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Quote by Shirley Jackson

Work

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories

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Author

Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American author whose dark and unsettling stories have left a lasting impact on the horror genre. Known for her psychological insights and the way she intertwines the supernatural with everyday life, Jackson's work has been widely celebrated for its originality and depth. more

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“Adrienne Rich, who I was reading at the time, said it exactly like it is: 'No woman is really an insider in the institutions fathered by masculine consciousness.' That was the weird thing. It was becoming clear to me that Motherhood was an institution fathered by masculine consciousness. This male consciousness was male unconsciousness. It needed its female partners who were also mothers to stamp on her own desires and attend to his desires, and then to everyone else's desires. We had a go at cancelling our own desires and found we had a talent for it. And we put a lot of our life’s energy into creating a home for our children and for our men”

“To make it worse, a traumatic childhood can leave you questioning yourself as an adult; even when it is clear you’ve been wronged—we still continue to doubt ourselves. A Cautionary Tale I hope this story helps you recognize negative patterns, or unbalanced business or personal relationships that are sucking the living daylight outta ya. This isn’t a story of blame, but one of reclamation.”

“You may need to witness several false dawns fully to understand that all women are, in patriarchal terms, the losers. That is our role; it is baked into patriarchal understandings of history, progress, success, failure, creativity, genius, what really matters, what doesn’t. Insisting yours is the cohort of women who will finally smash the patriarchy, whereas the one that preceded it represents its last stand, is itself patriarchal.”