Revenge of the Scapegoat

by Caren Beilin

with the arts students I adjuncted at,

Why-I-can’t or, even better, Why-I-won’t writing was better, much much better, than any other writing I was currently reading. It was lively. It seemed to describe the contemporary. But I hardly read.

for an almost gen-x-er like myself

He has on his face some kind of marketing smirk.

but she develops a taste for it but she represses it immediately.”

Carlos Fuentes, a woman is not a symbol!

I told them also, “Rape is not a metaphor.”

“Why did he hate you?” He looked perplexed. “Iris,” he said, “there is hatred.”

Everybody was expecting me to handle it or be ok with what he was doing or they really saw me as the powerful one, as the one making him do it. I mean, it was dangerous. It was so scary. That he thought of me as his equal.”