Just at chapter 3, but I can highly recommend Rebecca Traister’s All the Single Ladies.
A few bits…
“…as the legal scholar Rachel Moran argues, while the feminist movement of the 1970s was in part a ‘direct response to these conditions of early and pervasive marriage,’ the ironic side effect was that single women had almost no place in the underpinnings of the movement” (20). Yes!
“Le Bon conceded that ‘Without a doubt there exist some distinguished women, very superior to the average man, but they are as exceptional as the birth of any monstrosity, as, for example, of a gorilla with two heads; consequently, we may neglect them entirely'” (53). Had not heard that one.
Oh, and this lovely tidbit: “Chambers-Schiller reports that in the medical establishment, ‘a painful menopause was the presumed consequence of reproductive organs that were not regularly bathe din male semen'” (54).
So here’s a query letter my friend Chris Wind sent to a publisher recently:
Editor, [XYZ Publishers]:
Feminist theorist Dale Spender wrote, in Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them, “We need to know how patriarchy works. We need to know how women disappear….” Indeed we do. Where are all the straight-A girls from high school? Why, how, have they ‘disappeared’? Marriage and kids is an inadequate answer because married-with-kids straight-A boys are visible. Everywhere. Even the straight-B boys are out there.
September (fiction; 114,698w) responds to Spender’s urgent comment with a microscopic examination of the life of a single woman that is, I fear, all too typical, answering the question ‘What happened?’
Although there have been many non-fiction books since Spender that have exposed the sexism in our culture … fiction seems not to have kept pace, seems not to be informed by the insights of those authors. September thus helps fill an important gap (especially for those who don’t read non-fiction) …
There are three voices juxtaposed throughout the novel: the fresh, impassioned protagonist speaking in the present through her journal entries from the age of fifteen to fifty; the wise, and fighting-off-bitter, now-fifty protagonist commenting about the events of her life, talking to her younger self; and the dispassionate narrator. Insights are underscored by alternate realities, extended ‘should’ve happeneds’ and ‘could’ve happeneds’…
And so September is part fiction, part memoir; part personal essay, part critical essay; part psychology, part philosophy, part sociology. It is a maze of analysis in which, despite the appearance of rambling randomness, one thing leads inexorably to another.
I append below a bio, synopsis, and sample; I am submitting this query to a few other publishers.
Thank you for your consideration, and I do hope to hear you’d like to read more!
Bio: Chris Wind (M.A., Philosophy; B.A., Literature) has published four collections of poetry (Paintings and Sculptures, UnMythed, Soliloquies: the lady doth indeed protest and dreaming of kaleidoscopes). Her prose and poetry has appeared in several journals and magazines (including Prism International, Ariel, Bogg, Canadian Woman Studies, The University of Toronto Review, Hysteria, The Wascana Review, The Antigonish Review, event, The New Quarterly, The Humanist, f.(L)ip, Waves, grain,Canadian Author & Bookman, cv2, Atlantis, and Herizons) as well as anthologies (including Contemporary Monologues for Young Women). Several of her short theatrical works have been performed, and her stories have been read on CBC Radio (the Canadian equivalent to the BBC). She has been awarded sixteen Ontario (Canada) Arts Council grants.
And this is the rejection letter she received:
Thank you for submitting your fiction proposal to [XYZ Publishers].
Unfortunately, we don’t think Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them is a good fit for our list at this time. …
Sincerely,
Gregg [Somebody, XYZ Publishers]
I don’t know what’s worse, that he didn’t read the letter (or even the first line) very carefully (let alone, one has to assume, the enclosed sample) or that he didn’t recognize Spender’s work.
[Obviously written a while ago, and yet … this shit keeps being said.]
Toller Cranston, as Janet Lynn takes the ice: “You wouldn’t know by looking at her that she’s a housewife and mother of three.”
What?
Would he have said of Kurt Browning, “You wouldn’t know by looking at him that he does stuff around the house and is a father of three”??
I think not.
Clearly Cranston thinks that – well, I don’t know what the hell he thinks. That doing stuff around the house is somehow incompatible with – skating? I’ll grant that being a parent could deplete one’s energy to the point that maintaining an elite level of athletic performance is unlikely, but that would apply only if the kids were a certain age and only if one didn’t have any assistance – and it would apply to men as well as women.
I suspect he has some stereotype of housewife and mother in his mind that Lynn didn’t fit. Perhaps that of a ditsy simpleton or an unkempt troll.
Why is the acting category of the Academy Awards sex-segregated (Best Actor in a Lead/Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Leading/Supporting Role)? We don’t have separate awards for male and female directors. Or screenwriters, cinematographers, costume designers, film editors, soundtrack composers, or make up persons.
Is one’s sex really relevant to one’s acting ability? In a way that justifies separate awards?
Of course not.
My guess is that it’s because the award isn’t really for the actor/actress, but for the character portrayed. Probably partly because most people can’t distinguish the two. I’ll bet George Clooney still gets asked what to do by moms whose kid has a fever.
Even so, why do we have separate categories?
Because if we didn’t, women would never win. Not because they’re worse actors (remember the award isn’t for acting ability), but because we honor the heroes. And women never get to play hero.
‘We’re just providing what the market, what people, demand.’ ‘The customer is squarely in the driver’s seat.’ Yeah right. Gosh, shucks, don’t-look-at-me.
One, I doubt that’s true. I mean, if people really wanted your product, you wouldn’t (have to) spend millions on advertising, advertising to persuade them to buy it. Supply isn’t (just) following demand; demand is (also) following supply. Your supply. You’re in the driver’s seat.
Two, even if it is true, that people do want it, I find it hard to believe that someone with enough whatever to get into positions of power, decision-making positions, would be so meekly obedient to the desires, the demands, of the common people.
Or so helpless: ‘demands’ is such loaded language, implying that resistance, your resistance, is futile, implying that you are without power here.
Or so spineless – as if you have no mind, no desire, no will of your own.
Please, have the guts, the maturity, to take responsibility for your actions. You have a choice. You produce/provide what you do because you choose to, because you want to. If you are acceding to market demands – and I have no doubt that you are – it’s because it’s profitable, it’s because (you think) it’s in your best interests. You ‘want to make it easy for the customer to do business with [you]’ because business with you is business for you. Customers are a means to your end of profit. Otherwise you’d be as interested in poverty management as you are in wealth management.
‘Our shareholders demand high returns.’ Another pass-the-buck denial of responsibility. One, again, I doubt that’s strictly true. Did you ask them all? And was their response fully informed? Were they aware that their high returns come at the expense of others? (Others’ low wages, loss of employment; others’ high prices, loss of choice through monopoly; environmental degradation; etc.)
And two, even if they do, again, do you have to obey them? Of course not. Unless – and here’s the all important hidden (by you, from you) assumption – unless you want the value of your company to be ‘high’ so people will give you money. There’s that self-interest again.
‘Return on equity is an important measure of our success.’ Not the amount of good one does, not the amount of happiness one creates, no, these things don’t matter; success isn’t even justice, isn’t getting back what one puts out, no, success is how much more one gets back than one puts out. Self-interest. Literally, interest. For the self. It’s egoism, pure and simple. And childish and dangerous. I don’t think ‘society as a whole’ is in the vocabulary. The total inability to recognize, let alone deal with, the moral dimension – i.e., the consideration of others – is frightening.
And the ego knows no satisfaction. ‘From start-up to growth.’ The life cycle of a business seems to stop there. At growth. And more growth. And more growth. Excuse me? What about stasis? What about decline? They are part of the entire life cycle. Only a cancer grows and grows and grows.
Crowded bar scene. MAN and WOMAN do the standard flirting thing, he buys her a drink, they dance, then exit. Their dialogue isn’t important — the bar’s too loud for us to hear much anyway. But it’s clear that both are willing to engage in the sex that follows.
INT. APARTMENT — LATER
They enter her apartment and move through it toward the bedroom, happily and heatedly, kissing, touching, and unbuttoning each other on the way.
INT. BEDROOM — CONTINUOUS
They are on the bed, then in the bed, which has a nightstand right beside it, then while intercourse is clearly occurring —
WOMAN
So, do you want a girl or a boy?
He stops mid-thrust.
MAN
What?
He pulls out. Grimaces at his limpness.
WOMAN
Well, you aren’t using any contraception, so it stands to reason you want a child. I mean, you must know that —
(she gestures vaguely)
MAN
(rolling off her; things are clearly over)
Of course I know — No, I don’t want a kid —
He’s up and dressing.
MAN (CONT’D)
I assumed you were —
WOMAN
Pretty important thing to just take for granted, isn’t it?
MAN
(his anger increasing)
What is this, some sort of trap?
WOMAN
Not at all. I’m okay with it. I mean, I’ll charge for incubation services, $50,000 is about standard, and then give you the kid, no strings —
MAN
I don’t want a kid!
WOMAN
Then why —
MAN
Because you’re the one who gets pregnant!
WOMAN
I realize that. And as I said, I’m okay with it. If you’re the one not okay with it, if you’re the one who doesn’t want this to be reproductive sex, then you’re the one who should be using contraception.
He says nothing as he continues to dress.
WOMAN (CONT’D)
Are you usually this adept at separating cause and effect? At not looking at the consequences of your actions?
He reaches for his jacket.
WOMAN (CONT’D)
I mean, if you and a friend do a B & E together and he’s the only one who gets caught, you’re okay with that? You’d really not consider yourself equally responsible?
"We License Plumbers and Pilots - Why Not Parents?"At Issue: Is Parenthood a Right or a Privilege? ed. Stefan Kiesbye (Greenhaven, 2009); Current Controversies: Child Abuse, ed. Lucinda Almond (Thomson/Gale, 2006); Seattle Post-Intelligencer (October 2004)
"A Humanist View of Animal Rights"New Humanist September 99; The New Zealand Rationalist and Humanist Winter 98; Humanist in Canada Winter 97
have been previously published in Canadian Woman Studies, Herizons, Humanist in Canada, The Humanist, and The Philosopher's Magazine - contact Peg for acknowledgement details.
ImpactAn extended confrontation between a sexual assault victim and her assailants, as part of an imagined slightly revised court process, in order to understand why they did what they did and, on that basis, to make a recommendation to the court regarding sentence does not go … as expected.
What Happened to TomTom, like many men, assumes that since pregnancy is a natural part of being a woman, it’s no big deal: a woman finds herself pregnant, she does or does not go through with it, end of story. But then …
Aiding the EnemyWhen Private Ann Jones faces execution for “aiding the enemy,” she points to American weapons manufacturers who sell to whatever country is in the market.
Bang BangWhen a young boy playing “Cops and Robbers” jumps out at a man passing by, the man shoots him, thinking the boy’s toy gun is real. Who’s to blame?
ForeseeableAn awful choice in a time of war. Whose choice was it really?
Exile (full-length drama) Finalist, WriteMovies; Quarterfinalist, Fade-In.
LJ lives in a U . S. of A., with a new Three Strikes Law: first crime, rehab; second crime, prison; third crime, you’re simply kicked out – permanently exiled to a designated remote area, to fend for yourself without the benefits of society. At least he used to live in that new U. S. of A. He’s just committed his third crime.
What Happened to Tom (full-length drama) Semifinalist, Moondance.
This guy wakes up to find his body’s been hijacked and turned into a human kidney dialysis machine – for nine months.
Aiding the Enemy (short drama 15min)
When Private Ann Jones faces execution for “aiding the enemy,” she points to American weapons manufacturers who sell to whatever country is in the market.
Bang Bang (short drama 30min) Finalist, Gimme Credit; Quarter-finalist, American Gem.
When a young boy playing “Cops and Robbers” jumps out at a man passing by, the man shoots him, thinking the boy’s toy gun is real. Who’s to blame?
Foreseeable (short drama 30min)
An awful choice in a time of war. Whose choice was it really?
What is Wrong with this Picture?
Nothing. There’s no reason women can’t be the superordinates and men the subordinates. But life’s not like that (yet).
Minding Our Own Business A collection of skits (including “The Price is Not Quite Right,” “Singin’ in the (Acid) Rain,” “Adverse Reactions,” “The Band-Aid Solution,” and “See Jane. See Dick.”) with a not-so-subtle environmental message
Rot in Hell A soapbox zealot and an atheist face off…
