Oh no, looking at Rocky’s bio it seems that she still has a lot of issues resulting from this time in her life… And it’s very sad that her younger sisters can’t at least understand her mistrust, even if the do not share it.
 
Shez should just kill Chris when he comes out of prison <3 I'm sure nobody owuld miss him.
 
I've gone back and reread the entire chapter and I had forgotten what it was called — "The Daughter of Meriam". It's such a beatiful title for this story, because no matter how determined Shez was as a kid, she could have never managed to save herself (and her sisters, and her mom) if Meriam hadn't been tough as nails. It's saddening that the entire family didn't get a perfect happy ending where they all agree on how to feel about this topic, but I suppose it would have been unrealistic. I am glad, then, that at least Meriam and Shez came out of this with their bond stronger than ever.

Boy I really hope Chris starts acting crazy in prison so that one of his cellmates gives him a warning jab on his kidneys. Hope he was stealing/using from his own supply so that his homies sort him out while inside. Hope he dies a natural death from “suicide” in his cell, etc, etc.
 

But anyways, let’s talk about the girls cause I love predictions and book cover judgements. First, Rocky marciano…so selective mutism is it? 🙁 Well that’s what I got from that…Guess she’s kind of a ‘strong but quiet’ type. I do like that she has such a strong connection to her older sister still, though it’s very sad she has pretty much lost trust on people, mostly because I know it’s going to make her life harder on the long run…But well, at least she didn’t have to live through more of that.
 

Now, the baby sisters. Karissa…mm, she looks like that feminine straight girl that is really nice, really fun, bubbly and whatnot. I’d definitely say she’s a popular one. But she’s also one to do some out of pocket shit from time to time, and it makes it hard to be mad at her because she’s usually well…nice. It’s kind of those frustrating situations where you know she’s like that because…she doesn’t know about that real shit. She may ‘know’ but she don’t KNOW so you can’t blame her all that much, which can get irritating pretty quick.
 

Christine, very cute, probably kinda quiet timid type of girl. I’m guessing she’s a people pleaser; really wants to fit in like any 17 yo. I think Karissa may really enjoy some aspects of femininity but I’d be willing to bet that Christine’s is mostly a performance to have an easier time being liked. I also have the feeling she’s a little smarter than her older sister and she catches on quicker to the dynamics of her older sisters and mother, but she keeps it to herself.

Ugh I hate men. That’s it that’s the comment.

I have a question – How did Meriam maneged to give her daughters different surnames? Like, legally?

I know this is an odd thing to say, but I like that Rocky is still marked as straight, not asexual, despite no interest in dating and being terrified of men. One of the things that drives me so nuts about typical tumblr gendie types is their tendency to conflate traumatized behavior with innate sexuality. Not that you NEED to be traumatized not to date men but that is clearly the case here.

WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGHH
 
Kay so I love this page because it smacked me and my like… expectations, I guess. Awhile back you commented to a reader that there was a draft where Shez BURNED THE HOUSE DOWN and that had me like “oh 🙁 that’s really cool, I wish the story went that way”, it was my like, ONE (1) SINGLE disappointment with LeaseBound so far. Well that along with Chris not being straight up murdered dead after that beat-down Meriam and Shez gave him. SURE, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, sure it has that “oh hoho what if the police figure out Miriam and Shez killed him!” (which I don’t care so much about that concern – Chris was involved with illegal stuff and cops are so often lazy “ah dead criminal, he died because of his crimes, murdered by a criminal rival or whatever, job well done everyone.”) but like, I just was like “but it would be cool, though!” how often do women get to do WILD things and the plot just allows it. Men get away with so much in stories, and no one goes “but wait that’s not realistic” IF EDWARD ELRIC GETS TO BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN AND EVERYONE GOES “okay thats cool so raw of him :)” THEN WHY CANT SHEZ. i like fma but i always thought that was dumb. thats your moms house you ingrate boy she worked hard to make it nice and you burned it to be an edgy boy. haha i’m harsher on men to counteract how extra forgiving everyone else is to them. women get called selfish men get called cool
 
BUT my POINT is now I’m not disappointed with those story choices any more. Because LOOK at this conversation. okay okay. I gotta Trust Rusty’s Process. Rusty cut things because they had to be cut, because she saw a better story potential. This is a cool moment. As much as I love a murdered Chris and as much as I love the idea of the house being burned, I am thinking this right here is gonna be worth it.
 
Hoping in the next page Shez says “AND IF HE FINDS US I WILL KILL HIM” HAHAHAHA COME ON SHEZ COME ON SHEZ COME ON SHEZ COME ON SHEZ COME ON-
 
Anyway I love reading all of this, I love seeing the issue of separatism being brought up, I love seeing a story where no one is like “lol crazy women need to learn that some men are okay”, like it just feels disrespectful to Not All Men a woman who has been through that. I think sometimes trauma doesn’t make people illogical or irrational or mentally ill. Trauma actually sometimes makes people see The Truth. The Actual Real Truth. A lot of the time in society we live disconnected from the reality of things, but when a horrible incident happens to someone it can make you go “oh. shit, that’s something that can really happen. and this is actually very common. This is more common then society wants us to believe” Of course there is damage that comes along with severe trauma that needs to be healed, but I’m sick of trauma victims being taught that the things they learn from their trauma are unrealistic. This story understands Shez, Meriam and Rocky have a deeper understanding of what men are capable of. They are authorities, two of them are respected teachers who women come to learn from. It’s great, very powerful. Rocky isn’t seen as irrational for her avoidance of men, instead we’re going WHAT THE HECK? At Rissa, who is choosing to live in the denial that society sells us about how deadly men can be, despite her beloved family having personal experience.
 
You tell an important story and share an important perspective. It’s too bad a lot of women will be put off by the trans stuff, and will assume everything you have to say has no value because of the trans stuff. I certainly hope some of the people who engage with your work while being angry about your stance on trans issues can give some thought to some of the other topics you bring up. This kind of survivor-first perspective that treats survivors as the experts on their own experience is very rare in most stories. The Shez story really can stand alone on it’s own and I think it holds a lot of value.
 
ps love jaden thinking about how male-oriented belief systems is so damaging even without a man being violently abusive. Men ruin families while still being “loving fathers”. Maria sure didnt pop out of her mother’s womb certain that women have no value unless they are housewives and mothers. She didn’t decide to ruin her daughter’s life all on her own. She had to be taught that women have no agency and must be subservient to men.
 
gosh. truly great work as always

Love the pro-separatism here. Can confirm as someone who has never had (and never will have) a boyfriend that it’s one of the best ways to avoid violent situations. I know people will say that’s extreme, but isn’t there a statistic that most women are murdered by a male close to them? Also, I’ve never come across a man that was worth being in a relationship with anyway.

Hey so, I hope that when it’s not from a place of deeply bad faith or malicious intent you’re still ok with comments from someone who, while not exactly in a popular way(?), does fall into a category that essentially is, for all intents and purposes, trans.
 

I want to say that, while I don’t 100% agree with every last Outside-The-Comic perspective, it is still very liberating to see dynamics and forms of faced misogyny that within the more popular sects of “the community” go completely unaddressed for the sake of what seems to be temporary comfort, or not stirring the pot.
 

I have, for example, faced actual and blatant misogyny from trans women while being told I’m not allowed to call it such because I’m “aligned” with masculinity and they are not, without any invalidating I would seek comradere from other trans people, and had under a niave good faith assumed trans men, trans women etc if truly wanting to unpack things like misogyny would want to hold people accountable for actively perpetuating it under a different name, and as I suppose you can guess, that was largely and overwhelmingly (online at least) not the case.
 

I’ve been told I couldn’t talk about a trans woman who tried to coerce PIV, I’ve been told by other trans men that I’m broken if I don’t want PIV, I’ve seen broken and shattered people still bending over backwards to not acknowledge that what we’re taught to think about people in relation to their bodies when we grow up can still impact how we treat people even if (as the terms tend to go) gender identity, presentation etc is changed.
 

It’s to where, with those few exceptions, I cannot even speak on the misogyny I’ve faced from some cis men without being policed by other trans people, predominantly trans fems who still live their lives as cis men, ans trans men who exclusively live for the validation of anyone with a penis.
 

So, know that even among “us”, many can see themselves and there struggles here, even when we might not see eye to eye on things like semantics, or the roots of some concepts.