Going Gray: A Woman's Right to Choose

I'm excited to have a new essay up at Writers Resist, a spirited young journal that describes itself like this:

"Writers Resist is a feminist literary collective born of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. We publish creative expressions of resistance by diverse writers and artists from around the globe, and we’re dedicated to challenging all things that diminish our nation’s quest for equality, freedom, justice and a healthy planet for all—while having a bit of fun."

It was a pleasure working with editors Sara Marchant and Kit Bacon-Gressitt. I invite you to read Writers Resist and to share, submit your work and support this worthy endeavor. 

My essay evokes one of my favorite writers, humorists and humans, the late Nora Ephron in describing my own journey of growing out my gray. 

---

---

In a 2005 essay, Nora Ephron wrote, “There’s a reason why 40, 50, and 60 don’t look the way they used to, and it’s not because of feminism or better living through exercise. It’s because of hair dye.” She went on to say, “In the 1950s, only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and LA where there are no gray-haired women at all.”

The same could have been said about Sacramento, where I live.

That 2005 essay coincided with the first time I grew out my gray. After decades coloring, high-lighting and straightening my hair, it had begun to fall out in clumps. I went cold turkey. When my swath of graying roots had widened to a few inches, I hacked off over a foot of dark-brown hair, leaving little more than a salt and pepper helmet. As if by magic, I acquired a new super power, invisibility. Walking the streets of the city where I’d lived and worked for thirty years, acquaintances rushed past without a glimmer of recognition.
I’d become a ghost. I considered a career as a jewel thief or spy—there was no chance I’d be identified in a lineup. 
                             from 'Going Gray: A Woman's Right to Choose,' Dorothy Rice, Writers Resist, May 2, 2019
​                             to read the full essay, or to peruse Writers Resist, click any of the links!

---

I recently reread an essay by Jenny Bhatt in Longreads that evokes a number of the themes I've been grappling with in my journey as a late-blooming author.  'Emerging as a Writer After 40'  is a thought-provoking and timely read. 

Below is an excerpt. Click one of the links to read the essay. It's a worthwhile read.

Till, as a single and childless 40-year-old woman of color, I found myself slipping unwarned down a steep slope toward the verge of disappearance. In workplace, family, and friend gatherings, I was deferring more frequently to the younger, or the coupled, or the oldest. My lone voice carried the least weight at any given time. Beyond a loss of vote and visibility, it felt like an erosion of my self.
This midlife pivot was about more than making time to write. It was also my biggest mustering of courage to reclaim and re-assert my place in the world.
​                                             from 'Emerging as a Writer After 40,' Jenny Bhatt | Longreads | November 2018

​Lastly, I'm reminded of this essay from the Brevity blog that touches on similar issues. 

---

Why not drop the “late” and just use “bloomer” to describe writers who publish post-forty? Yet that stresses the absence of a word, rather than the word itself. Oh, I get it, they dropped the “late.”  If a plant-related reference is called for, I prefer perennial, as in enduring. Continually occurring. Better still, how about just “author”?
                                            from Late Bloomers and Perennials, Dorothy Rice/Brevity Blog/August 30, 2018
                                            to read the full essay or peruse Brevity, click the link!

---

Life is a journey, each phase of which has it's triumphs and frustrations. I'm fortunate to now have the time and inclination to pursue my creative passions. 

​Until next time!