10 years of getting hotter and smarter
on march 13, 2016 i tweeted "i just keep getting hotter and smarter." tweeting was a thing a lot of people used to do and it was often fun and free, but that website doesn't exist anymore, so i can only prove the existence of the post with this screenshot i found on a 2019 post about motivational quotes:
i have to thank an old friend, ashley williams, for telling me to tweet that after i said it out loud, with sincerity, at a bar among other friends. we had just entered our 30s and were in an industry with lots of guys denying our intelligence and sense of humor. when i wasn't being taken seriously i decided to become the joker and i was on quite a tear during that time, stirring shit online through writing web developer satire that delighted those who had joy within them and horrified those who could not believe a woman would dare NOT take seriously a language that took its name from an entirely different and (at the time) more popular language as a form of marketing - a discipline that, of course, every web developer is immune to so long as you ignore the tech company logos on all of their belongings.
hotter and more spelling'er
just like with my writing, the majority of my peers understood my tweet and where i was coming from. to simply exist as a woman is seen as radical by many - i would even go so far to say that existing as you are, period, is radical today. to be who you are AND express that you know the potential in yourself takes it to a whole different, beautiful level. stating i was getting hotter and smarter has triggered many men enough for them to publicly respond. they'll never explicitly say "no you're not" because my projection of self confidence is very intimidating to them. i think they sense that i will test them on how hot and smart they are, just like how women are constantly, egregiously tested on that in both work and play. many men would crumble under such pressure. ashley and i, the only women at the table that night, knew exactly what we were doing by broadcasting this.
"let's dispense with the notion" rearranged spells "my ai wife is cheating on me"
10 years of getting hotter and smarter and the words still need to be said out loud, often. yesterday, i pushed back on a very talented artisan who claimed she wasn't creative in one of her endeavors but in the same breath was describing some of the most creative ideas in the space i'd ever heard. i want to grab every creative person in the world by the shoulders, shake them tenderly, and tell them that they are a universe with immense potential, who will learn new things and change physically and spiritually in ways that will make them more unique in the world, which is extremely hot. then i'll shake them just a little harder and say "stop kicking your own ass."
imagine the joy of seeing something you said turned into painstakingly made art
10 years of getting hotter and smarter and i still need to remember that i am a universe, too. i thank everyone who has quoted me, made those words an affirmation, and understood what i was saying - and why - for sharing stars with me.
xoxo jenn