Turbulent Wave

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It is December. The sun is shining, and my spelling has gone to shit.  Whomever told me as a child "just sound it out", as it relates to English, is full of shit.

I've been thinking a lot about mentors, professors, teachers, bosses, police officers and other people with power who abuse power.  More so, currently, I am thinking about adults who impose themselves on kids in sexual ways.  I feel like there are so many stories I hear from friends of mine who had some coach, or teacher, or whatever, take advantage of them.  People who abused the role or position of power that they had, and it just bums me out. Amongst other things.

I went to lunch this afternoon and, realizing that I had returned all of my borrowed books from the library, I went into my office to see if I had anything stashed there.  I found a copy of Lolita and brought it to lunch with me.

Needless to say, I just wasn't feeling it.  Descriptions may be beautiful, but when it comes down to it, you're reading the perfumed tale of a child-rapist.

(pause)

There are two go-to signs in American Sign Language that one tends to use for phrase "take advantage of". 

For one sign, you have your left palm facing upwards, and with your right hand, you swoop down and grab an invisible something off your left palm, leaving your left palm with your right hand turned into a fist.  Picture someone running by and grabbing a trophy by its neck and then running off towards a victory march.  That's what the motion is like. It's the sign one would use in the phrase "This internship will be great for you- you should really take advantage of it!".  It is the same sign that is used for the word "win" in most contexts.


Let me set the stage, a bit, for the second sign: You know how there's that thing that creeps would do when they would shake your hand?  They would kind of rub their middle finger into the palm of your hand?  Urban legend says that this was the coded way of saying 'I want to fuck you'. Fucking gross.

Well, the other sign is you sliding your middle finger, quickly, down the center of your upturned left palm. Almost in a backwards flick towards yourself. It is harsh. Quick. It feels like you are stealing something when you do it.

That is the other sign for the phrase "take advantage of".

As in, "My friend's tennis coach took advantage of her when she was in high school."



It makes me sick.

-k.

(image: Elisa Sednaoui and Baptiste Giabiconi by Karl Lagerfeld for Número, 2010 via Colpevole Innocenza Tumblr)