Escaping the Tower - Mookychick Feminist Flash Fiction

Once upon a time, a princess was locked in a tower...

'Hang on,' said the princess. 'What am I doing here?'

'Um', said the narrator, 'some witch put you there, remember?

'But why?' asked the princess.

'So a prince can rescue you', replied the narrator.

'Well, I'm pretty sure it's easy to escape from here. Look, there's some conveniently-placed foot-holes in the brickwork.'

'You aren't meant to notice that. That's for the prince.'

'Well...can't I just climb down now and save him the bother?'

'...No. The prince will come, and after he rescues you, you can marry him!'

'What if I don't like him?'

'Of course you will. You'll be eternally in love with him!'

'Can I change my mind?'

'No! You're only meant to have one love your whole life, duh.'

'What about Prince Charming? Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White...he sure gets around. No one calls him a slut. Why is that? And why do you assume I want a prince? Maybe I prefer princesses instead, think of that?'

'Bloody hell,' said the narrator. 'Can you just shut up and be rescued?'

'No,' said the princess. 'I don't think I will.' And she climbed out of the tower.

This is an entry for the Mookychick FEMINIST FLASH FICTION competition. Enter now.

Take this pink ribbon off my eyes...

...I'm exposed
And it's no big surprise

Don't you think I know
Exactly where I stand
This world is forcing me
To hold your hand

I can’t actually remember when I knew I was a feminist. I know, I should be able to recall the exact moment when the light bulb went off over my head and I realised it. But I can’t. It was definitely after I started high school, maybe some time in Year 8? I think it just occurred to me one day that this anger I felt whenever someone said anything sexist, this disgust at the treatment of women in society, this want for equality between girls and guys...it had a name. Feminism.

 

See, I can write about serious stuff too, sometimes!

My article is up on the Fbomb. Whoo-hoo!
It's here: Click the link! ---> http://thefbomb.org/2011/06/cat-calling-in-the-australian-senate/

If you have no idea what the Fbomb is, you are deprived. Fbomb is this *awesome* website where people (mostly young women, though not always) submit articles about feminist issues, and have discussions about it. Whether you don't know much about feminism or you're passionate about it, I highly recommend you check it out. As a proud feminist, I look through it regularly ^-^

My article's about the recent controversy with David Busby meowing at Penny Wong in the Senate. I've also done another article for the FBomb, about the sexist backlash against Julia Gillard when she became Prime Minister. You can read it here: http://thefbomb.org/2010/06/julia-gillard-and-why-we-still-need-feminism/ I wrote this, like, 5 days after JG became PM. Now it's nearly a year after she started ruling the country and I've lost a lot of faith in her; some of her policies have really disappointed me. I wrote the article before she'd become PM and let us down, but regardless of that, I still dispute the fact that everyone seemed to jump on the "She's a woman! She'll be crap!" bandwagon as soon as she moved into Rudd's office, before she'd even done anything in her capacity as leader.

So, there you go.
Check it out if you want,
Z