Victorian diary entries

29th of October, 1895

October the 29th, 1895

It is a curious thing, to be called unreasonable for objecting to one's own mistreatment.

I have observed, with increasing clarity, that indignation in a woman is regarded not as evidence of injury, but of instability. Should she speak plainly of injustice, she is overwrought. Should she protest betrayal, she is hysterical. Should she defend her name, she is vengeful.

And so the simplest defense becomes an accusation.

I was told today — with that infuriating gentleness reserved for the condescending — that I must not "agitate" myself so. That calmness would better serve my dignity. As though composure were proof of innocence, and passion proof of guilt.

Yet I ask: who would not burn, having been set alight?

It is an art, the manner in which they provoke — subtle barbs, whispered implications, the careful planting of doubt — and then recoil theatrically when the wound draws blood. They scatter stones and then marvel at the storm.

If I am angry, it is because there was cause. If my voice rises, it is because it was first pressed downward. But they prefer a woman pliant and silent, one who smiles even as the ground is pulled from beneath her feet.

How convenient it must be, to label a response as madness rather than confront the wrongdoing that inspired it.

I confess, there are moments when I question myself. When their murmurs creep beneath my skin and whisper that perhaps I have imagined the slight. Perhaps I am too sensitive. Too sharp. Too much.

And then I remember.

I remember the tone, the dismissal, the deliberate injury disguised as civility. I remember the smirk that followed. And clarity returns.

If indignation is madness, then I shall wear it with precision.

For I will not shrink to soothe their discomfort. I will not dim to preserve their illusion of innocence. Let them call me unreasonable. Let them whisper.

Better a woman accused of fury than one erased entirely.

And if they insist upon naming me "mad," then they must also admit — however quietly — that they gave me reason.

A/N: feminist with passion here

This was inspired by mad woman- Taylor swift

Because no one like as a mad woman- what a shame she went mad, right?

I'm just done with all the misogyny happening right now

Because every women is just as- if not more- capable as a man

Of anything

I could stretch this A/N infinitely long, istg

But ill draw a line here

So yeah, i hope you liked it

Ly<3