat (and at that - a sophie cat). For I take my time to tame my mistrust. And mostly no one has that much time (perchance most humans are humans in human bodies, unlike me, a sophie cat).

[Or could it be that there is a Madeeha human in the body of Sophie cat?]

Jan 14th, 2013 11:40PM.

Later Love

'For the very young, love is like a huge river which sweeps everything before it, so that you feel that it is a restless current. Now a sensitive person has acquired some self-knowledge by twenty-eight; she knows that any happiness she can expect from life will come to her through love; hence a terrible struggle develops between love and mistrust. She crystallizes only slowly; but whatever crystals survive her terrible ordeal, where the spirit is moving in the face of the most appalling danger, will be a thousand times more brilliant and durable than those of the sixteen-year-old, whose privileges are simply happiness and joy. Thus the later love will be less gay, but more passionate.'
~ Marie-Henri Beyle, better-known by his pseudonym Stendhal - On Love

On Rape

What some women say (fiction and non-fiction):

"...a lot of people see rape as an opportunity to moralize about women’s behavior, and instinctually think of rapists as vigilante justice squads setting women straight for being bad girls."~ Amanda Marcotte

“Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men's eyes when deciding what provokes it.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women

“Not being assaulted is not a privilege to be earned through the judicious application of personal safety strategies. A woman should be able to walk down the street at 4 in the morning in nothing but her socks, blind drunk, without being assaulted, and I, for one, am not going to do anything to imply that she is in any way responsible for her own assault if she fails to Adequately Protect Herself. Men aren’t helpless dick-driven maniacs who can’t help raping a vulnerable woman. It disrespects EVERYONE.” 

― Emily Nagoski

“Men don't rape women because their women are ugly," cousin Jostien said, but there was a protest at his words. 
"That's what my fa said! He says that inside their hearts and spirits they are nothing but little men who need to feel powerful.” 
― Melina Marchetta, Froi of the Exiles

"The power of the harasser, the abuser, the rapist depends above all on the silence of women."
- Ursula K. Le Guin

"Men who are in prison for rape think it's the dumbest thing that ever happened... they were put in jail for something very little different from what most men do most of the time and call it sex. The only difference is they got caught. It may also be true."
- Catharine MacKinnon

“As an animal lover, I don’t like zoos. I feel the only creatures that should be caged behind bars are politicians, lobbyists, and lawyers. And rapists, but I’ve already listed that three times.”
― Jarod Kintz


"I prefer to characterize rape simply as a form of torture. Like the torturer, the rapist is motivated by the urge to dominate, humiliate, and destroy his victim. Like a torturer, he does so by using the most intimate acts available to humans -- sexual ones."
- Helen Benedict, Virgin or Vamp, 1992

“Masculinity is simply a conglomeration of the personality traits necessary for the patriarchal soldier-rapist: physically strong, emotionally cauterized, rational, domineering, cruel. All of this is supposed to add up to "handsome" as well. Likewise femininity is ultimately a description of the personality that results from trauma and powerlessness: weak, passive, yielding, emotional, hyper-vigilant to the needs of the dominators and desperate for the dominator's attention.”
― Lierre Keith

“I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak


"Most commonly, rape is a crime of opportunity; the victim is chosen not because of her looks or behavior, but because she is there."
- Helen Benedict, Virgin or Vamp, 1992

“Now, should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course. But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped. Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.” 

― Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women

“I offer all the riches I've made out of the panchayat-enforced gang-rape to the president in return for justice.”
- Mukhtar Mai

What some men say (fiction and non-fiction):

“The defense focuses on the actions of [the victim]. Don't you know that's why a lot of rape victims don't come forward?”
- David Hilburn

"I should hope that we can raise our daughters by teaching them THEIR responsibility to NOT dress or act in a manner that would incite unclean thoughts in the minds of people who either did not have the privilege of having their parents teach them those values or simply don't care. Dressing or acting provocatively will not only attract "habitual" rapists, it will also plant that possibility in the minds of people who are on the edge of becoming one but not there yet. It is much safer and more sensible to dress modestly and not let yourself become an object of impure desire rather than rely on the self-control of an unknown individual."
- Abdullah Imran

“All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken. It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that made his act of love so piercingly wonderful.”
― Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me

“He did not care upon what terms he satisfied his passion. He had even a mad, melodramatic idea to drug her.”
― W. Somerset Maugham

“Oh,' she says, 'the Vat prints nothing but rapes. You know what a rape usually is? It's a woman who changed her mind afterward.”
― John Updike

"Consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry...All of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she's not going to say, 'Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.'"
—Wisconsin state representative Roger Rivaud

"The facts show that people who are raped —who are truly raped—the juices don't flow, the body functions don't work and they don't get pregnant. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever."
—Former Rep. Henry Aldridge

A thought for the male youth:

“In spite of hopes to the contrary, pornography and mass culture are working to collapse sexuality with rape, reinforcing the patterns of male dominance and female submission so that many young people believe this is simply the way sex is. This means that many of the rapists of the future will believe they are behaving within socially accepted norms.”
― Susan G. Cole

And finally, yes:

“The punishment for rape should be castration.”
― Amit Abraham

“I think when a person has been found guilty of rape he should be castrated. That would stop him pretty quick.”
- Billy Graham quotes


For laughs,.... no for real, really for real, courtesy of http://www.eclectablog.com/2012/10/the-gop-rape-advisory-chart.html: