Old Lady Rage

don't get old, ladies, we can't have that!

I am still digging out from my brain deciding to fritz out the past couple of weeks, so this is just a wee little post to make sure I actually write something this week. Feel free to skip if you don’t want to hear me angrily shout about misogyny, which is something I used to do on Twitter a lot. I was like “please vote for the Mean Email Lady on account of Supreme Court and also because Trump hates women” and then brocialists would accuse me of hating poor people (cause, clearly, women are not People). 2016, you were a year.

Anyway, JD Vance made words again and boy howdy.

I mean, was there a Buy One Get One Free Sale? Buy the misogyny, get the racism for FREE!

Jesus Christ¹.

Firstly: ANYONE WHO REFERS TO WOMEN AS “FEMALES” NEEDS TO STOP. WE ARE WOMEN NOT FEMALES. MOST IMPORTANTLY WE ARE HUMANS. STOOOOP.

The problem is that way too many men feel this way. There are two categories they think women should belong to:

1. Fuckable and breeding

2. Dead, or Of Service to Men

I mean what other possible purpose could we serve?

My mentor and friend Tina Howe - a renowned playwright and teacher - passed away last year at 85 years old. I think about this quote from her all the time, which you can find here.

“I wanted to write about the passion of old ladies. When men age, they just get old, but when we age, we become very powerful. The membranes between what we should do and what we want to do get thinner and thinner. There’s no rage like old-lady rage, just as there’s no tenderness like old-lady tenderness.”

Fuck yeah, Tina! God I miss her.

Men are terrified of older women because older woman carry that rage and tenderness in equal measure, and it confuses their brains. You ever tried to mess with a tough grandma? She will END YOU in ways you can’t conceive of, and then go back to baking cookies for her church mixer. Older women are smart enough to know when she’s being had, experienced enough to navigate life on her own, and done with your bullshit.

The idea that a woman should be put out to pasture when she stops having her period is certainly not new. In fact, it’s such old fashioned, antiquated, patriarchal thinking that it makes me wonder what year these guys think it is. It is 2024, my dudes. I think women only get more interesting and vibrant with age, and once we are no longer dealing with hormonal changes, there must be a freedom in that. I am sure that when most older women take a long, hard look back at the trajectory of their lives, the rage must be profound. I know it is for me sometimes, and I’m not even old (yet).

I do not know what my purpose is on this earth. I do know that I’ll be good god damned if some asshat who went to Yale but pretends to be a hillbilly tries to tell me. I’ll also be damned if a convicted felon who definitely raped women but may have also raped young girls tries to tell me. Why do they get to run anything? They shouldn’t be allowed to own a houseplant, let alone run a country.

I’m seeing my 12 year old niece this weekend for the first time in over a year, and it fills me with RAGE that these men are trying to dictate her future, and trying to tell her that her worth has a time limit.

If you can’t bring yourself to vote for any other reason, think of the potential and the rights that are being taken away from the youngest people in our country, one jackass at a time. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could give some of them back?

If you want to support my work through a paid subscription, this is a great time to do just that! Yearly subscriptions are 20% off if you click this link- and that is your price FOREVER! You can also do a monthly sub for $5 a month, or you can Buy Me a Coffee.

Until Election Day, I am donating 10% of all proceeds to a reproductive rights organization (tbd), in honor of JD Vance. I will make sure a special acknowledgment is sent to his office! Of course, the free option is always available. No matter what, thank you for being here!

1. Speaking of Jesus Christ…what the fuck is up with the rise of Weird Catholics?

I was raised Catholic, but I started rejecting Catholicism when I was 8 and I got into trouble at CCD for asking why Jesus didn’t marry Mary Magdalene because clearly he loved her. My mother had to explain to me that even if he wasn’t the son of God who’s entire life was to get killed basically, it wouldn’t be a great idea for Jesus to marry her because she was a prostitute. I didn’t know what that was, then I got told, and I was like “okay, so she was a sinner but Jesus was a sinner too, so what’s the big deal?”.

I was dissatisfied by the answers given, and lo, a queer Tori Amos fan was born.