psa if you ever meet me in real life I am really sorry for how much I swear like it’s really not a joke I have a mouth on me like a fuckin sailor and I can usually turn it off around adults but if you’re under thirty five I will likely throw one ‘fuck’ in for every three words that leave my mouth it’s shocking
post apoc media is always banging on about the necessity of macho survival skills but frankly it’s the gardeners/farmers who know 150 preservation techniques for winter beets and who understand the art of good pH balance in compost who will survive on our non energy dependent farms while you all butcher each other with katanas in burnt out shopping centres
Anonymous asked: Harriet Tubman was cynical, she would force people to escape against their own will with a gun to their head. She has more flaws than you think.
YEAH, YOU CAN MAKE ANYONE SOUND TERRIBLE IF YOU STRIP AWAY ENOUGH CONTEXT!
YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THERE WERE HAPPY SLAVES WHO WOULD HEAR A CLICK BEHIND THEM AND TURN TO SEE HARRIET TUBMAN SAYING “ESCAPE OR DIE, JERK, YOUR CHOICE.” THAT’S NOT HOW IT WENT DOWN.
HARRIET TUBMAN WAS A CRIMINAL, WHICH I’M OKAY WITH BECAUSE THE LAW SHE WAS BREAKING WAS UNJUST, AND THAT’S WHY SHE PACKED HEAT. IF SHE WAS CAUGHT, SHE’D STAND A FIGHTING CHANCE OF DEFENDING THE PEOPLE SHE WAS ASSISTING.
NOW, AS FOR “FORCING PEOPLE TO ESCAPE AGAINST THEIR OWN WILL.” THE PEOPLE SHE PULLED A GUN ON WERE ALREADY ON THE RAILROAD WITH HER OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL. THEY WERE PEOPLE WHO WERE TRYING TO ESCAPE, AND WHO KNEW ONCE THEY SET FOOT OFF THE PLANTATION THAT THERE WAS NO GOING BACK. THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO LEAVE THE PLANTATION WITH HER, BUT IF THEY DID, IT WAS “ESCAPE OR DIE TRYING.”
HOWEVER, IT WAS NOT UNCOMMON FOR THEM TO TRY AND TURN BACK ANYWAY. TRYING TO ESCAPE WAS DANGEROUS AND MISERABLE, AND STOCKHOLM SYNDROME IS A THING. MANY OF THEM GOT COLD FEET WITH THE PROSPECT OF THE UNKNOWN STRUGGLE OF A FREE PERSON IN THE NORTH, WHICH FOR ALL THEY KNEW WOULD BE WORSE THAN THE FAMILIAR STRUGGLE OF A SLAVE IN THE SOUTH. MANY OF THE OTHERS FIGURED THEY’D BE CAUGHT AND RETURNED ANYWAY AND THAT THEIR PUNISHMENT WOULD BE LESS SEVERE IF THEY TURNED THEMSELVES IN AND BLEW THE WHISTLE ON TUBMAN AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. EVEN IF THIS WASN’T THEIR PLAN, ANYONE WHO’D SEEN HOW THE RAILROAD OPERATES WHO RETURNED TO THE PLANTATION WOULD BE TORTURED INTO GIVING UP THAT INFORMATION.
ANYONE WHO WENT BACK TO THEIR PLANTATION PUT THE REST OF THE RUNAWAYS, PRESENT AND FUTURE, IN DANGER, AND TUBMAN COULDN’T ALLOW THEM TO BLOW HER COVER AND GET ALL THE PEOPLE SHE WAS TRYING TO PROTECT CAPTURED OR KILLED. SO YES, WHEN SOMEONE ATTEMPTED TO TAKE SENSITIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE METHODS OF THE RESISTANCE BACK INTO ENEMY TERRITORY, SHE’D PULL A GUN ON THEM AND GIVE THEM THE CHOICE BETWEEN GETTING TO “LIVE NORTH FREE, OR DIE HERE.”
BUT I WANT YOU TO STOP THINKING ABOUT HARRIET AS A CIVILIAN FOR A MOMENT. SHE WAS A SOLDIER, A SPY, AND AN INSURGENT REVOLUTIONARY IN A WAR THAT STARTED CENTURIES BEFORE THE SOUTHERN STATES SECEDED. THE RUNAWAYS IN HER CARE CARRIED INFORMATION THAT WOULD ALLOW THE ENEMY TO WIN THE WAR, AND I’M CURIOUS AS TO WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE HER DO.
SHOULD SHE ALLOW PEOPLE WHO KNEW ALL THE RESISTANCE’S TRICKS AND SECRETS TO ALLY THEMSELVES WITH THE ENEMY BECAUSE THEY’D LOST FAITH THE WAR COULD BE WON? SHOULD SHE HAVE SENT THEM HOME WITH A BAG LUNCH FOR THE ROAD AS LONG AS THEY PINKY-PROMISED THAT THEY WOULDN’T TELL?
BECAUSE REALLY YOU ONLY HAVE TWO OPTIONS: WOULD YOU RATHER “HARRIET TUBMAN OCCASIONALLY PULLED A GUN ON PEOPLE ATTEMPTING TO BETRAY HER AND THE PEOPLE UNDER HER PROTECTION TO PEOPLE WHO WOULD ENSLAVE AND MURDER THEM WITHOUT LOSING A WINK’S SLEEP,” OR “THE SLAVE STATES LEARNED THE SECRETS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, RECAPTURED THE RUNAWAY SLAVES, AND KILLED HARRIET TUBMAN SO SHE COULDN’T LEAD ANYONE ELSE TO FREEDOM?”
I KNOW THERE’S PROBABLY A MIDDLE GROUND, BUT I’M TELLING YOU AS A HISTORIAN THAT THE LATTER IS THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO, AND WHEN YOU’VE LIVED THE HORRORS HARRIET TUBMAN HAS LIVED, YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO TAKE THE CHANCE THAT YOU MIGHT GET LUCKY AND THINGS WON’T GO WRONG.
I can’t believe in 2016 that people are trying to paint fucking Harriet Tubman as a bad/problematic person. Jesus christ
my boss tried to call her a “thief” in logic that at the time stealing slaves was stealing property. “would we want a thief on our currency?”
Uh…if Harriet Tubman is a thief, what the fuck does that make the people who actually…kidnapped completely independent individuals and forced them into slavery?
gentle reminder that mother’s day is not for all moms. it’s for good moms. abusive and neglectful moms do not deserve to be celebrated on this day. and if you are the child of one of those moms, you should feel no guilt in ignoring the day altogether. I hope you can stay strong kiddos! ♡
Anonymous asked: “What would be the best way to write a character who develops PTSD? She was abducted for a couple of weeks, and I thought it’d make the story more realistic. She’s a pretty strong character, but I’m also stuck with how her colleagues, especially one who’s particularly close to her, could help her.
This is a very good question. Writing a character with a psychological disorder can be confusing and difficult at first, it is definitely not impossible.
A tip you often hear is, “Write what you know.“ That’s great, but sometimes you want to write something that you don’t know. Rather than producing a very inaccurate/unrealistic depiction of a serious mental disorder, it’s best to learn everything you possibly can about it. That said, I’m glad you asked!
I want to give you something to chew on:
Fiction is the means by which we can escape reality by immersing ourselves in it.
You are taking on the task of creating a character who develops a very human disorder, because you want it to be true-to-life, to be realistic. Great! Realism is a worthy aspiration. I’d be worried if a character who was abducted for two weeks showed absolutely no signs of damage from the experience.
The first thing I would encourage every writer to do—no matter what kind of character you are creating—is research. Always, always, research. We have an article pertaining to writing mental disorders. Hopefully that can answer some parts of the question, so once you’ve read that, proceed (or ignore us and proceed anyway)!
In this article, we will try to examine writing PTSD specifically, starting with how to research psychological disorders. Yes, that was plural. It is possible for a person to have more than one psychological disorder after experiencing a trauma. That is why it is important to brush up on a variety of disorders related to PTSD. You want to pinpoint the character’s symptoms so you can best depict her experience with the disorder.
Find someone qualified. Do you know anyone (family/friend/acquaintance) who is a qualified social worker/therapist/counselor/psychologist? If you do, reach out to them. They not only possess experience in working with people who have psychological disorders, they can fact-check the realism of your story.
Find someone who lived/lives it. If you know someone who is willing to talk about his or her PTSD, that person would be a terrific resource for you. Be very careful, however, of the way that you approach the treatment of a person’s mental disorder, especially in a dialogue face-to-face. Prepare specific questions, vet these questions through another person who knows your resource personally to be sure that they don’t cross a line, and remember that, while you strive to write something fictional, your resource actually lived/lives their trauma. Behave yourself and be respectful.
Google! Search terms like “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” “Mental disorders,” and “Survivors of assault”. It’s important to learn about the disorder itself, and the people who actually experience(d) it. There are support groups online. We don’t want to say infiltrate them, but there are good resources and first-hand accounts of experiences with it that may benefit your writing.
Read up. Books covering a wide range of mental disorders can be found in most any book store–the most famous being the DMS-IV-TR. Self-help books are also a valuable place to look, although PTSD is best when treated with help from a trained professional. See also: Every TV show that brings in counselors after a traumatic event occurs. Not everything you see how TV is accurate, but that part is at least worth watching.
Researching the disorders in question will allow you to consider your character more realistically, which leads to more realistic writing.
Secondly, you need to research your character. That must sound odd, because unless this is a fan fiction piece and you can look up a backstory or biography, your character is original, a.k.a. created by you. Trust me, you’ve got plenty to do.
Questions to ask yourself on this front:
What was the character like before the abduction? Was she very outgoing and gregarious? Shy and reserved? Understanding your character is key in terms of understanding how she will react to trauma. Let’s take a look at the meaning of psychological trauma, as explained by Dr. Kathleen Young:
Psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security and result in you feeling helpless, alone and vulnerable in a dangerous world. (x)
This is important because experiencing trauma in any case causes a change in the victim. It can impede the emotional development in adolescents, and snap an adult into a depressed, sometimes child-like state. You want to show that change in the character. Perhaps, your character is facing the hardships of piecing herself back together in the aftermath of the abduction – being “strong” as she was, the experience will undoubtedly be a blow to her perception of herself.
What’s the character like after the abduction? How do you show these changes? In many cases, the effects are obvious (anxiety, nightmares, etc.) There will be more subtle differences as well. For example:
Eva Mendez Kor, a Holocaust survivor (check out the documentary, Forgiving Dr. Mengele.) She experienced PTSD after her experiences in Dr. Mengele’s despicable twin research endeavors. Friends and family notice long-term effects from the trauma she sustained at Aushwitz. These include: a heightened sense of resourcefulness and never leaving her plate with food left on it.
So, maybe your character is more alert of her surroundings, more jumpy, very sensitive to what are called “triggers” or, things that can set off the disorder such as; yelling, being touched, hearing about abductions, hearing a phrase or term used by her abductors, etc.
Now for that close friend of your character’s. Support is very important to the recovery from a disorder like PTSD. I would encourage you to go through the same research process that I outlined for researching the disorder to find resources on what a loved one can do to help a friend coping with PTSD.
A couple of suggestions:
Can this person be a confidant? Maybe he/she is the first person your character really opens up to about the abduction – that’s a great way to show that there is trust in the relationship.
Is this person silently observant? Maybe this person takes special note of the changes in her character after the abduction and they have some kind of “unspoken trust” about it, where the moment she begins to falter, the friend is at her side.
Or, of course, whatever you think of as an alternative.
Once you are equipped with all of your shiny new knowledge about your character and PTSD, the next feasible step is to write! Implement what you learn into your story.
