The poet Jack Gilbert said the only things worth writing about were: ”Love, death, man, virtue, nature, magnitude, excellence, evil, suffering, courage, morality. What is the good life. What is honor. Who am I.”

So what about women? I suppose many subjects I would add to the list fit under virtue, magnitude, etc. But only a man would still use “man” in that way.

I’m reading a book about women in 17th century England that starts off with an intro in which the author says a “distinguished man” asked her, “Were there any women in the 17th century?”

This is the thinking we’re still up against today. This is worth writing about.