Elise Hedge

“TOWN MEETING! TOWN MEETING TONIGHT!” was repeated over and over through the intercom in the middle of town. The meeting for tonight is about gender and relationships, the only reason I know is because I’m the one who created the meeting. As a fellow citizen I think it’s important to hear everyone’s views and opinions on the most important theme in gender and relationships. It’s been a topic that the towns people have been arguing over for months on end, so what better way to settle it than to hold a meeting so everyone can talk about it in a civil way! It’s about 10 minutes before the meeting starts in the city hall. There are numerous amounts of people lined up outside ready to come in and talk. As I greet people coming inside I realize that I recognize most of them, but there are also a few whom I’ve never seen before. As everyone grabs a seat I decided it was about time to start the discussion.

Me: “Alright everybody! The purpose of this meeting as most of you may know is to find out what the most important theme of Gender and Relationships is! Who would like to go first?”

The Boy: “I think the most important theme of Gender and Relationships is sacrifices! My story is from Everything Stuck to Him and when I was fighting with my wife about going hunting she told me that I was going to have to choose between my friend Carl or her and our child. I was very upset because Carl had planned on me going. It was then that I realized Carl and I can go hunting and hang out another time but I only have a certain amount of time before our child grows up and doesn’t need us anymore. Also that they are my life now and they are my first priority, meaning sometimes in relationships you have to make sacrifices for one another. “

Liz Rosenberg: “I agree with The Boy! I’m from In the End We Are All Light and I believe sacrifices are what brings people together and makes a relationship real! I love how old men carry purses for their wives and how the burden of the other eventually comes to be as light as a feather. Relationships require hard work and sometimes sacrifices which is definitely the most important theme in Gender and Relationships!”

Me: “Yes those are very good points! Would anyone else like to discuss their view on the most important theme?”

Janet Evason: “I’m from When It Changed and I believe the most important theme is entitlement and gender roles. When men visited our planet they told us it was a great tragedy that the men had been killed off from a plague but that it’s over now because they are there to help us even though we did not need their help, we were all doing perfectly fine without them. They also told us that there is only half a species here and that men must come back to the planet (Whileaway). This is all entitlement! Thinking that they have the automatic right to come back and act like they’re doing us a favor. One of them asked my wife and I which of us plays the role of the man in our relationship, when neither of us plays the man because we are both women. I doubt very much that sexual equality has been reestablished on Earth, especially since they came here and talked to us this way and acted very entitled and heteronormative.”

The Woman: “I agree! Except the most important theme is entitlement and sexism, not gender roles. I’m from A Woman on a Roof and all day long in the hot sun I was harassed by three men working on a roof. They whistled and I looked up at the, cool and remote, then went on reading. They were immediately furious because I did not give them the attention they felt they deserved after harassing and sexualizing me. “

Mrs.Peters: “I think the most important theme is a mix between your opinions!”

The Woman: “What? How can that be?”

Mrs.Peters: “It’s definitely gender roles and sexism. I come from the story Trifles and I had men telling me and my friends that women are used to worrying over trifles and that the woman accused of murder in my story was