To the young girls, to the women, to the scandalous and the prudes, to the strong hearted and the teary-eyed, to the romantics and the empaths,

to the settlers and the dependents, let me give you a small piece of advice. Turn off the song that says,

"I need you and you need me." Roll your eyes at the line that says,

"I forgive you again because I love you." Ladies, never confuse love with manipulation. I harbor such intense animosity for this romanticized abuse. Second chances are a beautiful thing, a necessary thing, but the moment he raises his hand he has proven who he is, and you better get the hell out. That is not something you wait around and hope changes. Forgiveness is not always love. Sometimes it is utter stupidity, a lie you tell yourself so you can chase an ideal you made in your mind. This music, these movies, they make the "bad boy" seem soooo great. If a man doesn't take the time to see you and appreciate you, then do not place him on a pedestal. Together let's kill this notion of mistreatment as flirtation. Give the females back their value that should be chased and honored. Pay attention to the words he gives you, because they've been fed the lines to say. Don't let yourself get trapped into a situation where you need to stay with him--YOU DON'T. Really, you don't. If you let him disrespect you then you are disrespecting yourself. You are saying it is okay for a man to treat a woman like that, and I don't know about you, but I've had enough of the patriarchal rule, the rule by strength of body and volume of voice. Let us take our rightful place, not as crutches for the males, but as beautiful, strong lifemakers. We're programmed to bond and that is no weakness. Let a man call us weak and we shall rise together in reply.