This. Just....this.

I am tired down to my bones. Tired of trying to explain why I am tired. Tired of fighting all the little things that add up to a mountain and a constant uphill trudge. 

This Steubenville rape case is just the last straw. If you haven’t heard the words “rape culture” by now, you must have been ignoring the whole thing, which I probably should have done, but I just couldn’t.

[...]

Rape culture is a society giving women a list of do’s and don’t's that boil down to “make sure he rapes the other girl.”

Rape culture is a society where women are scared to go out by themselves at night.

[...]

Rape is not a mistake. You don’t just fall over and end up with your penis in someone’s vagina or anus. You don’t accidentally rape someone. Rape takes intent. It’s an act of power over someone who you consider less than, non-human, the other. It’s not about sex and boys are horny and it just happens. It’s about perpetrators not thinking their victim is a person.

Read the full post here.

2013 Reading List: February

I swear I'm missing a book this month, but I can't figure out what, if I even am. Losing our connection for a week meant that I didn't update the list like I normally do. Oh well. If I'm missing one, I'm missing one. That said, I'm not including Elmer On Stilts by David McKee, because while I'm all about children's books, it's a picture book, and took under 2 minutes to read. Nor did I appear to include Mirror, Mirror by Marilyn Singer from January (possibly December), which is also a picture book, but with poetry that can be read both forward and backward, changing the meaning and the stories (they were all fairy tales, and very cool).

FEBRUARY

10. Weight, by Jeanette Winterson (for reading group. The parts where she wasn't naval gazing were ok. The parts where she was, well, yeah...)

9. The Lady of the Rivers, by Philippa Gregory (Book 3 of The Cousins War)

8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

JANUARY

7. The Walking Dead Volume 8: Made to Suffer, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn (graphic novel)

6. The Walking Dead Volume 7: The Calm Before, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn (graphic novel)

5. Love in the Afternoon, by Alison Packard

4. The Owl Killers, by Karen Maitland (for reading group)

3. The Bromeliad, by Terry Pratchett (actually a compilation of three of his books: Truckers, Diggers, and Wings)

2. Smitten, by Janet Evanovich

1. Witness, by Cath Staincliffe (for reading group)