“I don’t care how much sex anyone has, how often they do it, or who they do it with. I’m much more interested in the consent, pleasure, and well-being of the participants and the people affected by it. I respect women who are asexual, celibate, monogamous, multi-partnered, or have had more partners than they can recall. I respect women who only have sex after a commitment to monogamy and those who have sex with someone within minutes of meeting them. I respect women who have transactional sex, women who have sex for love, or for any other reason. I know that all of these categories are permeable and that many women move from one to another. And I know that any of these decisions can be made from a place of personal power, choice, and authenticity, as well as from a place of coercion, shame, and disempowerment.”

- Charlie Glickman (If You Don’t Respect Sluts, You Don’t Respect Women)

(via come correct) 

[You're a] Good Man

I don't want this to be the India song I associate with your name, because it's far too beautifully tragic, and you're The Truth and a Complicated Melody already, but last night you said something that made me realize that you're a good man. Not only suave, witty, ambitious, handsome, brilliant--but genuinely good. One of the best I know. You commented on a father-son relationship in Love Actually and told me that you want your son to love you like that. You would have given me one of your dramatic looks if I'd told you this then, but I think that's beautiful. It's like, I already know you're going to be a great father someday. I can already tell that I'll be jealous of your relationships with your kids, not because I want kids of my own but because as much as I hate to admit this, I always wanted parents like that. The kind who love openly. I know your mother is proud of you, even if you aren't always proud of yourself. Hell, I'm proud of you, more and more so every single day. This is just another way I look up to you. I'd have kids if I could be like you. But though I can cherish all of my friends and love you all with open arms, I'm still learning how to love one other person with an entirely open heart.

Honestly?

A. "Honesty is the best policy." -- Benjamin Franklin

B. "A half truth is a whole lie" -- Yiddish Proverb

C. "People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty." -- Richard J. Needham

D. "Society can only exist on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks." Lin Yutang

Pick the statement with which you agree the most. Can they all be true??

I was always told to be honest. All the time, in all situations. And when that could not be the case, I was told simply to never ever lie to the people I love, because they above all else, deserve respect. We shouldn't be afraid to hurt the feelings of the people that matter the most, for those people deserve to have us as we really are. If truth is a virtue, then these are the virtues upon which I was raised. You are polite, courteous, and decidedly fake amongst strangers and people who have power and control over us. You are real and true and rough and gritty with everyone else. To that, I have recently added that above all else, you must be real and true and rough and gritty with yourself.

Even more recently, I have been told that I am decidedly wrong. That I should be polite to everyone, even the people I care most about. That if I care about them then I should care enough not to say anything that might hurt them. Which to half of me, makes sense. But to the other half, I feel like if I can't be my self, honestly really and truly myself, with my closest friends, then when can I ever really be me?

My friends say that hurting people doesn't define me. I never said it did, but I feel like my feelings define me, and if I can't express myself freely, isn't that lying to myself? That breaks a cardinal rule.

I'm not a Christian, but doesn't somewhere in that Book of theirs, it say "To thine own self be true"? My goal for this year and the rest of my life is to love myself above all else. If I censor myself so that my friends love me too, isn't that like cheating myself out of something? Is it worth it to be loved?