Editor's Note
With the exception of Get Out, I haven't watched a horror movie since the original Amityville Horror was released in 1979. When I watch shows with my spouse, I cover my eyes and he kindly narrates anything violent, suspenseful, or that includes the expellation (a word I have now invented) of body fluids because I am squeamish and nightmare easily. While my spouse was out of town last week I decided I might as well finally binge the final season of Downton Abbey because it's not gruesome and it wouldn't feel like cheating as he's not interested in the woes of a bunch of rich white people and their white servants.
So there I was munching buttery popcorn, watching the poshies noshing and gnashing, wondering if Edith was ever going to tell her beau about Marigold, when suddenly the show goes full on horror as Lord Grantham' ulcer explodes and he spews blood all over his guests, their fineries, and the elegant table setting, and it doesn't stop there. We have to wait for the ambulance to arrive, and possible last words must be spoken by the blood-spattered family. I was shocked, incredulous, angry, and I couldn't look away. Who decided that adding gore to a tea party was a good idea?
I imagine this is how a lot of straight (or bi), cis, white, able-bodied women feel this week as the Supreme Court strips away our bodily autonomy. I wrote about this topic in the last issue, but here I am with more to say. We — especially those of us who grew up post Roe — woke to the realization that the U.S. government is actually a horror film, when all this time we thought we were living in a period drama. Even though oppressed folx have been telling us for decades that this country is dangerous and broken, even though many of us have protested, written elected officials, knocked on voters' doors, donated money, even though most of us have ourselves lived through trauma and experienced discrimination, we didn't know in our bones how it feels to watch as the highest court in the land says, "fuck your rights."
We didn't know what it was like to live while brimming with this specific kind of rage. Now we do.
Or maybe that's just me.
I think not. In any case, I hope none of us forgets.
If this describes you, and you're jumping into civil rights work for the first time, or considering it, I've included an incomplete list of reading material below.
So there I was munching buttery popcorn, watching the poshies noshing and gnashing, wondering if Edith was ever going to tell her beau about Marigold, when suddenly the show goes full on horror as Lord Grantham' ulcer explodes and he spews blood all over his guests, their fineries, and the elegant table setting, and it doesn't stop there. We have to wait for the ambulance to arrive, and possible last words must be spoken by the blood-spattered family. I was shocked, incredulous, angry, and I couldn't look away. Who decided that adding gore to a tea party was a good idea?
I imagine this is how a lot of straight (or bi), cis, white, able-bodied women feel this week as the Supreme Court strips away our bodily autonomy. I wrote about this topic in the last issue, but here I am with more to say. We — especially those of us who grew up post Roe — woke to the realization that the U.S. government is actually a horror film, when all this time we thought we were living in a period drama. Even though oppressed folx have been telling us for decades that this country is dangerous and broken, even though many of us have protested, written elected officials, knocked on voters' doors, donated money, even though most of us have ourselves lived through trauma and experienced discrimination, we didn't know in our bones how it feels to watch as the highest court in the land says, "fuck your rights."
We didn't know what it was like to live while brimming with this specific kind of rage. Now we do.
Or maybe that's just me.
I think not. In any case, I hope none of us forgets.
If this describes you, and you're jumping into civil rights work for the first time, or considering it, I've included an incomplete list of reading material below.
But, oh my goodness, I almost forgot to tell you about this fantastic issue of West Trestle Review, full of important, beautiful, creepy, and stirring work by Liz Ahl, Shelia Cooper, Sandra Crouch, M.M. Cuelho, Rachel Dacus, Ashley Elizabeth, Anita Goveas, Sabrina Guo, Angela Joynes, Emilee Kinney, Alison Lubar, Rita Maria Martinez, Aiyana Masla, Melanie Perish, Chris Shorne, and Ellen June Wright, perfectly paired with art by our featured artist Rebecca Pyle.
You'll want to read it from rich beginning to delicious end, and if you admire the work you find here, please give our contributors a shout on social media — and our volunteer editors, too, for that matter. As a friendly reminder, WTR is a journal for women and non-binary contributors and, as such, we are a perpetual content warning. Feel free to include one when sharing.
If you haven't had a chance to check out our Silver Tongue Saturdays lit series and open mic, you can watch the first three featured readers — Kim Shuck, Chloe Martinez, and Claire Unis — here. Our next reading features poet Shelley Wong reading from her new book, As She Appears. Join us in person or stream along.
Meanwhile, I am summoning the wisdom of Toi Derricotte this "Independence" Day and every day: “Joy is an act of resistance,” (if you haven't, read Austin Channing Brown's thoughts about how this line revolutionized Black feminism). I'm celebrating a vision of the country as it ought to be and those who have worked so hard, though they are tired, and those who are just beginning the work, to see that America become a reality. I hope to temper my rage with laughter, loudly and often. I hope you, too, are able to pause in the chaos and laugh with the people you love.
In gratitude,
Patricia Caspers
Editor-in-Chief
You'll want to read it from rich beginning to delicious end, and if you admire the work you find here, please give our contributors a shout on social media — and our volunteer editors, too, for that matter. As a friendly reminder, WTR is a journal for women and non-binary contributors and, as such, we are a perpetual content warning. Feel free to include one when sharing.
If you haven't had a chance to check out our Silver Tongue Saturdays lit series and open mic, you can watch the first three featured readers — Kim Shuck, Chloe Martinez, and Claire Unis — here. Our next reading features poet Shelley Wong reading from her new book, As She Appears. Join us in person or stream along.
Meanwhile, I am summoning the wisdom of Toi Derricotte this "Independence" Day and every day: “Joy is an act of resistance,” (if you haven't, read Austin Channing Brown's thoughts about how this line revolutionized Black feminism). I'm celebrating a vision of the country as it ought to be and those who have worked so hard, though they are tired, and those who are just beginning the work, to see that America become a reality. I hope to temper my rage with laughter, loudly and often. I hope you, too, are able to pause in the chaos and laugh with the people you love.
In gratitude,
Patricia Caspers
Editor-in-Chief
An Incomplete List of Useful Information Regarding Abortion Rights
Apiary for Practical Support offers advice about language:
Brittney Cooper tweets about the long game:
I know it’s in fashion to say that we have to have long game like the GOP. To play chess not checkers. But you know who got long game badder than a motherfucker? Black folks. We were not meant to survive. But we are still here. And they are so mad. #LongGame
— Brittney Cooper (@ProfessorCrunk) June 28, 2022
An interesting conversation about white women as organizers:
Okay, I’ll say it.
— SHARK BOOK OUT NOW (@MiriamForster) June 27, 2022
The majority of U.S. white women are fundamentally unequipped to do effective community activism, and everyone knows it but them.
SWWIM shares good info here:
I'm sure I don't have to tell you to sign up for Roxane Gay's newsletter, The Audacity, but if you haven't, you should. Dr. Gay shares links to, and her thoughts about, the most interesting recent pieces she's read.
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