Here it is, the final day of March. Another Women’s History Month has come and gone, this one barely noticed. I almost missed it, because I wasn’t hearing anything about it from anyone. I did miss International Women’s Day; I didn’t realize it until the day was over…for two days.
Read MoreWomen's Writes - Works
Women's Writes
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
There are a lot of things women do that men use to dismiss them, or mock them, or ignore their achievements. In fact, no matter how talented, how smart, or how strong the woman, men are going to find something to mock. It seems there is NOTHING women can do that men don’t mock or use against them. In spite of all that, there is one thing women do that is worse by orders of magnitude than anything else: they age.
Read MoreThanks to going to a production of Guys and Dolls, I’ve been thinking about the advice given to women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There is a scene where one of the women, Adelaide, is reading from a psychology text, which is as amusing as it is archaic. The text suggests that women will get physically sick if they remain unmarried. So I decided to dwell a little on the advice once given to young ladies. I will begin with my own experience, though I was not alive in the early twentieth century. I came to it through my grandmother, primarily, though my mother indulged in her fair share of archaic advice.
Read More Blah.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
Is that what you hear
When we talk about equality?
I learned a new term today, and spent some time on Google and Wikipedia getting familiar with it. The term was ‘female led relationships’. According to AI, an FLR is ‘a consensual dynamic where the female partner takes the dominant role, often making key decisions and guiding the relationship’s direction, with the male partner in a more supportive role’. Who knew? I had no idea there was such a term, or even that there was a need for such a term. Yeah, I’ve known some relationships where the female definitely had the dominant role in some area, or all areas, of the decision making. I didn’t think much about it; it was a relationship that worked because the female in the relationship was better at those things than the male.
Read MoreYou told us
We were too busy to vote.
We voted anyway.
You ask me why
I sit scrunched up.
My face looks tight
Because I am wrapped
Into a ball.
We lost abortion.
It won’t be long
Until we lose the right
To contraception.
So, here I am, sitting at my computer without an idea. Oh, there are a million things to write about women. There is domestic abuse. Poverty. War. The Patriarchy®. Loss of abortion rights. The plight of women in other countries. It isn’t a lack of topics; it’s a lack of ideas for which topic, and how to approach it. So I sit here thinking. I often have the problem of having so many ideas I don’t know which one to write. Where did I go wrong tonight?
Read More Woman is a virgin and a whore.
To her man, she is a whore.
To everyone else, she is a virgin.
I am Kate.
I don’t want to get married.
My sister does; let her.
Why must I marry first?
I wish not to be appointed hours,
Or live at a man’s behest.
Happy Birthday, Henrik Ibsen. The Norwegian playwright, dead for more than a hundred years, created female characters that were ahead of his time. The rich tapestry of his female protagonists and antagonists allow characters to grow and develop, as well as explore their own strengths and weaknesses. Most of his women are tragic, but in the tragedy he takes them into questions of their position in society, and how they strive to be more than the constraints on women permit them to be.
Read MoreI was watching a video today. It was an older video, a couple of years at least, made by the European Commission to help persuade girls to go into science. Now, these are people who have their hearts in the right place. They are allies. So it must be something useful, right? No. This video is a good indication of how people constantly get it wrong.
Read MoreWith the current administration and their activities, a lot of people feel empowered to get rid of all their inhibitions against saying what they really mean, especially in the area of diversity. Case in point: Mark Zuckerberg. You know, Facebook and all that? He has always been pretty iffy on his support of women’s issues, which isn’t surprising since Facebook originally began as a site for college men to rate the ‘hotness’ of college women. Yes, that’s right. You are spending portions of your day contributing to a site constructed for a sexist purpose.
Read More I am Medusa.
My name frightens men,
Paralyzes them to stone
At the very thought of my beauty,
My independence,
At the fact that I do not need them.
I am Eve.
I am accused of spoiling everything
For the human race.
My only crime
Was to seek knowledge.
I wanted to know
What made things work,
Why the world was as it was,
Where the animals came from,
Where I came from.
I have a confession: I was a mediocre DEI hire. Not actually, but…in the current administration, I would be deemed such, since I am in one of the protected groups…two, actually. Since I was not hired BECAUSE of my protected characteristic, and I was not mediocre, I think it would be a bit much to call me such, but that’s the way it is…the more times you say it, the more it is so.
Read MoreIt was the 1970s, and a glorious time for Women’s Lib (which it was called back then; I never hear that term anymore). A little girl was confused. On the one hand, these wonderful women were taking steps and making progress to gain rights for women equal to those enjoyed by men. Her future looked much brighter as a result of them. On the other hand, her mother, her teachers, her church, her television…everything, including movies and music…were presenting an ideal of womanhood that didn’t fit with the goals of Women’s Lib. It seemed a woman could be everything she wanted, but she had to do it wearing high heels, make up, perfectly coifed hair, and carrying trays of cookies or cinnamon rolls for her man to enjoy. Her mother told her women were to stay home, have kids, and make sure their husband got the credit for any ideas they had.
Read MoreI decided to Google the question in the title. Sometimes I get interesting things…usually I get interesting things. I get strange things. Nearly always I see certain statements made boldly and without qualification. Women are empathetic. Women are good communicators. Women easily connect with others. Women have warm and loving personalities. If this is what women are, I have to say I have never known any women. Most women I know can empathize…but only with things they have felt, because like everyone else, they can’t feel what they don’t know. Women may be good communicators, or they may not. Some women easily connect with others, I suppose, but a lot of them have to work at it.
Read MoreI am Salome.
I dance for my father.
I dance for him because I have no choice.
I dance for his friends.
They watch me.
They leer at me.
They catcall me.