Five Star Friday's 147th Edition Is Brought to You By George Orwell

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by being female, a family game, paring down, abortion, racism, silence, and George Orwell:

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

     — George Orwell

Have you written something you're proud of this week? Share it in the comments and give us more good reading.

This is a smaller edition of Five Star Friday, so everyone gets to be equally special and have an excerpt today. Happy Friday!

"Woman" from Conscience Round:

When I was a child, my mother spent hours brushing my hair. She'd sit me on a stool in the kitchen or in the living room, picking at the tangles while she watched Law & Order, or ER. Day in and day out, she'd wave away my protests, saying I couldn't go to school looking like a mongrel. As the years passed, the word changed, going from "mongrel" to "witch" to "trucker", and, on several memorable occasions, to "guarra". The Spanish "guarra", meaning filthy, disgusting, pig, a slut. "La guarra de tu hermana", your slut of a sister. "La guarra de tu hija", your whore of a daughter.

Sometimes, in her own way, my mother apologizes for these instances. She asks, "did it hurt when I brushed your hair?", assuming I'll remember even though it's been at least half a decade. When I shrug, she nods to herself, answering for me that "it did, didn't it. It did."

"With President Obama's Birth Certificate, Klansman Trump Reminds Blacks They Will Never Be American" from baratunde.com:

So, tears in my eyes, pain in my heart and rage in my soul, I composed this video message. More than written text, it comes close to expressing my full pain at witnessing a white man who was handed everything call the President of the United States (and me) a nigger.

"Goats: A Game For All the Family" from Whoopee:

When Esme was smaller, I used to take her to Vauxhall City Farm, where urban children go if they want to see a real pig. Mummy, what kind of car is that? It has a snout, and legs. Where does the petrol go?

"Intoxicated" from alyssagoesbang:

one thousand six hundred eighty seconds of silence have passed. the air is toxic and it's getting hard to breathe as his silence weaves its fingers through my hair, over my face, around my neck and they tighten tighten tighten.

i will not be the one to break the silence.

"Why Abortion Is Moral" from Lives of Noisy Desperation:

All of the arguments against abortion boil down to six specific questions. The first five deal with the nature of the zygote-embryo-fetus growing inside a mother’s womb. The last one looks at the morality of the practice. These questions are:
Is it alive?
Is it human?
Is it a person?
Is it physically independent?
Does it have human rights?
Is abortion murder?

"Just Don't Call Me a Tramp. It Confuses My Mother." from The Trephine:

If you’re willing to forsake all else, you can build such refreshingly, sweetly nascent memories around what little remains. You can reconnect with what it feels like to have potential, to own more possibility than anything else, rather than accidentally transitioning into a routine of maintenance as the curator of your own maxed-out life.

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

And because you are a fan of finding good new writing on the internet:

Subscribe — Subscribe to this website to keep up with us every week.

Show your pride — Take one of our badges for your website and spread the word.

----------------------------

PS.  I have affordable ad space available in the sidebar of this website. If you use the coupon code MWAH when you purchase an ad spot, you will get 25% off your first order up to 30 days!

Comments

[Emma]

Thanks for the feature! I'm honored to be included among these glorious selections.

[alyssa ammirato]

i can't tell you how honored i am to be featured here! this is fantastic. thank you so much!