How am I supposed to write an essay about feminism? I self have self subscribed myself to the category of "anti-feminist". And just on the eve of my presentation I am plagued, yet again (for this plague is a monthly torment to my organically female being) by this sickness, this punishment for my desire for knowledge. Have we not been punished enough? Yes the epidural is a welcomed respite from the pain we women must endure (a non-godsend I'm sure a woman dreamed up), but why must we MONTHLY be made to endure this torture?!?
I'm asking myself this as I sit in class listening to a lecture on feminism as a critical theory in literature. All the knowledge and desire to learn leaves my thoughts and is replaced by "will this MAN (though a gay man struggling with his own gender roles and place in society) PLEASE not go over class time! I'm woefully unprepared to stop this bleeding for even another minute! And you wouldn't understand" well, there's my punishment for wanting of the fruit of knowledge...knowledge is stripped from me as my feminine functions take center stage in my mind.
As I consider the consequences of my unpreparedness for the period that came a week and a half early, much longer than expected (in tampon terms) class, I realize our entire first half was to discuss "what makes a person one gender or sex an not another" while the roles that a prescribed to each are unfortunate functions of society with little imagination...nature is making me bleed...I am therefore woman.
Ugh.
- Cory (from the phone)
