As the year wraps up, we are happy to celebrate the Women Who Submit who had work published in November. Congrats to all!
From “During Childbirth, Enduring the Patriarchy Was the Hardest Part” by Rachael Rifkin at Yes!:
Everyone from medical professionals to strangers tell pregnant people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their bodies. Throughout my two pregnancies, OB-GYNs, nurses, family, and friends often used phrases like “you can’t,” “you’re not allowed to,” and “we’ll let you” when discussing my body.
Also from Rachael, “The Best Baby Bouncers and Rockers” at Wire Cutter:
After eight hours of research—including speaking with a sleep consultant, baby-gear experts, and plenty of parents—and 20 hours spent testing 10 baby bouncers, we believe that the sturdy and versatile BabyBjörn Bouncer Balance Soft is the best for most families.
From “The Two-Lane Highway of ‘Try a Little Tenderness‘” by Ryane Nicole Granados at Memoir Mixtapes:
This is a song that sketches a girl during her transition into young womanhood. This is a song that reminds us of ponytails held high and the weariness of being forced to grow up far too soon. This is a song for an entire generation of brown girls accused of being angry if they don’t smile, who are told to dim their light and hide their style, whose curves spread beyond their jeans or shaggy dresses, but their hearts still long for tenderness. This is a song for the girls never featured in John Hughes’ movies even though we watched them and we loved them and we rooted for the Duckies and the Andies anyway.
From “Dustin Hoffman Sexually Harassed Me When I Was 17” by Anna Graham Hunter at The Hollywood Reporter:
When I was a senior in high school in New York City, interning as a production assistant on the set of the Death of a Salesman TV film, he asked me to give him a foot massage my first day on set; I did. He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, “I’ll have a hard-boiled egg … and a soft-boiled clitoris.” His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless. Then I went to the bathroom and cried.
From “Things That Happened as My Black Son Got Older” by Carla Sameth at Mutha Magazine:
1. 1995: Do I really think about what it means: “One in three or one in four Black men will be incarcerated,” when I know I am pregnant with a Black son? I just think it’s more of “we are the world,” wonderful, Multicultural, Jewish, lesbian mom, etc. I dream of rainbows.
Congratulations to Carla whose story “In Defense of Family” was published in the anthology, Greetings from Janeland: Women Write More about Leaving Men for Women!
From Lauren Eggert-Crowe‘s “The Spookiness & Nostalgia of Loreena McKennitt & Halloween” at Luna Luna:
On a brisk December evening in the early 90s, my aunt took me and two of my cousins to stand in a stranger’s yard in rural Maryland and sing to a dead tree.
It was an old twisty oak, thick-trunked, heavy-knuckled, lording over a curve of rural highway. We stood at the entrance to the driveway in our muddy sneakers and puffy fluorescent jackets. Beyond us, crows circled the stubby dead stalks in a dormant cornfield. Susan, my aunt, told us that her neighbors were going to cut down the tree, so off we set to sing it a eulogy: “Bonny Portmore,” by Loreena McKennitt.