Monday
Looking back at the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’m struck by how the woman who became affectionately described as notorious was once painfully shy, so much so that her husband apparently was the one that pushed her candidacy for the Supreme Court. Yet for all that, she was a relentless advocate for women’s rights, first as a lawyer and then as a justice.
Emily Dickson also was a small, quiet and fierce woman. In “They shut me up in prose,” she describes what it is like to be trapped in gender stereotypes. Could men but her brain, however, they would lock her up for treason.
Such inner fortitude allowed Ginsburg, as it did Dickinson, to push back against the prose narrative of her laughing captors. No closet for her! She was notorious because she refused to be still.
They shut me up in Prose –
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet –
Because they liked me “still” –
Still! Could themself have peeped –
And seen my Brain – go round –
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –
Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Look down upon Captivity –
And laugh – No more have I –