Wow, you guys really liked my post yesterday. It's like it was relatable and educational or something. Weird, right? I always have this weird feeling of obligation after a successful post that I need to top it, or make something that's as good. I rarely write two posts in a row that get a ton of views though. I'm okay with that. I'm glad that I write things every now and then that touch a lot of people and make a lot of people happy, or that it makes them think. Do I wish that every single thing I write would be loved by all? Hell no. If everyone loved everything that I wrote, I was doing something wrong. As writers we are given a wonderful gift that allows to bring joy and wonder to life! But we also have an obligation to inform and educate. To speak for those without a voice. And if we are doing that properly, some people are going to be offended, because that's just human nature.
As an activist, I know that the majority of what I write will offend a vocal part of society. At the same time, I'm not a terribly well-known activist yet. I'm known enough that I'm on speaking terms with a lot of the bigger and more known ones, and I'm known enough that I do have posts that the majority of the asexual community have seen and read. But I'm not so known as to have a large following. It's weird. I'm friends with a lot of well-known activists in the asexual community (hell, we're even friends on miitomo!), and we talk on a regular basis, but the whole asexual community knows them (or at least their screennames/blogs), but they don't know me. My friends are people who receive hate on a daily basis from a large amount of people, whereas I receive it every now and then from a smaller group of people. But it's a risk that we gladly take. Hate speech and death threats become part of our life, and that is something that most non-writers can't understand. Every time I write something, even something that has no politics behind it, I'm opening myself up to hate and threats. Maybe someone thinks that I didn't use the right analogy and therefore I should kill myself. Maybe they didn't think a joke was funny so I should be raped. The possibility of those threats hangs over every writer when they sit down to write. But we do it anyways. Because we have a gift. We have the responsibility to share our gift. We have the obligation to speak out against injustice. And we have the power to enact change in this world.
There are people who don't believe in the power of words. People who think the only things that can bring about change are big violent actions, Those people are wrong. Words have the power. Words can, and have, brought empires to their knees and knocked the crowns off of kings. It was with words that slavery was abolished in the Commonwealth. It was with words that Martin Luther King Jr changed the course of history. It was with words that Mahatma Gandhi led his people out of British Imperialism. It was with words that the world has changed. Those big, violent actions some people deem necessary all end the same way: with words. It is the purpose, and goal, of writers to skip the big violent actions and go directly into the words. This is why so many writers are also activists! One cannot write for an extended period of time without feeling the need to stand up and speak out.
We, as writers, know exactly how powerful words can be. We know what emotions they can evoke, and what thoughts they can kindle. This is why we speak up and give voice to the voiceless, even with the threats of harm directly over us. We cannot deny the power of words and call ourselves writers. To do that, is to deny ourselves of our passions. As all writers know, writing is always our greatest passions and our strongest love. We can't give that up, so we stand up. We put the targets on ourselves not because we want to, but because we need to. Each bit of hate that gets tossed our way is one less that gets thrown at other people.
As a guy named Ben once told his nephew: "With great power comes great responsibility." Writing is our great power, and speaking out is our responsibility.
As an activist, I know that the majority of what I write will offend a vocal part of society. At the same time, I'm not a terribly well-known activist yet. I'm known enough that I'm on speaking terms with a lot of the bigger and more known ones, and I'm known enough that I do have posts that the majority of the asexual community have seen and read. But I'm not so known as to have a large following. It's weird. I'm friends with a lot of well-known activists in the asexual community (hell, we're even friends on miitomo!), and we talk on a regular basis, but the whole asexual community knows them (or at least their screennames/blogs), but they don't know me. My friends are people who receive hate on a daily basis from a large amount of people, whereas I receive it every now and then from a smaller group of people. But it's a risk that we gladly take. Hate speech and death threats become part of our life, and that is something that most non-writers can't understand. Every time I write something, even something that has no politics behind it, I'm opening myself up to hate and threats. Maybe someone thinks that I didn't use the right analogy and therefore I should kill myself. Maybe they didn't think a joke was funny so I should be raped. The possibility of those threats hangs over every writer when they sit down to write. But we do it anyways. Because we have a gift. We have the responsibility to share our gift. We have the obligation to speak out against injustice. And we have the power to enact change in this world.
There are people who don't believe in the power of words. People who think the only things that can bring about change are big violent actions, Those people are wrong. Words have the power. Words can, and have, brought empires to their knees and knocked the crowns off of kings. It was with words that slavery was abolished in the Commonwealth. It was with words that Martin Luther King Jr changed the course of history. It was with words that Mahatma Gandhi led his people out of British Imperialism. It was with words that the world has changed. Those big, violent actions some people deem necessary all end the same way: with words. It is the purpose, and goal, of writers to skip the big violent actions and go directly into the words. This is why so many writers are also activists! One cannot write for an extended period of time without feeling the need to stand up and speak out.
We, as writers, know exactly how powerful words can be. We know what emotions they can evoke, and what thoughts they can kindle. This is why we speak up and give voice to the voiceless, even with the threats of harm directly over us. We cannot deny the power of words and call ourselves writers. To do that, is to deny ourselves of our passions. As all writers know, writing is always our greatest passions and our strongest love. We can't give that up, so we stand up. We put the targets on ourselves not because we want to, but because we need to. Each bit of hate that gets tossed our way is one less that gets thrown at other people.
As a guy named Ben once told his nephew: "With great power comes great responsibility." Writing is our great power, and speaking out is our responsibility.
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