A Woman in Atlanta Was Murdered Over Too Much Mayonaise, So Let’s Talk…Men

Sit Down, Shut Up, And Get The Hell Out Of The Way….Or…Hero Up

Art by Mid Journey

In Iran, a woman was killed because her hijab slipped, in Canada, I was raped because I *might* be a rat.

In Japan, a woman was murdered because a man decided he wanted to choose violence.

In Africa, a woman was hung to death because she existed.

All of these stories are true, but when it comes to femicide — the internationally recognized term for the murder of a woman — instead of “X” being murdered, we hear “a woman.”

In the case of the woman in Toronto, she literally doesn’t have a name, no one has come forward to publically identify her, and so the assumption will be that she just vanished and that’s it. Who was she? Why didn’t she matter enough to name?

We don’t get names after death when we’re murdered, but our assailants do. The prevailing theory is that journalists want to protect the identity of the victim, but if *she* is dead, then her identity matters all the more, because we lost the chance to get to know her, because of a man — and it’s almost always a man these days — decided to end her life.

I am afraid for the women of this planet, for the girls coming up after us, I am afraid for the boys who think that this is how it’s supposed to be and who participate because they are too afraid not to.

I’m afraid for the ones who choose violence because they don’t know any better. I am afraid and I am tired of being afraid, but I can’t fight alone and I can’t bear the thought of starting a battle that may be impossible to win.

Everyone starts out so gracefully. “I just want to transform the world,” turns into “I can make money,” really quick and people get donation burnout, and then they get fight burnout, and then there is no fight, there’s just the crazy lady on the internet asking “when will it stop?”

Each of us has the power to create change, and each of us has the power to say enough is enough but too few of us do because we’re terrified of retribution, and because we’re forced to ask if being a hero is worth our own lives.

The answer is always yes.

We were not here to be selfish with our life, we were sent here to be heroes. So, either hero up or get the fuck out of the way.

Devon J Hall, The Loud Mouth Brown Girl