avatarADEOLA SHEEHY-ADEKALE

Summary

The undefined website presents February's writing prompts for the Modern Women community, focusing on the theme of aging and the complexities of love, inviting writers to explore and share personal narratives that challenge societal norms and expectations.

Abstract

The Modern Women community on the undefined website reflects on the previous month's theme of aging, celebrating the diverse and empowering stories shared by its members. The narrative challenges the societal pressure on women to remain youthful and instead embraces the beauty and power at every age. Looking forward, the community is invited to explore the theme of "Aspects of Love" for February, with prompts encouraging introspection on demonstrative love, self-love, love languages, and the impact of societal expectations on perceptions of love and self-worth. The prompts aim to inspire pieces that delve into non-romantic loves, lost loves, and the duality of desiring romantic love while enjoying the freedom of being single. The community is encouraged to share their unique experiences and perspectives on love, shaped by culture and generation, and to use writing as a therapeutic tool for self-discovery and connection with others.

Opinions

  • Aging is a complex subject that often creates a dissonance between internal feelings and external societal pressures, particularly regarding women's worth and youth.
  • The stories shared by the community push back against traditional narratives of aging, celebrating pride, liberation, and diverse paths of womanhood.
  • The theme of love for February is approached from various angles, including the ease of demonstrating love, the concept of love languages, and the challenges of self-love.
  • The community values the sharing of personal stories as a means of support, allowing members to navigate the steps of aging and love without falling.
  • There is an acknowledgment of the discomfort and necessity of self-celebration and the importance of recognizing one's own lovability.
  • The prompts are designed to hold space for a range of love experiences, including non-romantic loves, intimacy outside of sexual contexts, and the grief of lost loves.
  • The expectations of being paired off in a society are questioned, examining how these influence a woman's journey and self-perception.
  • The cultural shift over the past 30 years is noted, with curiosity about how love is perceived across different cultures and generations.
  • Writing is seen as a form of therapy and a means of finding one's voice, with the potential to inspire and empower other women through shared experiences.
  • The community is open to contributions beyond the current month, inviting writers to respond to prompts whenever they feel inspired.
  • Contributors are encouraged to share authentic, heartfelt stories that can inspire or empower other women, with a reminder to include the tag 'prompt' when submitting responses to specific prompts.

Modern Women: February Writing Prompts

Let’s challenge ourselves to find a new perspective

Image by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

Where do I begin in a reflection of the last month on Modern Women? Our theme for the month was aging and wow, the responses we had.

As a subject it will always be a complex one, there is a gulf between how we feel on the inside, and what we are told to believe on the outside. So often it becomes something we keep quiet about, how we experience aging, the fears it brings up, the encouragement to battle against it, and the endless narratives about our worth being attached to our youth whether physically, mentally or in relation to fertility.

Your stories pushed back against all of that. You sang rallying cries of pride and liberation in ‘middle age’, and wove new narratives of paths of womanhood not paved with outdated thinking and expectation.

We met ourselves in each other and remembered just how beautiful and powerful we are at every age.

It was a great month!

There were more pieces than I can add here that I will be rereading for months to come but here are three you may have missed.

There is a unique fear when you see yourself in your mother as she ages before you, and Chantelle Atkins perfectly captures it here.

So many of a woman’s rites of passage are bound to our phyisological changes… the first blood, the last and everything inbetween. So often we can miss them or have them taken from us through no choice of our own, maybe menopause can be one we choose, thank you Jennifer Moorman Bolanos for sharing your story.

With so many women having children later our expectations of ourselves can be even more challenging, Amarie Skrip offers acceptance, permission and a reframe you might just appreciate.

In each of these stories is a part of each of us. The dance we go through as we age and confront ourselves and the narratives of our society can be a complicated one. But as we stumble through the steps, the stories we share with each other can keep us from falling.

And now, with no further ado…

The prompt for February is:

Aspects of Love

We all know that the Mediumverse will be flooded with pieces about love over the next two weeks and regardless of how you feel about the ‘holiday’, February does tend to put relationships and our love lives front and centre in our minds.

I’d like to invite you to explore that but from a slightly different angle.

To love is one thing, to show it is another. How easy do you find it to love in a demonstrative way, and what does that even mean for you?

We talk of love languages for our children, our families and ourselves but are you love needs met, and do you try and meet them yourself?

Self love is such an overly used phrase but when you dig deep, do you offer it to yourself and what stands in your way?

So much of our experiences of self worth, validation, body image and acceptance is wrapped up in whether we feel lovable. Do you?

I have a few pieces of clothes that my mum saved for me from my own childhood, and in that precious box of her memories are two t shirts, apparently my favourites at one time. They say ‘face it I’m loveable’ across the chest and I imagine this wild spirited mini version of me proudly proclaiming to all how worthy, how wonderful she was. I wonder when that changed for her and I acknowledge that it does for most of us.

Celebrating ourselves can be so uncomfortable and yet so necessary. Can you write a love letter to yourself whether it’s something you’d publish or not?

I’d love to hear about your non-romantic loves, and your experiences of intimacy outside of a sexual context.

I’d like to hold space for the loves we have lost that have taught us just how precious the simplest moments are.

And as a single woman in her 40’s I’d also like to hold space for the dual reality of craving romantic love and feeling like there is something missing, alongside the liberating joy of being unattached and in love with life and the freedom that can come with that.

We’ve explored the role societies expectations have on us as women in many areas. We’ve acknowledged the part they play in how we see ourselves physically, but what of the expectations that we will be paired off and happy and living our happily ever after. How has that shaped your journey so far?

I’m fascinated to see how different our experiences are based on culture and location. Is the way we look at love as universal as the feeling itself?

So much has changed culturally over the past 30 years that the messaging I grew up with is in many ways different from what is being received by young women today. Or is it? I’m eager to hear from our oldest and youngest writers and to explore the differences in outlook. We have so much to teach each other.

A few quotes to mull over…

“We accept the love we think we deserve.” ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

“Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.” ― Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

As always the questions and nudges I’m offering you are just suggestions and I hope that one of them sparks something within you that wants to come to the surface and be shared.

It’s important to be aware that some of these questions may open doors to stories you are not quite ready to share, that’s okay and I urge you to be compassionate with yourself and tread gently.

Consider writing for yourself. As a practice writing is the greatest therapy that we can access privately at a time and place that suits us and I think most of us experience a need to talk through our thoughts before answers crystalise and those ‘aha!’ moments can be achieved. Allow whatever needs to arise to come up and flow out of your pen, or as your fingers fly across the keys of your computer. Decide later what you feel comfortable with sharing with the Modern Women community and the wider Mediumverse.

The world we live in has very clear ideas about how we should show up, the space we are allowed to inhabit and the images we should present of ourselves. In breaking down some of those rules we not only release ourselves but we offer permission to others still trapped and provide language for those who struggle to find their voices as they nod emphatically, with eye glistening and whisper ‘me too.’

Our shared experience as women bridges all divides of culture, religion, race, and geographic location. Your words are the passports to each other, and I cannot wait to read the journeys you will take us on.

For those new to our monthly prompts please note that they are open to you not just for the month in which we release them but for whenever they strike a cord of inspiration within you, so feel free to look back through previous months.

Whether you respond to one of the questions I pose or the overall theme in your own way is entirely up to you, and we welcome work in any style, whether that is poetry, prose, fiction or an essay. The choice is yours.

Our only request is that you share genuine, heartfelt and down-to-earth stories that you think other women might be inspired or empowered by.

If you are submitting a response to a prompt, please include the tag ‘prompt’ when sending it to us and add a link at the bottom of your piece to the prompt you are responding to.

If you’ve never written for Modern Women before, then please do take a moment to read our ‘how to’ guide below.

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