This might be a bit long, but I need to get this out. I've been a lurker on FDS for a few months now. I have SO many positive feelings and things to say about FDS.

CAN I JUST SAY I FUCKING LOVE ALL THE WOMEN ON HERE? You are intelligent as FUCK (shoutout to u/TheOGJammies) and all the other mods and ruthless strategists and apprentices etc. You women are so fucking smart, that my jaw REGULARLY drops just reading your insightful comments and advice on life.

I wish I could remember the usernames of all the amazing comments and posts I've screenshotted, but u/circescircus was one of the first users whose profile I bookmarked because her advice is always perfect. I've bookmarked plenty of other FDS users since.

I am not exaggerating when I say FDS has changed my life 200%. I don't know how to ever repay my debt back to FDS. To all you incredible women, to the incredible mods who keep FDS male bullshit free.

I am currently a LV person. I've been through abuse and a few rough patches, and I never coped with it well and developed very shitty habits. FDS was like having ice water thrown on me. FDS ripped me out of the victim mentality which often happens to people who have experienced abuse.

You women. Where do I even begin. I wish I could meet you all. You showed me exactly what being a HV person and woman means. I am so, so fucking grateful for it. FDS is truly a guide to every aspect of life. I see the world with no blindfolds on now.

I am lucky to say that I have HVW as friends and FDS has taught me how valuable female friendship is. It is literally one of our main lifelines. Its pricelessness cannot be put into words.

FDS has changed how I feel about my friends and family. Sure I love them so fucking much, but FDS has TRULY made me see they are PRICELESS. Like literally. I now get tears in my eyes and feel overwhelming gratitude for all the amazing people in my life.

Now, thinking about every woman who has made FDS into what it is today, makes me tear up. I swear. You are doing the Lord's work. Think about how you have saved and are currently saving countless women from prison sentences with bad men by having their kids, murder and assault because of the strong vetting rules and basically all the traps patriarchy wants us to fall for. YOU ARE DOING THE LORD'S WORK DO YOU HEAR ME? FDS isn't just some "ladies group" or "feminist group" as some people might say in a demeaning way. We are feminists simply because we want the right to exist 100% FREELY as human beings.

So thank you. Thank you to all you women for making me feel like I'm not going crazy, that my experiences of living under patriarchy are 100% real, for being so caring and so loving and so fucking honest, so that I and thousands of women around the world can wake up.

Your honesty especially is what makes me so grateful, because what is a true friend, a true adviser, a true feminist, if they don't tell you the brutal truth about life? If I'm driving full speed towards a huge pothole that's further up the road and I can't see it but I LOVE driving so much, I want the friend who yells "STOP DRIVING! There's a pothole! I don't care how much you love driving, you're going to get hurt!". Not the friend who says "YASSS QUEEN keep driving! You love driving and this road is dangerous, but it's totally ok! There's no pothole! I swear!".

I don't know any of you personally and you don't know me, but I hope I bump into some of you one day, and we look at each other knowing how we have a secret which has changed our lives, and also because it would be so amazing to meet even more HVW. It is only women who get my undying support.

The fact that I can trust strangers on the internet with giving me good advice than my own relatives or community speaks volumes. Being a woman is hard, but FDS makes me happy to be a woman sometimes, if that makes sense. I'd rather not be a clueless as fuck male who only wakes up when he's 50 or never wakes up.

The true feminists of the past would have been so proud of you and you all know it.

Thank you truly from my heart dear queens.

I leave you with my 2 favourite quotes from Adrienne Rich (read her stuff, she understands women like no one else) which I feel are the essence of FDS:

"Women have been driven mad, "gaslighted," for centuries by the refutation of our experience and our instincts in a culture which validates only male experience. The truth of our bodies and our minds has been mystified to us. We therefore have a primary obligation to each other: not to undermine each others' sense of reality for the sake of expediency; not to gaslight each other. Women have often felt insane when cleaving to the truth of our experience. Our future depends on the sanity of each of us, and we have a profound stake, beyond the personal, in the project of describing our reality as candidly and fully as we can to each other".

"The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet".

Edit: thank you to the dear stranger for the award! ❤