A Journal of Impossible Things

by Erik Buikema

fog is just a rlly big land ghost

the fact that you specified “land” implies that there are specific ghost types for land and water

Every sailor knows this.

i swear to god, men raising their voice is the most terrifying thing in the whole world. they dont understand, like its an immediate panic response, game over

I actually had no idea women found this so scary

my downstairs neighbors fight on a regular basis, and every time he starts yelling i’m a little afraid he’s going to kill her. i have no reason to think this except that he is a man and he is angry

My math teacher has a loud voice and a temper and he scares the living shit out of me almost everyday. He’s made me and other kids cry more than once and he and his teacher buddies make a joke out of terrifying students.

this was women in general? i knew my gf didn’t like it but I was unaware if this affected most women

Yes, it does

As a woman, I had no idea it effected other women like this. I was too afraid to even talk about it. I thought I was weak. Thanks for bringing attention to this.

My dad thinks it’s funny that I used to cry when he raised his voice. I freak out whenever some one does. Once my director did, and I started crying I couldn’t stop. I’m glad to see I’m not alone…

This is so important– seeing how common this is– and I also want you all to know that this is not normal. It isn’t something instinctively ingrained into women, to be afraid of men. There is no natural state of men being a threat that women constantly have to be afraid of. This is cultural. So many women and girls here have a mutual understanding of this feeling, and I think it really shows an unsettling truth about our society, particularly about how men are raised to act and how so many women have this defensive reaction gradually develop. It’s so important that these people have their voices heard, because it teaches us about problems that we just can’t deny the existence of any longer.

I’m glad I’m not the only one

My fellow men, pay attention. I didn’t realize how scary this could be until one of my exes explained it to me, and it’s heartbreaking.

Also, when we move too much during an argument, or lean forward, it’s scary, and I never knew. I was even a little insulted at first, because surely she didn’t think I would hurt her. But see, that doesn’t matter. It wasn’t a sign that she mistrusted me specifically; it’s a conditioned response. (Although if you keep doing it once you realize it scares her, she SHOULDN’T trust you.)

Not every woman has been physically harmed by a man she trusted, but every woman KNOWS a woman who has.

I used to be horrible about this, because I didn’t realize how intimidating it was. I didn’t understand why the woman I was with clammed up or tried to tell me what she thought I wanted to hear, and I only got angrier, and acted even more like an asshole. It was wrong. It was abusive. It didn’t matter if I INTENDED it that way; it was still emotionally abusive. And it was inexcusable.

I get that when passions are high, and when you’re frustrated, it’s a natural tendency to let your voice get louder, to shout and gesture and lean forward. But you can train yourself to do better. You can train yourself to keep more of an even tone, to refrain from large and fast gestures, to not lean into her personal space. I did. I’m not perfect at it yet, but goddamn it, I WILL be.

Don’t tell me it’s too hard, that you just can’t do it, or that you “shouldn’t have to.” I’m 53 years old and just now getting the hang of it, and if this old dog can learn something new, so can you.

Note to guys: It really, REALLY doesn’t matter if you’re thinking, “but I would never…”

History is littered with the bodies of women who believed a man “would never.” This includes women killed by men who honestly, deeply, truly believed they “would never”… right up until she said that one thing or moved in just that way and he just got so mad, just that once, and pushed her or punched her or slashed her or shot her… just once, y’know, to shut her up, or because she was flinching and didn’t she know that HE’S NOT LIKE THAT and I’LL TEACH HER TO BE AFRAID OF ME…

We are trained, from infancy, that Men With Loud Voices are a source of pain from which we cannot escape, and attempts to escape may result in more pain. And as soon as we’re old enough to comprehend a world broader than our immediate circle, a world that extends into the past and will run into the future, we realize that there is no way, no way at all, to tell which men “would never” and which men “would never… except if.”

We live or die on that “if.” And any man who doesn’t like facing that hyper-vigilance can work on fixing OTHER MEN, not women’s fear.

The reaction shouldn’t be “not all men are like that;” it should be “no woman should have to live in fear.”

It’s telling that so many people will hear a story of long-term abuse and say, “why did she stay with him?” and not “why did he treat her like that?”

This made me cry.

I didn’t realize I wasn’t the only one. Like even if I hear OTHER people fighting and the guy raises his voice I always KNOW that he’s gonna kill that other man or woman…..even if he’s not. It’s just what the raised voice does to me

Brooklyn Nine-Nine s03e09

This was the most Anna Kendrick-y thing in the whole movie.

What is Chris Pine even doing with his hand

That’s called The Royal Wave and its something he learned on The Princess Diaries 2

tattoo_grain

Lin-Manuel Miranda said in an interview that he wrote the song “You’re Welcome” for Maui once he knew the character would be voiced by Dwayne the rock Johnson because he thought that Dwayne the rock Johnson would be the one person on earth who could sing something so egotistical and have us completely convinced we should be thanking him and honestly he’s not wrong.

When I was like 5 or 6 my mom took my family to Florida to see my grandma at her place out there and I used to feed the bunnies in her yard saltine crackers and walk around w all the armadillos in the neighborhood bc I was That Weird Kid who Attracted Animals but like nothing could prepare my sister for the sight of 5 year old me trudging out of some weeds, pink shorts and legs covered in pond skudge, holding an alligator in my arms because “look at this cool guy.”

We did not return to Florida’s residential areas.

Anyways the greatest tragedy of BBC’s The Musketeers’ obscurity is that the “I caNNOT B E L I E V Eyou sLEPT with the QUEEN!!!1!!11!!” meme is not widely known and used whenever anyone does anything exceptionally stupid

Inventing the Future 

It’s interesting this was perceived negatively in experiments in the US. It actually caused some people to withdraw support for UBI:

“When the findings started to come in, it looked like the families that were receiving a guaranteed annual income might, in fact, have a higher divorce rate. And this became very political very quickly in the U.S. There were all kinds of concerns that this was an attack on the American family.”

(via yayfeminism)

If having resources to leave a bad or abusive marriage is an attack on the American family, then there’s something deeply wrong in the American family.

(via kerryrenaissance)

can we please have a version of drunk history except it’s called drunk mythology and people who know a lot about myths just get hammered and ramble about them with cartoony reenactments going on in the background? because i would totally go on tv and drunkenly kinkshame zeus

Shoes

Delman, 1930

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This pit bull gave birth and put all her pups in her owners lap…how precious

more animal posts?

YOU’RE A GRANDMA! YOU’RE A GRANDMA!!

Share if you would also like to be covered in puppies

The hashtag #NoWomanEver is dropping truth bombs