The #MutualAid Housewives of Bluesky County

[Gameboy Nostalgia]

https://bundleofstyx.substack.com/p/be-a-dog-woman

Before this, need arrived wearing every costume except its own face. It came in as “sorry I’m being weird.” It came in as “do you hate me?” It came in as a photo of a stuffed animal sent at 1:17 AM to a group chat where three women knew the stuffed animal meant somebody was supposed to ask what was wrong. It came in as the soft little “you don’t have to” after the thing had already been placed in another woman’s hands. It came in as a silence so heavy everyone in the apartment learned to walk around it.

The dog woman remembers doing that. She remembers the way a sentence could stretch until the actual request was buried somewhere under panic, shame, theater, apology, and a little trapdoor marked abandonment. A dish in the sink became her mother. A phone call became dysphoria. Rent became whether anyone wanted her alive. Sex became proof that her body could still be loved. A calendar became a question of whether the room understood how hard everything was for her. By the time the original thing returned to view, another woman had already handled it.

they need to write a whole book about this and I will buy it.