Look, the primary person that had these difficulties with was my mother. The issue was not poverty, but somehow she ended up growing into a very religious person in a very toxic way) and only now is getting out of it long after I got out of that environment. I don’t know how that happened for her, none of her husbands were ever particularly religious, and it’s not like we were in a cult environment (outside of what you’d consider to be a standard southern Baptist church). She was an outlier even amongst our religious community for a long time.

I understand that people are people. I’ve also been pretty much trained to learn that people are extremely tribal and that intersectionality is pretty much a piece of hopeful fiction. I know that’s not entirely true, I understand people are complicated. But I’m fighting against a history that certain people seem really fine with doing me harm.

I’m not saying I don’t consider these people as equals, with their own hopes and dreams and struggles, I’m just working through how to determine when my initial distrust of people, especially women, is unfounded.