DON'T ROCK THE BOAT
My mother is not my mother. She is a product, manufactured by the way things are. Or at least the way things should be. Though the surface of the water is calm, a tempest underneath, but never expect sympathy from mother over feathers ruffled. Don't rock the boat.
A pity I should be born to her, little girls should be seen and not heard, and only seen when they appear as mommy wants them. Subjects should be lukewarm always, reality is a bucket of cold water. And I always insist on bringing up what scares her, because it is my life.
"I don't like to talk about violent things."
I was born in, and live in, a violent world. Though I like it no more than she, I meet it head on. I was physically assaulted on the street, and she told me to stop talking about it. One of my nephew's friends was making jokes about rape, and she told me that he was justified in making me upset because I had teased him before.
I suppose that coming from a "Duck and Cover" generation gives her a reason, but not an excuse. If it had been my decision, I would have kicked the boy out of my house. I told him that many of my friends had been raped, he said that "they shouldn't be hanging out with that crowd". Hmmm. Most people don't hang out with their attackers. He was lucky I couldn't reach him to beat the crap out of him. Men like him never think of it as a problem unless someone they know or "own" is attacked. Can't people see that every person is cared about by someone and is therefore equal to anyone they know personally? But when they figure this out, or start to care, it's too late.
People who never rock the boat always go down with the ship.