Making its yearly orbit around us once more is International Women’s Day, bringing tidings of good feminist cheer. To celebrate this year, applaud the women in your lives and dedicate yourself to learning more about their intersectional backgrounds. You might find that an especially immersive path to understanding women’s multifaceted realities is through escaping into some good old feminist reads. Here are some quick short stories you might find informative, humbling, witty, humorous, and charming. Happy reading!
Margaret Atwood’s “Bluebeard’s Egg”
Leave it to Atwood to compound our worst fears into one story and then unsettlingly have us realize that we’re living them. Oh, and to stir the pot, you might want to hold on to your faith in humanity for this Bluebeard’s legend retelling.
Kamila Shamsie’s “Churail”
A tale that transcends borders, Shamsie’s protagonist exists in an interconnected web of familial, cultural, and Western standard struggles as a minority South Asian woman, with a spooky twist. Something supernatural underlies this short story—if you’re up to following this eerie force, you might find yourself amused by its hell-bent attempts to unify the protagonist’s identity, rather than splitting it apart.
Margaret Atwood’s “Siren”
Yes, another Atwood, because we love her in this corner of the internet so much! Join the Liminal Beings Knitting Circle to hear an odd grouping of mythological creatures whine and compete about their snake heads, lack of hands, or mermaid tails. This one’s as deliriously fun as it gets!
Emma Donoghue’s “Kissing the Witch”
Although this is an eclectic collection of short stories, each one is a witchy, whimsical, and wicked delight. Donoghue dedicates herself to reworking power as we know it for her protagonists, who exist in regenerated worlds of folk tales and legends. These feminist retellings are saturated with the nuanced womanhood the sources lacked—it’s about time we abandoned lacklustre depictions of women.
Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing”
Initially appearing to be a mother’s contemplation on her relationship with her daughter, further consideration brings to light another facet of the short story. Sentimental and zealous, this recollection is bittersweet for the solidarity it engenders, decades after second-wave feminism. It leaves us to ascertain how much further there is to go when “all that is in her will not bloom” continues to comprise women’s realities.