Soap Box - Tumblr Posts

I’m just... I’m so speechless. I live in Texas [ugh] and many people I know have been downplaying the Heartbeat Act, ‘you can always go to another state’ [WHY tho, I live here], ‘nothing would happen to you’ [white woman], ‘it’s not that big of a deal’ [it IS], and so much more. No one is taking it seriously, and they won’t until it’s far too late. I got sterilized because of the Heartbeat Act, because I am terrified of bearing children [which should not be mixed with raising children, because I am 100% down for that shit]. I almost broke up with my boyfriend because he thought sterilization was a nuclear-level response to my fear of being/becoming pregnant - literally the only fight I’ve ever had with him, because he just doesn’t get it. He loves me, respects me, but thinks I’m going to regret having my tubes removed -- but fuck it, even if I do regret it, at least I can’t be forced to term in this hellscape.

He and most of the rest of the people in my life [to include my mom, who was ride-or-die for my surgery but still doesn’t understand why I’d be so upset about Roe v Wade, bless her confused heart] just can’t seem to grasp that this is a war on women - and We. Are. Losing. 

Abortion rights allowed women agency over their bodies. It allowed them to relieve financial burdens - because they are still in school [hell, they could be a teenager/minor, not that a middle-aged woman has less of a right than this hypothetical kid] - or emotional burdens - because they are pregnant with their rapists’ child [and sometimes, their familial rapist, for the ‘fun’ incest twist].

They are tired of people not having kids, of not having peons to staff their businesses and slave their lives away, that they are forcing the matter. And I hate it.

Didn’t mean to rant, but fuck if this isn’t my soapbox. I’m down for civil conversation, but don’t attack me - or any other woman - for their choices when it comes to abortion or sterilization. It’s a heavy, hard choice but I made it with both eyes wide open.

Thank you to the brave SCOTUS clerk or staffer that probably committed career suicide to leak the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade when they knew the whole country would be glued to the internet looking for Met Gala looks.

As we watch elite rich people flaunt their wealth, remember that reproductive rights are being chipped away more and more everyday. While abortion remains legal nationwide for two more months, you are witnessing a direct attack on folks who can get pregnant, and specifically on Black, Latines, Asian and Indigenous folks.

And remember that it doesn't stop here. The implications are extreme and next on the list are Lawrence v. Texas (case that legalized sodomy) and Obergefell v. Hodges (case that legalized same-sex marriage). The draft opinion refers to see as phony rights. People are going to die on a large scale because of this.

I've never had the chance to share this so ig I'll do it here.

So, I have a speech impediment. Yay.

Specifically a stutter and I've suffered bullying centered around my stuttering for years on end. (For some reason it was always by girls. Guys used to think my stutter was cute for some reason it's not btw).

My sutter is the prolongation of words and the block

I.e How areeeee you and I'm fin____

I wanted to share this for anyone else who's living with a stutter. I've noticed a few things.

I actually only stutter on vowels (lovely that every word has a vowel in it huh?)

I pretty much stop breathing when I talk (it's like my brain can only focus on one thing at a time)

Reading does not increase or decrease my stuttering.

I sometimes add extra words or pronounce words differently to avoid stuttering.

My stutter decreases dramatically when speaking to people who don't cut me off.

Now, I'll go through and explain them to help anyone who may have similar issues.

For 1, I noticed around four years ago that I actually only stutter on words that have a vowel sound. I sat down with myself and talked for a bit and found that every word I stuttered on, it was at the vowel sound.

Shockingly, even words that begin with a vowel sound I stutter over, I'll give details on that later.

So, the best way I've learn to handle this is to stop when I know a word has a vowel and I stutter on that word, so I'll say something like:

Everything is all ready done.

Separating them into two words seems to prevent me from stuttering.

2 might also just be my anxiety, but for the sake of this post, let's say it's not. I noticed I'm usually out of breath when I talk. I do talk fast, but I mean like I just ran a marathon out of breath from just saying a simple sentense.

The best way I can describe it is like when you're singing a song. You try and sing the full line as the singer does, but most of us haven't trained our lungs so we end up breathless by the end of it.

I still do this, but it's gotten better as I've learned to breathe from my diaphragm when I talk instead of my chest.

3 I'm really saying for anyone trying to help someone with a stutter. This does not help someone to calm their stutter. As a kid, my parents sat me down and assumed if I read aloud I would learn not to stutter, but it makes no difference.

My advice is to just be patient. That person knows they stutter, let them take their time and they'll eventually get out what they need to say. You're in no rush to hear what they say, so just let tham go at their own pace.

One last thing about this. DO NOT try and finish a sentence for them. It's bad enough we have a stutter, but if someone tries to fill in the sentence for us, our self esteem goes 📉📉.

For 4 (lol) this is a thing I developed and it works pretty well. This is the detail I was going to get into. So, sometimes I stutter over the word it, no Pennywise.

So, to stop that from happening since it is used a lot, I started saying "I T is like." Now, I don't say that in public, but I do with my family and the word is simple enough that no one is thinking too hard on what I spelled out.

But this is why I usually don't refer to things by their proper name (so if anyone here ever becomes my real friend, please know I'm not saying things wrong, I'll just stutter otherwise).

Lastly, 5. I would assume this is the same for everyone regardless if they have a stutter or not. When someone is cutting you off, it makes you rush your words, cut your words off, and stutter. So it gets worse for someone with a stutter.

I have very rarely encountered people who didn't try and cut me off because I paused to take a breath or held out a word. It's true that the anticipation of someone cutting you off sometimes makes you stutter.

I have my stutter under control a lot now, but it did take me a while to get to this point. So, for anyone out there who has a stutter, try and find out what makes your stutter tick and go from there to find ways around it.

This has been a PSA about stuttering, thank you for reading 🍂

Sorry, but last thing, since I'm a writwblr, I wanted to add how to properly write a character with a stutter.

We know t-the (repeating sound) stutter is a real one, but it's normally used for someone who's simply nervous. Someone who actually stutters would stutter at any point in time and sometimes in different ways (eg me having two versions of a stutter).

Also, know where your character's stutter comes from. Mines happens to be hereditary and environmental as I frequently get cut off and thus rush my words to get them out faster. It's also just kind of the way I am since I'm very fast paced and have a hard time "taking things slow"

It's also good to detail a tick or habit your stuttering character may have, like they stop talking and shake their head when pausing their stutter.

Oh, and it's true, cursing eliminates stuttering. There needs to be some testing done on that.

Yes, it’s cheaper online- everyone knows this.

Please don’t gripe loudly about this in my place of work purposefully loud enough for everyone to hear.

Retail is already hard enough, and we have no control over prices.

Please just quietly check the Amazon app like everyone else.

Thank you.

P.S.- You used your own body to come into this place of business. You should know better- what did you expect?