March 2012 Archives

by Samuel Rutledge

I'll come back in May and

I'll call you and we'll follow

The trail down to

The beach where

The waves lap at tan sands.

We'll enjoy the pollen, and

The falling seagulls gawking at

Hotdogs.

We'll pant in the heat and

Bathe in the salt and

When the crescent moon rises in

The late afternoon

We'll sip white wine in                                                                                            Image:Flickr 

The cave I found just

A short walk from the logs.

And of course I'll carry you up the stairs when

The sun sets.

By William R. Landry for all women on International Women's Day, March 8, 2022

One way to gauge a nation's progression toward gender equality is to analyze the historical fiction it has produced. According to Finke (1996), fiction is generally less politically coercive than government sanctioned media because authors generally focus on text as an art form rather than maintaining hegemonic agendas. There are, however, exceptions. While analyzing a series WWI and WWII posters, I discovered a female author named J. G. Sime, who, during WWI, was commissioned to use her vaguely feminist fiction to help coerce women who sought freedom from domestic servitude into serving the war effort instead. Her story was reprinted widely during the Second World War due to the effective nature of its propaganda.