Girl on Fire, Don't Let Him Destroy You

Made for 2Lei Second Life "Don't Let Him Destroy You" photo campaign, with the song by Alicia Keys, "Girl on Fire" in mind:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91ti_MpdHA

 

"She's just a girl, and she's on fire

Hotter than a fantasy, lonely like a highway

She's living in a world, and it's on fire

filled with catastrophe, but she knows she can fly away

 

Oh, she got both feet on the ground

And she's burning it down

Oh, she got her head in the clouds

And she's not backing down

 

(Chorus)

This girl is on fire

This girl is on fire

She's walking on fire

This girl is on fire"

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Dear flickrites...

 

Don't mess with a woman who has burned in the repression of her need to be free and live her life how she needs.

 

I've made this picture for 2Lei, to support the idea that violence towards women is unacceptable and to show a woman taking the first brave steps to JUST GET OUT.

 

I have to believe that there are women who will be looking at these pictures who are trying to come to that difficult place of resolution to make a huge change and step out of the familiar, and enter into a freedom that seems more frightening than what they currently endure behind closed doors. Please make your changes after very good planning, making contacts who can help you get safe and secure. Don't let it turn you around to go back. You know you need to live your life.

 

The picture is symbolic, with the woman all on fire, finally, for her own purpose and needs. Her bravery to leave her home is symbolized by the tiger, and the house fire symbolizes the destructive relationship she has been in and all the THINGS that you fear losing, like your home, your livelihood and support, your familiar lifestyle. When intense emotion that others subject you to becomes internalized and takes over your whole reality, sometimes you eventually realize the positive side of anger is determination to resist and just to get out and leave because you can only find a better life when you are free.

 

Another song I was listening to is Lauryn Hill "Just Get Out".

 

"Your stinkin' resolution

Is no type of solution

Preventin' me from freedom

Maintainin' your pollution

I won't support your lie no more

I won't even try no more

If I have to die, oh Lord

That's how I choose to live

I won't be compromised no more

I can't be victimised no more

I just don't sympathize no more

Cause now I understand

You just wanna use me

You say 'love' then abuse me

You never thought you'd loose me

But how quickly we forget

That nothin' is for certain

You thought I'd stay here hurtin'

Your guilt trip's just not workin'

Repressin' me to death

Cause now I'm choosin' life, yo

I take the sacrifice, yo

If everything must go, then go

That's how I choose to live"

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HdzTvH8mvw

 

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It is so hard to come to a place of acceptance that a bad relationship needs to end. The abuse starts early in a relationship in forms other than physical violence, and then it spirals as the abuser gets more comfortable to do it.

 

But it starts with mind control and being denied the right to speak and you are denied the right to be wrong. If you can't confront the person with your feelings and have a discussion without fearing serious consequences of any form, you are in an exploitative relationship and it's time to end it. It's hard for us to come to this place of seeing the need to move on though, as we are conditioned to accept our situation and to even feel we have no alternatives. I have a lot of compassion for people who feel trapped. I hope 2Lei ends up helping some people to understand their need to make a change for their own life to be better, as well as their children.

Done