I highly recommend Teri Strange’s Antinatalism series on her YouTube channel, as well as the comments below the vids. In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to offer a little perspective on “family” and exactly what family means (and doesn’t mean) in the context of capitalism and patriarchy. In case anyone is wondering or just not completely clear why their family stresses them out so much, about why the holidays suck, about why everyone drinks heavily and talks small (or fights, or uses passive aggression) when they get together “for the holidays” or why they never get together much if at all, I hope this will help. I understand that this will be controversial for most of the human population but don’t bother trolling me with pro-family comments, I am completely immune. Having a family myself I fucking know better, and I know that as much as anyone defends “family” with jerking knees thinking that what I’m saying doesn’t apply to them, the kinds of things I am talking about here are actually universally applicable and apply to everyone under the current system even if the details are not exactly the same. And like everything that’s true and real, it’s true and real whether anyone chooses to believe it or not.
And remember: just because you don’t personally know about it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
So without further ado, I offer the following Christmas Family Portrait(s):
Christmas Family Portrait I.
On Grandparents.
Grandfather. Your grandfather was the man who was legally entitled to rape his wife, your grandmother. And we all know that men will be goddamned before they decline to exercise an actual or perceived right; in a sexual context that’s especially frightening because the other thing men love to do is push boundaries, and beyond that, they take things to which they aren’t entitled at all. So if he was legally entitled to rape your grandmother you can be pretty certain he did and he probably did a bunch of other horrific shit to her too. If your grandparents weren’t legally married he may not have had the legal right to rape her, but then where did your parents come from? Think about that just a little bit. Do you really think your grandmother probably said “Hell yeah!” to the prospect of being ejaculated into by your grandfather when there was no such thing as reliable birth control back then and when abortion was probably illegal? Was your grandfather just so fucking sexy that she actually had to fuck him even though she could literally die? Or is there another — any other — explanation that makes more sense than that? Think before you answer. And don’t lie. Also, for all you know your grandfather could’ve been an unknown assailant or John.
Cannabis Refugee, Esq. 