I first started writing while I was still in school. In fact, I recall a published kid's author coming into my 3rd grade class and thinking that I was going to be just like her one day. I even knew the story I wanted to tell. Well, I knew the woman I was going to write about, and her mission. It was just something I understood as a fact of life, just like air is for breathing and water is for drinking.
From there I began telling stories. Well, lies mostly, and fibs, and cover-ups, because I was a bit of a naughty kid. And because I was different than most everyone else, including everyone in my family.
Sadly, because I moved around so much (I attended 6 different elementary schools) I actually missed grammar and many other basics of education, so for me school was a nightmare.
Still... the overwhelming urge to tell stories persisted. So, I read every scrap of writing that caught my attention, sometimes reading a book (like the LOTR series) over and over again, so that I could discern for myself the magical ingredients required to tell a decent story.
And I watched movies... and some TV... but that all went so... wrong.
Because every story I came across out of Hollywood told me things I didn't want to hear.
Over and over again the tropes of male on female violence - and always another male hero riding in to the rescue.
It was so alien to me it was sickening.
Especially after everything I'd witnessed myself, firsthand, of men and their ambitions.
Every movie out of Hollywood - another rubber stamp of the one before it, and soon - I realized, even the storytellers I had once idolized (Guy Ritchie, Georgy Porgy Martin, Erick Kripke) were all responsible for the 30+ years of continued suppression and objectification of my kind - of women.
Period.
And all of the actors I had once felt drawn to, were suddenly revealed for the shallow, petty, materialistic snobs they really are.
I mean none of them had done anything notable in setting the record straight, and ALL benefited over and over again from the continued portrayal of women as pieces of ass, side candy, the obligatory sexual victim, and Guy Ritchie's famous - the little (insignificant) woman trope. (Think he's still bitter Madonna called him a gold digger?)
I mean, fuck, even Henry Cavil couldn't make sure the women he pimped out in The Witcher had decent pay and a future to look forward to. (Keep in mind All of the women forced to get naked in GOT, and how it's ruined most of their careers).
For fuck's sake, if even Superman is that shallow, greedy, and desperate to rise above all of the other predators in his industry...
what hope is there for storytellers like me?
That's when I gave up trying to sell my stories, or even make a barely livable wage at it.
So, I took another full time job and devoted 60 hours a week to it (though I only got paid for 40). So I could at least finally get some healthcare - cuz I desperately needed it. (Something I felt I had to keep secret from my narcissistic and cruel employers at the nonprofit non-collecting art museum SITE Santa Fe).
But there wasn't enough time...
there's never enough time, when you are alone, fighting insurmountable odds, and an evil so wicked and so vile it can't be adequately described.
So, now... I write for me, and the kids who will someday follow.
Who will be forced to clean up after men like Keanu Reeves, Clive standen, and Bradly Pitt.
Greedy men who painted women into a corner of helplessness and victimhood, and then fed off of us until nothing remained - except our legacy of pain.
Our children see you.
Who you are and what you do while their teachers live in abject poverty.
They see all of you - who still idolize men like Guy Ritchie - who writes only for men, white men.
They see your treatment of the women who bore them, who stuck by them, who guided their growth... though it cost them everything to do it.
Our children will know what evil is - by the way the men of this generation have not only excluded us, but stole our histories and twisted them for their own gain.
The legacy of Hollywood will not be contained on film - but will pump through the hearts and minds of the children Keanu Reeves sold out in order to look cool killing fake men.
The legacy of Hollywood is now in their hands.
I write for them.
Raena Exe
The Storyteller
X
09/11/2023
From there I began telling stories. Well, lies mostly, and fibs, and cover-ups, because I was a bit of a naughty kid. And because I was different than most everyone else, including everyone in my family.
Sadly, because I moved around so much (I attended 6 different elementary schools) I actually missed grammar and many other basics of education, so for me school was a nightmare.
Still... the overwhelming urge to tell stories persisted. So, I read every scrap of writing that caught my attention, sometimes reading a book (like the LOTR series) over and over again, so that I could discern for myself the magical ingredients required to tell a decent story.
And I watched movies... and some TV... but that all went so... wrong.
Because every story I came across out of Hollywood told me things I didn't want to hear.
Over and over again the tropes of male on female violence - and always another male hero riding in to the rescue.
It was so alien to me it was sickening.
Especially after everything I'd witnessed myself, firsthand, of men and their ambitions.
Every movie out of Hollywood - another rubber stamp of the one before it, and soon - I realized, even the storytellers I had once idolized (Guy Ritchie, Georgy Porgy Martin, Erick Kripke) were all responsible for the 30+ years of continued suppression and objectification of my kind - of women.
Period.
And all of the actors I had once felt drawn to, were suddenly revealed for the shallow, petty, materialistic snobs they really are.
I mean none of them had done anything notable in setting the record straight, and ALL benefited over and over again from the continued portrayal of women as pieces of ass, side candy, the obligatory sexual victim, and Guy Ritchie's famous - the little (insignificant) woman trope. (Think he's still bitter Madonna called him a gold digger?)
I mean, fuck, even Henry Cavil couldn't make sure the women he pimped out in The Witcher had decent pay and a future to look forward to. (Keep in mind All of the women forced to get naked in GOT, and how it's ruined most of their careers).
For fuck's sake, if even Superman is that shallow, greedy, and desperate to rise above all of the other predators in his industry...
what hope is there for storytellers like me?
That's when I gave up trying to sell my stories, or even make a barely livable wage at it.
So, I took another full time job and devoted 60 hours a week to it (though I only got paid for 40). So I could at least finally get some healthcare - cuz I desperately needed it. (Something I felt I had to keep secret from my narcissistic and cruel employers at the nonprofit non-collecting art museum SITE Santa Fe).
But there wasn't enough time...
there's never enough time, when you are alone, fighting insurmountable odds, and an evil so wicked and so vile it can't be adequately described.
So, now... I write for me, and the kids who will someday follow.
Who will be forced to clean up after men like Keanu Reeves, Clive standen, and Bradly Pitt.
Greedy men who painted women into a corner of helplessness and victimhood, and then fed off of us until nothing remained - except our legacy of pain.
Our children see you.
Who you are and what you do while their teachers live in abject poverty.
They see all of you - who still idolize men like Guy Ritchie - who writes only for men, white men.
They see your treatment of the women who bore them, who stuck by them, who guided their growth... though it cost them everything to do it.
Our children will know what evil is - by the way the men of this generation have not only excluded us, but stole our histories and twisted them for their own gain.
The legacy of Hollywood will not be contained on film - but will pump through the hearts and minds of the children Keanu Reeves sold out in order to look cool killing fake men.
The legacy of Hollywood is now in their hands.
I write for them.
Raena Exe
The Storyteller
X
09/11/2023