Angry Men In The Comment Section
On misogyny
A few weeks ago, I received news that my poem If Adam Picked the Apple was one of the selected Pushcart Prize winners and would be published in the Pushcart Prize XLIX: Best of the Small Presses (2025 Edition). I was ecstatic. I wrote it two years ago when I felt myself increasingly infuriated by the double standards women experience daily and the ways religion has often been used to perpetuate patriarchal and misogynistic norms.
IF ADAM PICKED THE APPLE There would be a parade, a celebration, a holiday to commemorate the day he sought enlightenment. We would not speak of temptation by the devil, rather, we would laud Adam’s curiosity, his desire for adventure and knowing. We would feast on apple-inspired fare: tortes, chutneys, pancakes, pies. There would be plays and songs reenacting his courage. But it was Eve who grew bored, weary of her captivity in Eden. And a woman’s desire for freedom is rarely a cause for celebration.
I shared the poem and the news a…