How to Silence a Woman

by Melanie Choukas-Bradley


Hold open only actual doors
Admire her dress
Revere fake breasts, sequester nursing ones
Start wars
Threaten wars
Invent male gods and creation myths
Close the priesthood
Deny the feminine divine
Display public statues of men
Disdain the round belly
Tell her she’s good
Tell her she’s bad
Overwhelm her with aggressive conversation
Question her competence
Remove her reproductive rights
Fill the world with loud noises
Drown her power
Burn her power
Ignore her power
Be her protector in a world in which she needs one


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Melanie Choukas-Bradley grew up wandering the woods of Vermont. She is the award-winning author of seven nature books. Melanie lives near Washington, DC where she leads nature and forest bathing walks for Smithsonian Associates and many other organizations. She is author of City of Trees, A Year in Rock Creek Park, The Joy of Forest Bathing and, most recently, Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt Island and Resilience: Connecting with Nature in a Time of Crisis. Melanie has been a longtime contributor to The Washington Post and frequent guest on NPR and its affiliates. She began writing poetry during the pandemic.