Women's Writes - Works

Women's Writes

Well-behaved women seldom make history.
— Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Day 13

Girl’s toys and Boy’s toys are more separated in space in toy stores than ever before. Walking through the girl’s section of a clothing store can make you think some monster vomited pink vomit. You may feel like you are drowning in a pool of pink. Gender reveal parties are pink themed or blue themed. I have even heard people refer to women as a “species”. Damn it, I didn’t even know I was a separate species. I always assumed I was human. I have heard people talking about writing women needing to “get the dialect right”

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Day 11

Two years ago, Lynette had participated in a research project at the college. A student was surveying older women to see if they were satisfied with their life, if they were happy with their choices. She had bubbled and chirped about how fulfilling it had been to give up her career and settle down to take care of her husband and her children, be a full time mother and devote her life to service.

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Day 10

Hi, everyone. Long day today, so I feel like I’m copping out. I am giving you a haiku. I am simply too exhausted to write any more syllables. But it has been a satisfying day, spent doing work I find interesting and rewarding, work I am able to do thanks to the battles fought by those brave, wonderful women who came before. I want to make sure their work wasn’t in vain.

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Day 3

The pundits have determined that the fight is between the middle-of-the-road and the radical. Biden and Klobuchar represent the first; Warren and Sanders represent the second. One woman, one man in each camp. The pundits reporting on the South Carolina primary advised Warren and Klobuchar to withdraw, to allow Biden and Sanders to fight it out for the nomination, throwing their voters into one or the other camps. This makes sense, if you think about it, but…wait, what?

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Day 2

It was midnight. The office was dark, except for the small light burning at her desk. The last page…the last paragraph…the last word. It was done. Lisa tried to remember how many days she’d been working on this, but her brain seemed frozen from exhaustion. She flipped off the light, slid her feet back into the shoes under her desk, and escaped at last, ready for bed.

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Day 1

Diane resisted the urge to point out to him that they didn’t even have phones in the eighteenth century, let alone smart phones. She was trying to get used to his hyperbole…and his poor grasp of history…now that he was her boss. He had much less experience than she did, but they elevated him over her when the position came open. His smug, entitled air irritated more than the lack of recognition of her twenty years of service when they promoted a young man who had been there a year.

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Day 31

Kathleen locked the door of her office for the last time, resisting the urge for one last look around. There wasn’t anything left to see. All her things, her special touches accumulated over the years, were packed and in her car. It was just a bare office now, a desk and some assorted bookshelves and cabinets, ready for her predecessor. If she started down nostalgia lane, she would never make the party. It wasn’t good to be late when you were the guest of honor. Everyone would be waiting.

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Day 30

The sound of the guns grew closer. The cannons in the distance still roared, but more frightening were the close battles. Who was winning? The small hut shook with the force of the explosions that hit too close for comfort, and the women clapped their hands over their ears to protect them from the sound, so loud it hurt. Somewhere in the huddle, a child began to cry, her wails joining the general noise surrounding them. Annalee motioned to the girl’s mother; she needed to keep the child quiet.

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Day 29

Whitney stood out in a crowd, and she knew it. At six foot three, people noticed her. No matter how she tried to hide, everyone saw her. Scrunching down only made her height more obvious. Today, though, no one looked her way. She moved into the lobby with a confident swing in her step, hands hanging at her sides, without a single whistle or wow, look at that woman escaping anyone’s lips.

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Day 28

Getting the idea of making it part of the continually swelling Feminazi cycle gave me the ability to get it written. The impetus was seeing too many plays where the idea of surrogacy was presented as some sort of beautiful thing that some middle class woman did for her middle class friend, when the reality is much worse. Often the women are poor, and need the money. Feminazi comes out better than many of them do because she has a support system that can help her out, but it still isn’t a particularly healthy or desirable situation for a woman. So I wanted to tell the story more…realistically. I now present for you: Feminazi has a baby.

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Day 27

Badger was late today. Where was he? She was getting hungry, and she knew she wouldn’t get dinner until he was home. He liked to eat dinner with her. He said she made him happy. He was such a happy Badger now that he had Hope, that’s what he always said to her. She hoped nothing was wrong to make him an angry Badger. Sometimes when he was angry, he forgot himself and hurt her. But when he was a happy Badger, everything was good.

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Day 25

Her hiding place had been discovered. What was she going to do now? She held her breath; the footsteps passed by. He hadn’t found her. She flattened her body smaller and tried to imagine herself squeezing through the crack at the back of the room, small, smaller, small enough…no, of course she couldn’t. That was ridiculous. But she couldn’t sit here all day, either. Sooner or later, if he kept opening doors and looking under furniture, he would discover her.

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