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Patsy Fergusson
Patsy Fergusson

1.3K Followers

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Published in

Human Parts

·Pinned

Rewriting the Story of My Parents’ Marriage

How old footage of my family helped me see my mother through a new lens — We’d had the big white box of old 8mm and Super 8mm family movies for 40 years, handing it off from sister to sister after Mom died of breast cancer in 1975, each one of us promising to digitize or otherwise take care of these precious family heirlooms. …

Family

5 min read

Rewriting the Story of my Parents’ Marriage
Rewriting the Story of my Parents’ Marriage
Family

5 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·Pinned

The Story of My Abortion

Or how I came to fall in love with my husband and start our family on solid ground — I had hoped, when I married Larry 20 years ago, that one of our children would inherit his magnificent hair, so voluptuous and appealing that just putting your fingers in it communicated a sense of abundance, of largesse. But none did. Rose has medium-thick hair to which she periodically applies…

Abortion

15 min read

The Story of My Abortion
The Story of My Abortion
Abortion

15 min read


Published in

Fanfare

·19 hours ago

I Wanted More for Shiv

Where the Season Finale of ‘Succession’ Hurt Most — Beware all who enter here! This piece spoils the finale of the HBO Max series Succession. I recognize that Shiv is just as venal and despicable as her two full brothers, but the gendered way she was broken and humiliated in the fourth and last season finale of HBO’s Succession…

Television

6 min read

I Wanted More for Shiv
I Wanted More for Shiv
Television

6 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·May 26

The Irony of Asking Women to Smile

And how the world shrinks for little girls — I’m a little bit of a love generator. I’m often full of good feeling and delighted to interact with the people around me. I find people of all types engaging and love to talk with them about their life experiences if they’re open to it. When I was a child…

Women

3 min read

The Irony of Asking Women to Smile
The Irony of Asking Women to Smile
Women

3 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·May 18

“The Power” is High Voltage Entertainment

Genetic mutation sparks gender war — I read “The Power” by Naomi Alderman five years ago and devoured it. Yet somehow I missed the news that it’s been turned into a series. I heard about that on a Wednesday night, binged five 55-minute episodes on Thursday, and followed up with three more on Friday night. Then…

Television

7 min read

“The Power” is High Voltage Entertainment
“The Power” is High Voltage Entertainment
Television

7 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·May 17

What We Need to Know About Love

Ignorance of how to love makes this unhappy world — bell hooks starts her book All About Love: New Visions lamenting that we don’t have a good and commonly agreed upon definition for love. People say it’s inexplicable, indescribable, an overpowering feeling that can’t be corralled or defined. That’s a terrible drawback in a society full of lonesome and disaffected…

Love

10 min read

What We Need to Know About Love
What We Need to Know About Love
Love

10 min read


Published in

Crow’s Feet

·May 2

Blume is Still Blooming at 85

Amazon documentary shows a writer’s life well lived — I missed the Judy Blume wave. I was in high school when her books became popular. Some featured middle school or younger protagonists, so I thought they were beneath me. But I heard of her. Every woman writer in America has. And every girl reader, or mother of a girl…

Women

6 min read

Blume is Still Blooming at 85
Blume is Still Blooming at 85
Women

6 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·Apr 20

I Want This “Menstruation Regulator”

And I want the same for you — I was delighted to read in this Guardian story that there’s a simple way to get an abortion. A hand-held manual aspirator could be used by your primary care physician in the privacy of her office to help you “regulate your period” as they often do in India, where abortion…

Women

3 min read

I Want This “Menstruation Regulator”
I Want This “Menstruation Regulator”
Women

3 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·Apr 15

Patriarchy Killed Cash App Founder

And a woman will probably be blamed — When Cash App founder Bob Lee was found stabbed to death on a dark deserted street in San Francisco, tech boors like Elon Musk were quick to blame liberal policies and lax policing. But it wasn’t left-wing politics that killed Lee. It was the patriarchy. Police arrested a “friend” of…

Tech

3 min read

Patriarchy Killed Cash App Founder
Patriarchy Killed Cash App Founder
Tech

3 min read


Published in

Fourth Wave

·Apr 6

Punana is My New Favorite “C” Word

My granddaughter learned it in preschool — I read Becoming Cliterate recently and liked it a lot. So much, in fact, that I went out and bought three more books about female sexuality*, and then bought all four books for my daughter and daughter-in-law. But as sometimes happens with me, my initial enthusiasm exceeded my follow through…

Sex

5 min read

Punana is My New Favorite “C” Word
Punana is My New Favorite “C” Word
Sex

5 min read

Patsy Fergusson

Patsy Fergusson

1.3K Followers

Tree hugger. Tour guide. Top Writer. Feminist. Newly-baptized Bay swimmer. Editor of Fourth Wave. https://medium.com/fourth-wave

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