I N H E R O W N R I G H T

She asked us what we were taught about Sylvia Plath. No one hesitated: crazy, suicidal, an unfit mother. They recite it to us in the rooms we’re meant to learn in: Here is what women have been. Here is what women are. (Can you feel your smallness? Have I done my job?) 

Do you want to know the true story of Sylvia? She was prescribed a medicine, illegal now, that altered her mental state. She realized what was happening before it was too late and got off the medication. Years later, needing a prescription again, her doctor ignored her when she said, It can’t be this one. Anything but this one. He gave her that one. She did not survive it. 

She had us raise our right hands, hundreds of women together, as we swore: I will tell the true story of Sylvia Plath to everyone I meet. She said she was recruiting an army to correct the record. She reminded us stories determine who we call crazy and who we call genius.