I mentioned on the podcast a few weeks ago that I’ve spent a lot of the past year being ANGRY. And being so angry I couldn’t focus on reading or enjoying things I read or make.
I was always angry. I’m still always angry. (No, I am not going to use a gif of Mark Ruffalo here, because I’ll be damned if I use a dude to express my rage right now.) The latest in a long line of indignities the past several months has heaped upon our heads is the US proposed budget that removed funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Here’s the truth: art is a political act. Creating it is a political act. Consuming it is a political act. Writing is a political act. Reading is a political act.
Art is one of the things that makes us human- it’s how we process the world, it’s how we show our view of the world to other people, it’s how we learn about other experiences and explore ideas and think about what could be. Art is how we go beyond our own experiences. Art can be an escape from the horrors of the world, or a testament to them. Art is as necessary as AIR.
Here we are, in the year Two Thousand and Seventeen, and we, as women, still need to demand that our voices are heard. We still need to demand that we receive equal treatment, that we be taken seriously. The idea that our sexuality is even a THING as still revolutionary. Add to that complexities faced by women of color, queer women, disabled women, and transwomen at all of those intersections, and there are times when it feels like our very existence is a revolutionary act.
Using art to express our rage, our joy, the importance of relationships and emotions, of love and friendship, of our history and our hopes and our fears is going to be ever more important. Romance is a genre that is unapologetically woman centered, and while the intersectional aspects are still a work in progress (maddeningly slow progress at times), I feel the genre and the community are moving forward to inclusiveness for everyone. We’ll get there.
Dark times are on the horizon. I know a lot of authors are having trouble writing because what’s the point? It all seems so pointless! It’s not pointless. We need you. We need you to help remind us what the world could be. To give an escape. To sooth the soul. That’s the point. Writing is resistance.
And for us readers, reading is resistance. Seeing the world from other points of view, recognizing everyone has their own truth (although, some truths are more truthier than others….) and their own experience. It’s seeing that there is no one narrative, and that we are the heroines of our own story. It’s remembering that we have our own agency, and no one can take that away.
Dark times produce amazing art. I’m not saying that as a silver lining, because quite frankly, I’d prefer we not have these dark times to begin with. But this is why we need to support art. Read books. See movies. See plays. Go to museums. Support art. Remember why we live and why we fight to make our lives and the lives of those who came before heard.
I’m still angry, and I don’t see that going away. But the art we’ve all created, the art our authors have written, the art that helps bring definition to the world, that makes it worth fighting for.
Thank you for this!
I’m completely in love with you right now.
This is beautiful. Art is my absolute salvation. Thank you!
Absolutely, 100% with you. I was horrified yesterday to read about the plans for the NEA, NEH and PBS.
Yes, yes. Especially with the proposed cuts to arts programs. Which are a MINISCULE part of our budget.
Within the infinite number of alternate universes, I cling to the hope of one that embraces art, diversity, empathy, kindness, respect, compassion; a universe where my default FB emoticon isn’t the angry one. Thank you for this, RHG.
Is it okay for me to say I totally have girl crush on you right now!
God, I needed to read this. I sooo feel your pain (and anger)! Thanks!
Well said!
Yes, Yes, 1000 times yes! I never understand why the arts are seen as so disposable when they are so very important to so many people. I’ve already shared my dismay on Facebook but I’m also going to share this there because it cannot be overstated how important arts are, especially in dark times.
Thank you for writing this. I have found ot hard to read romance in these trying times. We need art and expressions of all view points. Keep up the good work Smart Bitches.
Thank you. I needed to read this today.
beautifully stated. Thank you.
I’ve had the most angry year as well. So angry. Angry at so many levels, and when I’m not angry I feel like I’m just pretending to be not angry.
When I’m alone in my car or alone in the house, I sometimes imagine that I’m in some public place and someone grabs me or says something racist in front of me, and I yell and curse them out and take them to task. Being a writer, I give it all dialog and action and it becomes a scene. I practice the speech, the dressing down, the whole thing, in the Big Voice – my heart rate goes up and I Am So Ready! It’s so much anger. It’s like I want someone to do something so I can BE the anger.
Does anyone else here do that, or is it a crazy writer/scene study thing?
I feel like that scene in Justified where Raylan’s ex-wife says to him “you are the angriest man I’ve ever met” and he’s so confused because he doesn’t raise his voice, he thinks he’s under control – but he’s just hanging on by a thread. At least I’m self-aware enough to know I’m angry, I guess. And finally, after my entire dysfunctional childhood of not be ALLOWED to be angry, I finally learned how to be good-angry in my late 20s/early 30s. And now I end up here, at this point, and I don’t know if this anger is good or bad. It just is.
I have been reading a lot of sci-fi and thrillers the last month – a lot – and less romance. I think maybe because I need more anger and smashing things in my reading too and just can’t believe la-la-happy right now. I just don’t care about happy endings, I want satisfaction, but HEA isn’t giving it to me. **Although I just read Molly O’Keefe’s Boys of Bishop series, and there is some serious anger in those books too. That might work.
NK Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is probably the book with the most to say about female anger and repression that I have ever read, ever. It’s complex and really different from romance, but if anyone wants to take a break from some happy endings, that’s the place. And if you have Amazon Prime, I just watched both seasons of Bosch – loved it.
And yes, as a writer – I have been struggling to write, abandoned two projects, and really struggling with the third. John Scalzi publicly stated on his blog that he turned a project in late because he was too angry about the election over the summer, and knows many other writers with the same problem – which made me feel, while not better, at least not alone.
Thank you! Whether in the US or elsewhere, let us rise from our grief, challenge the complacency and apathy that has overtaken so many in the past few years, and channel our anger into creating positive change. We shall overcome!
I’ll be in the reading resistance side by side with y’all.
I’m not in the US, I’m in the UK. But I want you to know that I’m with you in this 100% xxx
I fluctuate between deep anger and deeper sadness. I want to write – before the election I was mid-process on a new (and fun!) fantastical universe but now…
I wonder “what’s the point.” If I’m not addressing complex realities – if I’m not actively “fighting against” (how one does this through writing still eludes me) – then am I wasting my time writing? If I’m not writing about revolution – am I letting readers down? Am I letting my self, my ideals, my anger, down? All I want to write about are adventures – fantastical, magical, even Star Trekian adventures. But when reality is so, so, awfully different…
Thank you Redheadedgirl for your words of inspiration.
@LovelloftheWolves write what you want to write, otherwise they’ve won, haven’t they?
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Tihs needed to be said, and you have written and shared the thoughts and feelings of all of us! You ROCK!!!
Thank you for writing this!
For those of you in the Los Angeles area, I would put in a plug for the Women’s Center for Creative Work. They have a free weekly group called Making Art During Fascism that meets on Sundays at 1pm. All genders are welcome and there are snacks!
Thank you! Living in a red state it is so nice to see women in a space (perceived to be) unrelated to politics expressing their anger at the horror that has been visited upon us. I know I’m not alone. I’m an academic librarian with a strong coven of like minded women. The more I hear other women expressing outrage, the more sure I am that we can put up one hell of a fight when we need to.
@AnnaRichland – I know the fantasy of being able to call someone out, etc. etc. I think we all have it at times. But may I suggest that if you want to move toward a more productive reality, you investigate the “accompany my neighbor” project of Kayla Santosuosso of the Arab American Association of NY. (Just google it and you’ll find links.) They’re running trainings on how to de-escalate a situation, which is actually more useful than yelling. If you’re not in the NY area maybe you could start a similar movement near you (I bet if you reached out to her on Facebook or by email she’d help), so that rather than having the anger bottled up inside you it’s useful in making your community a safer, happier place, where you have fewer reasons to get angry.
As a writer, as a lifelong lover of books, and as a lifelong amateur musician, I was deeply heartsick to see the arts and the humanities described as “waste” by the person being quoted in that article up on The Hill. It was insult to injury on top of all the shit going around about how screamingly unqualified our new President’s cabinet picks are, _especially_ DeVos.
Getting through school as a poor, fat, smart girl was difficult enough as it was; the only things that really made it bearable for me were band classes and writing classes. I shudder to think of how much more of a hell my school years would have been if I hadn’t had those.
My creativity has been kicked in the teeth ever since the election this past November, but I am determined to try to keep pulling words out of my brain, and made a point today of posting a revised opening scene from the current work in progress. Involving my young heroine of color going to the wedding of her two gay housemates.
To all my fellow creatives here who are going through similar struggles: hang in there. Let’s keep creating. We need to now more than ever.
And many thanks to the Bitchery for being here for us and giving us space to rely on one another.
Brava! Thank you. I’m terrified & depressed but we are not alone!
I’m best and most creative when I’m fueled by rage, of which I’ve had no shortage during this time. I’m evolving like a wrathful Pokemon.
Sadly, every statement of the importance of the arts appears side by side with one confessing inability to muster enthusiasm for partaking in the arts—which is a natural reaction in times of stress, whether it’s because you feel unable to enjoy anything or you feel GUILTY for enjoying anything, but normalcy makes it no less sad. Then there’s the looming spectre of an economic collapse that will make entertainment a frivolous luxury for a whole lot of people. When the public is unable to support the arts, artists can’t afford to make art, ushering in a lean era of artistic production.
Everyone will survive without, and the people who killed it will say survival is proof it’s unnecessary while celebrating the silencing of all those liberal artsy types.
If the arts was the domain of cishet white conservative men, it would be overfunded in perpetuity through a Constitutional amendment.
I’m angry but mostly I’m terribly, bewilderingly sad. As my parents used to say way back when, “Keep the faith!” and I guess that’s what we will all try to do, right? Keep working, keep writing (or whatever), keep on keeping on, and keep the faith that darkness passes.
Interestingly, I’ve been feeling more impetus to write my stories – both fanfiction and original fiction – not less. Like, now is the time when we will need the light of the hope given in stories to guide us through the darkness more than ever.
Maybe we can’t slay the dragon, maybe this is the end of the societies and freedoms we know and love (there’s always the possibility) but if so, in our stories we can pass along the tools to slay the dragons for those in the future – tell our children, our daughters, our sons, that that we fought and we won – that we reached the moon and saw the stars without the clouds. And even if darkness falls again for a thousand years, we will still remember that there was light once, and there can be light again.
*joins all of you in being angry and sad*
I am *rageful* about a lot of things right now, and I’ve found that my writing has taken a much darker turn because of it. I want to write a romantic story and I find it turned into horror instead. (I’ve also had the opposite happen, where a supposed horror story turns into a fluffy romance with an HEA.)
I’ve been so angry this last year but especially since the election. I avoid public because I live in Iowa and am trying not to hate my state right now. One of the first outings I went to after the election was the musical Beautiful with my mom. I sat in the packed theatre taking in the crowd and trying not to let my hostility and suspicion show. Then the show started and the ugliness drifted away for awhile. At least for a time, the people in that room came together for a joyful event. And I’m grateful for that.
But I’m still really angry. And definitely not ready to make nice. I’ve been spending today doing the same thing I did election night – watching Mad Max Fury Road on repeat.
Love this! I love coming here for the smart bitchery, and the fact that ya’ll do not shy away from talking politics. It’s so important right now to speak out wherever we can.
YESSSSSSS! Thanks you.
I meant THANK YOU!
This so much YES! Today I personally learned that sexism is still alive and well in the job market, not that I didn’t already know that but it was confirmed yet again. I am waffling between crawling under a blanket and hiding OR hitting something. I am just so tired of dealing with the same old BS time and again. I’m too old for this sh*t. Art is so important as sometimes its the only form of protest we have.
I, too, live in a red state. My vote does not count. Thanks for your eloquent words.
Couldn’t have said it any better, RHG!
For me, I definitely want to stay angry, because in being angry I’m avoiding complacency. Feeling this anger keeps me motivated to do something,to stay engaged. I got into a small argument with a woman at work today who was telling me we couldn’t change the election and shouldn’t we just give him a chance? NOPE! We fight on! We find a cause we believe in and take part. We do not go on about our lives as if we have lost nothing because there are so many out there who will lose everything. So while I have no idea yet how I’m going to accomplish it, I’ve made a pledge to myself to carve out the time to work towards something meaningful to me. And my big regret is that I didn’t do more, and sooner then now.
One of my recent nonfiction projects was a work-for-hire on race and economics, for high school students. And I’m editing a collection on migrants and refugees. But I think there is equal value in another book I did on scientists working in Antarctica, because it showcased diverse scientists, women and men from different countries and races, as well as addressing climate change research. And I just finished a novel about a group of Spy Girls and ancient Egypt, showing girl power in a variety of skin colors.
I also think that pure entertainment is just fine – we all need Escape sometimes – but more than that, it can have subtle cultural effects. One big reason homosexuality came to be more accepted is that it was shown casually in TV shows such as Roseanne. The more our books, TV shows, movies, and magazines show diverse people of every gender and sexuality being kind to each other, the more society will see that as normal and follow along. Studies have shown this to be true with children, but I’m certain it’s true with adults as well.
Thanks for being part of the fight.
RHG: Thank you for this post. I share your anger and deep frustration. I don’t know how we, as a nation, will get through this, but we will. We have to. My hope is that a newer, better country will rise up out of this.
And can I just say how much I love romance fans and writers? The comments here give me so much hope and I relate to them so much. You are all awesome, amazing people. I’m also glad to know I’m not the only writer who really struggled to write anything following the election. I’m only just now finding my strength again. I wish the same thing for everyone.
I still believe in Happily Ever After.
When times are bad, turn to Jane Austen. Nobody says it better…
“There is a stubbornness about me that can never bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every effort to intimidate me.”
I just looked up to find out that NEA funding is $146 millon.
That’s less than most Hollywood blockbusters.
7300 people donating $20 each could fund NEA for one year.
Is there any way we could fund this ourselves, and never have to deal with Government Intervention ever again?
We could call it the Public Endowment for the Arts, and have it 100% supported by willing people who love the arts and could give to groups/individuals affected by this.
Just a thought.