Colleen Halverson's Blog, page 4

I Woke Up Like This: On Not Paying the “Pretty Rent” as a Woman Writer

I once heard that the best thing that ever happened to novelist George Eliot’s writing was her choosing to live with philosopher George Lewes, a married man unable to divorce his estranged wife. By following this unconventional path, George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans) banned herself from polite society, but freed her social schedule up enormously. I recall hearing similar things about women and hypochondria in the 19th century. “Illness” freed women writers, such as Emily Dickinson, to pursue their literary passions in peace. Devoid of the lengthy toilettes and endless calls required of the nineteenth-century female bourgeoisie, these women could hang out in their dressing gowns (our modern equivalent of yoga pants) and write to their hearts’ content. There’s a meme that I’ve seen posted on facebook a few times, and it really hit home for me this week. It’s from Erin McKean, and she states, “You don’t owe prettiness to anyone…Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’.” In other words, we don’t owe it to the world to look good, and we are not required by any law in the universe to spend an ounce of time, money, or energy on […]