"It's so much jollier to eat in sisterhood. Let's club together, and have a revel" -An Old-Fashioned Girl (266)
"You'll be shocked at our performances, Miss Shaw, but you can call it a picnic, and never tell what dreadful things you saw us do" -An Old-Fashioned Girl (266)
In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1986), the narrator's husband says that he loves making dinner and that cooking is his hobby. His mother in law responds that countless women have had to die in order for him to be able to say that.
Reflecting on the amazing and spiritual conversations we had at our reading of the Vagina Monologues last week, I wonder how many times women had to meet before we could all talk about our vaginas, or how many times vaginas were discussed and not recorded.
Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl (1869) discusses a gathering of women that made me think of my friends, mostly because it is a potluck. They are all independent women working together to become "strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied" (264). It is a feminist scene in a fairly traditional novel. I always remember that LMA wrote what I consider one of the most horrifyingly true feminist lines of the nineteenth century (in Little Women [1868]when the always-loving Marmee admits to Jo that she has been angry nearly every day of her life).
"We'll show you the sunny side of poverty and work, and that is a useful lesson for anyone...," answered Polly, hoping that Fan would learn how much the poor can teach the rich, and what helpful friends girls may be to one another" (271)
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