Very Mary doesn't claim to be a feminist. She doesn't claim to be much of anything, actually, because she finds it easier to just be plain old ignorant about some of the heavy-duty social stuff. She's fine with that. She understands that she will never match wits with great political minds or stand alongside a group of others fighting for some cause or another with banners raised high. She's cool just blending in.
And Very Mary doesn't care if you want to be a stay at home mom. She doesn't care if you want to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She doesn't even care if you want to do both. Home birthing, home schooling, spiritual guidance, lesbianism, liberalism, conservatism - whatever, just do your thing. Very Mary likes choices, and she applauds all of the above if they're accomplished in the right spirit.
And then she read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and Whoa Nelly! She realized the value of choices. LOTS OF CHOICES. She can wear pants. She can have short hair. She can have a hysterectomy. She can read. She can hold a job and have a bank account and buy a house and choose a husband (or not). She has some mad choices - YOU have some mad choices.
Very Mary doesn't care if you're a feminist or not, she highly recommends this book. It's a Very Scary look at the future, a future without choices. A future where women have no say about who they are or what they do. A future where ovaries are valued, but intelligence is not. A future where women wear dresses, but also wear hats to hide their faces. A future where women are designated as wives, hand maids, kitchen help, or whores, but not as assets to society in any other way.
The women in this story certainly find small and subversive methods of rebelling, but essentially they're choiceless. Very Mary thinks this is a "must read" if you're feeling confined to your current life. Perhaps it will offer a little perspective about the bounty of choices women really do have and really can make. Really.
Very Mary has recently been published in these linked-to issues of Somerset Holidays & Celebrations, Somerset Studio, and Jewelry Affaire. 
Very Mary doesn't care if you're a feminist or not, she highly recommends this book. It's a Very Scary look at the future, a future without choices. A future where women have no say about who they are or what they do. A future where ovaries are valued, but intelligence is not. A future where women wear dresses, but also wear hats to hide their faces. A future where women are designated as wives, hand maids, kitchen help, or whores, but not as assets to society in any other way.
