Thanks for having Clare share this, Aisling. It's a beautiful read, and I felt every word of it resonate for many similar but also different reasons in my lived experience.
Clare, I am sorry you experienced sexual abuse as a child and empathise while not having this shared lived experience myself, but you are so poignantly right when you say "what shame cannot survive is empathy."
I wish you more and more strength, and it looks like you have some much of it oozing from you from harvesting and embodying empathy with grace and acceptance to aid healing in such beautiful writing, which I am looking forward to reading in time and indeed also revisiting the film, which I haven't seen in so long.
I was on holidays when this published so please excuse my delay in responding to your lovely comment. Thank you for your kind words. I'm so glad this essay resonated with you 💕
"Last year, I wrote about queer ecology, and how depicting people as “unnatural” is often a step towards dehumanizing them."
It's so obvious, but you put into words something that I've never heard before. My deepest desire is to restore a sense of dignity among all people, to be a peacemaker and bridge between factions and divides and polarized groups. Any form of dehumanization deeply disturbs me. I appreciate this line as a way of showcasing that there is, in fact, a type of ecology in the language used to describe those who identify as queer. That's incredibly powerful. Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me, Aisling. I loved working with you on this piece, and was delighted to see it in print 🙌
Was a pleasure to work with you again Clare, thank you for sharing your words with us! Hope you enjoyed the holiday and are feeling better!
Thanks for having Clare share this, Aisling. It's a beautiful read, and I felt every word of it resonate for many similar but also different reasons in my lived experience.
Clare, I am sorry you experienced sexual abuse as a child and empathise while not having this shared lived experience myself, but you are so poignantly right when you say "what shame cannot survive is empathy."
I wish you more and more strength, and it looks like you have some much of it oozing from you from harvesting and embodying empathy with grace and acceptance to aid healing in such beautiful writing, which I am looking forward to reading in time and indeed also revisiting the film, which I haven't seen in so long.
Take good care.
Thank you so much for reading Pauline. It was great to work with Clare on this and so glad it resonated with you!
Thank you so much Pauline.
I was on holidays when this published so please excuse my delay in responding to your lovely comment. Thank you for your kind words. I'm so glad this essay resonated with you 💕
Clare,
WOW, this really jumped out at me today:
"Last year, I wrote about queer ecology, and how depicting people as “unnatural” is often a step towards dehumanizing them."
It's so obvious, but you put into words something that I've never heard before. My deepest desire is to restore a sense of dignity among all people, to be a peacemaker and bridge between factions and divides and polarized groups. Any form of dehumanization deeply disturbs me. I appreciate this line as a way of showcasing that there is, in fact, a type of ecology in the language used to describe those who identify as queer. That's incredibly powerful. Thank you.