I think that we as women are helped by the fact that we are mostly better off, we have the right to choose and face less ostracism. Choosing a career or combining it with motherhood is normalized. However, I still feel that many fields, although theoretically available, are closed to a particular gender. So this choice in many situations actually can only be an illusion, because as women we often have a lot to prove before we are taken seriously and not patronized.
As a senior in high school, I re-read The Bell Jar for a school project. It was on the list of "approved books" for my final project for English and I figured it'd be easier to work with something I'd already read. Everything about the book struck me differently reading it right at the edge of having to make many of the very choices the fig tree metaphor describes.
I copied it out to my livejournal, and a friend of mine asked permission to repost it to her own page. I remember feeling so relieved to not be the only one.
One thing I have learned in the years since is that the fig tree is a tree, and while it is painful to watch some figs wither and fall away, it is constantly fruiting and there are always new ones.
i feel you! i keep the excerpt on my nightstand, reading it over and over until the words feel like my own. i’m obsessed—so much so that it’s slipping into the short film i’m writing, even though i don’t quite know which path to take. i’m only 16, but the weight of choice already presses down on me, and sometimes it feels like i’m standing beneath the fig tree, watching the fruit ripen and wilt before i can reach for it. but maybe time will tell. maybe, somehow, i’ll find a way to pick them all and i believe you will too!💘
I understand you completely and I keep my fingers crossed that you manage to feel fulfilled with your choice!🫶🏻 I'm between different fields of art, and although writing inspires me immensely, I still have so many things I'd like to do that I'm slowly getting lost in it.But I know it's temporary, for now I'm just going the way my intuition shows me.
this has never described the female existence better I think. Eventually I wonder what the answer to all this is. I guess going with the flow?
I think that we as women are helped by the fact that we are mostly better off, we have the right to choose and face less ostracism. Choosing a career or combining it with motherhood is normalized. However, I still feel that many fields, although theoretically available, are closed to a particular gender. So this choice in many situations actually can only be an illusion, because as women we often have a lot to prove before we are taken seriously and not patronized.
i cried while reading
I cried when I wrote
i hope the fig that does fall into your lap if you make that decision, i hope that fig is the sweetest one of the batch
As a senior in high school, I re-read The Bell Jar for a school project. It was on the list of "approved books" for my final project for English and I figured it'd be easier to work with something I'd already read. Everything about the book struck me differently reading it right at the edge of having to make many of the very choices the fig tree metaphor describes.
I copied it out to my livejournal, and a friend of mine asked permission to repost it to her own page. I remember feeling so relieved to not be the only one.
One thing I have learned in the years since is that the fig tree is a tree, and while it is painful to watch some figs wither and fall away, it is constantly fruiting and there are always new ones.
Absolutely! Unfortunately, one fig has to fall so that another can grow, we have to lose something to gain something else, that's how life works.
omg yes yes, I’m happy to know that I’m not the only one that feels this frustrating feeling. I loved your piece! I wrote about it too on my new substack if you want to check it out <3 https://open.substack.com/pub/leaoalba/p/fighting-the-fig-tree-analogy?r=5a1vvy&utm_medium=ios
i feel you! i keep the excerpt on my nightstand, reading it over and over until the words feel like my own. i’m obsessed—so much so that it’s slipping into the short film i’m writing, even though i don’t quite know which path to take. i’m only 16, but the weight of choice already presses down on me, and sometimes it feels like i’m standing beneath the fig tree, watching the fruit ripen and wilt before i can reach for it. but maybe time will tell. maybe, somehow, i’ll find a way to pick them all and i believe you will too!💘
I understand you completely and I keep my fingers crossed that you manage to feel fulfilled with your choice!🫶🏻 I'm between different fields of art, and although writing inspires me immensely, I still have so many things I'd like to do that I'm slowly getting lost in it.But I know it's temporary, for now I'm just going the way my intuition shows me.