The other day someone sent me an undated newspaper clipping of an article – a poem, really – titled “Stop Your Gaslighting Games” with the attribution to Instagram user @freyakellet. I hopped onto Instagram to see if I could find the original source.
Freya Kellet was easy to find. Her Instagram feed consists of a series of self-portraits, each with a poem attached.
Her bio says:
“Freeing women from the trap of victimhood, and the lies of Western medicine, and the belief that our bodies are broken. It’s time to say ‘No, doctor’.”
Interesting.
But it’s Freya Kellet’s musings that accompany her self-portraits which are even more fascinating. I encourage you spend 15 minutes to seek her out and read through her multitude of almost manifesto-like poetry.
Her writing is brilliant, beautiful and defiant – precisely the recipe we need in these perilous times.
Stop Your Gaslighting Games
by Freya Kellet
Compliance does NOT equal care.
My love for humanity,
for elders,
for children,
is NOT measured by the enthusiasm with which I submit my body to a medical experiment.
Loving you doesn’t mean that I’m responsible for your health,
your feelings,
your fear,
your decisions,
your life.
Loving you doesn’t mean that I owe you anything,
especially not the violation of my one body,
my self respect,
my truth.
Lying to myself,
or to you,
is not love.
Walking on eggshells around you to avoid offending,
or triggering,
or “hurting” you,
is not love.
Carefully erecting scaffolding around your trauma,
or volunteering to become the scaffolding myself,
is not love
Accepting your invitations to feel fear or anxiety or overwhelm,
is not love.
Playing along with your stories of brokenness,
praising and affirming them,
acting out my role in the narrative (again and again),
is not love.
Always agreeing with you,
is not love.
Love is truth
Love is asking hard questions
Love is an unwavering belief in your potential
Love is knowing that your trauma defines nothing about what is possible for you in this life
Love is seeing your power even when you can’t
Love is being able to say NO, so that when you say YES it actually means something
Love is choosing honesty over comfort
Love is showing you that the chains you’ve been clinging to aren’t actually there
Love is so many things, but it definitely is not found in the sadistic slogans of the government, or Big Pharma, or virtue-signalling waxers.
I love deeply…
myself,
you,
children,
my grandmothers,
Earth,
Life.
This is exactly why I stand so firmly in my NO.
The intensity of my dissent is not made up of a deficiency of love,
or care,
or kindness,
or thoughtfulness.
Quite the opposite.
Do not try and gaslight me to think otherwise.
Repeat the mantras all you want,
it won’t work.
“Love is so many things, but it definitely is not found in the sadistic slogans of the government, or Big Pharma, or virtue-signalling waxers.”
I presume this should read ‘VAXERS’ not ‘waxers.’
And it is very well said.
Despite agreeing with you, John, Ms. Kellet wrote what she wrote and it’s not my place to change another writer’s words. I trust you understand my position.
For sure Chris, but it does take away from the message! Makes me think of women and leg hair instead of what it should mean……
LOL Copy that, John!