Koren Publishers has just released "The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic" by Gila Fine. The book focuses on how the women mentioned in the #Talmud are more complex than we think at first reading ~ the book finds early #feminist views of #marriage sex, childbirth, and what it means to be a woman buried within the Talmud.
#PennedPossibilities 333 — Pride Month Edition: Do you write any characters who are a part of the #LGBTQIA+ community?
My objective is to write female characters who overcome and deal with the strictures of their society, whatever they may be—stories that make you think of why needing to write such stories should even be necessary. (#Feminist author.) I neither avoid nor actively seek to write otherwise diverse characters, but I have written them anyway. Characters have a way of presenting themselves. I've written a gay romance side story for my current main WiP arc. I wrote a short story accepted for a trans fantasy anthology that sadly never got published because the publisher went under. That my MC's roommate is also apparently bi just is, and how it plays out is just what it is, too. No drama. Having been brought up with diversity makes me want to depict diversity as normal and everyday. Do I try to make political points with such characters? Not so much as I might with female characters.
Margaret Cavendish wrote scathingly about the rising use of firearms, complaining that they let 'clouns' gun down in seconds those who had spent years learning to fight with swords.
Her fuddy duddy writings are much underrated comedy, while her more credible work remains very worthy of study.
"Her Blazing World - #MargaretCavendish’s boldness and bravery set 17th-century society alight, but is she a #Feminist poster-girl for our times?"
We are looking forward to the last #Innsbruck#Gender Lecture of this study year: Tatjana Takševa from the Saint Mary’s University in Canada talks about "Tracing the Maternal through a #Transnational#Feminist Perspective"!
-> Wednesday, 22nd of May at 6pm, Hörsaal 5, GEIWI, Innrain 52e @uniinnsbruck
Unsurprising, but very sad: conservative "#tradwife" influencer #LaurenSouthern discovered being in a "traditional" marriage felt like being enslaved, she felt compelled to rationalize her husband's abuse, & the "anti-feminist" life was incredibly lonely and made her want to die.
"We call ships 'SHE'. We call our war machines 'WOMEN'. We compare women to black widows and vipers. And you are going to tell me it's not 'lady like' to scream, fight, take up space, and demand whatever the hell I want?
Don't try to down play my power."
#WordWeavers 2404.29 — Who's feeling shame in your story? Is it justified?
/It's'a [#brainfog#fibromyalgia day, but I'm gonna write this to get something out. Hoping it's coherent. —RS/]
This question made me think hard for quite awhile until I—like an artist or a photographer deciphering how shadow defines volume and dimension—saw /negative space/ in a story... where something wasn't. Emptiness.
Wintereyes /doesn't/ feel #shame, and I'm realizing this is an #emotion with which I can make a #feminist point in my story. Whilst shame is IMHO used more often to control women than it is men, it is both incidious and /learned./ Shame is a combination of built-in emotions programmed into a person to make a person self-punish for "wrong" behavior even if it's secret; it's related to, but not the same as guilt.
Wintereyes was raised by wolves, but not until she was 7 when her "gift" caused her to seek a second set of parents. Her early childhood will require investigation in another story, but I'm pretty sure her human parents didn't teach her the emotion; it's not that she forgot. Forced to live again amongst humans over a decade later, to become more human, people's behavior baffles her. Late in the story, when she's asked to disrobe by stylist at a modeling shoot, and does without a thought, the stylist observes, "You don't feel shame, do you?" This is where Wintereyes will go off like a firecracker, and it should be very interesting.
The stylist may actually feel ashamed...
The author is [#actuallyautistic and retains copyright (c)2024 R..S.]