He ast his Daddy why he
Beat me: “Cause she my Wife”²
Women Live like Bats – Labour
Like Beasts – and Die like Worms³
Men expect Women to Adore what
Men shrink from in Horror: Themselves⁴
A Woman’s Essence is to get Fucked by Men⁵
Men are Flat! As Cardboard: that Flat Flat Flatness⁶
Oh, how Deadly – to be Woman and Curious⁷
Who cleans the House, who cooks the Food,
Who blesses the Babies, who stays too True,
Who sews the Clothes, who buys the Shoes,
Who sleep too Little, who sing no Blues?⁸
Cold grows the Spirit of the Ladies: they
Draw their Wings close to their bodies⁹
Boys will be Boys and Reap the
Benefits of a Patriarchal World¹⁰
¹ Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
² Alice Walker, The Color Purple
³ Margaret Cavendish of Newcastle
⁴ Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
⁵ Radicalesbians, The Woman-Identified Woman
⁶ Sylvia Plath, Three Women
⁷ Silvia Park, Purge
⁸ Mahogany L. Browne, Nameless
⁹ Sappho tr. Aaron Poochigian, My Gales and Anguish
¹⁰ Fatamah Asghar, Finding the Hammam