Friday, September 30, 2005

First paragraph: The Women Were Leaving the Men

"The men weren't obviously bad--not in any way visible from the outside, but the women were leaving them. The women who left the men had money, were lawyers, were doctors, were tenured professors; the women who left the men were not-so-well off, worked at J.C. Penney, answered the phones for plumbing contractors, toiled as adjunct professors, actually had unsteady financial prospects, but were going to leave anyway. They were not leaving the men the way women left men in the previous generation, with a sense of breaking out of prison or smashing something evil and oppressive, or opening their eyes after years of blindness, or because they were finally deciding for themselves. Yes, there were still some women who left their philandering, gynecologist husbands in the traditional way: outraged, victimized. But something new had been happening, and the men didn't understand what it was."

- Andy Mozina, "The Women Were Leaving the Men," Tin House Volume 6