The upcoming series of blog posts is in honor of ALL the women who can, who do, and who keep on doing – who persist – no matter what. They are part of “You Mean A Woman Can Open It,” MANIFEST (zine) #14 from 2024.
All text and poems ©2026, Jen Payne
Bear artwork by Sohni Ali, website
“You bought yourself a job,” the 60-something male financial advisor said of my successful, 30-year-old business.
I didn’t think to explain the numerous companies I’d assisted over the years, the countless artists, editors, designers, and print shops I’d supported, or the millions of dollars I’d helped local nonprofits raise.
I didn’t think to ask if he would say the same about my male accountant and attorney – both of whom are sole proprietors like myself. No doubt they own “firms” or “practices.”
I didn’t think to say much, except curtly thank him for his time and leave.
For me, the financial planner was just one in a line of men for whom I’ve had NO COMMENT over the years – not the one who felt emasculated because I opened my own doors, the one who took credit for my success because he referred ONE client to me back in 1994, or the one who suggested my leadership abilities equated to a leather-and-whip fetish. I simply let my actions speak louder than any words I might conjure up in the moment of incredulity and outrage.
You see, my actions, always, have been based on the assumption that I can be whatever I want to be, and do whatever I want to do. It’s what my parents taught me. It’s what my role models in the 70s and 80s demonstrated for me – Mary Tyler Moore, Marlo Thomas, Judy Blume, Madeleine Blaise, Madonna, Jane Fonda. It’s what I aspired to, despite the cultural predictions for me in my birth-year horoscope.
And it’s how I’ve lived my life since I was old enough to make my own decisions about things – how I work and play, where I live and love, what I do and how. My own terms. My own expectations.
Of course, that doesn’t sit well with some folks. Mostly male folks of a certain genre. And there have always been attempts to keep me “in my place” – verbally, physically, financially, and so forth. But like so many countless women, I have persevered and succeeded, despite the obstacles and objections.
IT BEARS REPEATING
The upcoming series of blog posts is in honor of ALL the women who can, who do, and who keep on doing – who persist – no matter what. They are part of “You Mean A Woman Can Open It,” MANIFEST (zine) #14.
All text and poems ©2026, Jen Payne
Bear artwork by Sohni Ali, website
IMAGE and TEXT CREDITS FOR THE SERIES:
- You Mean A Woman Can Open It? 1953 Alcoa Aluminum advertisement.
- Well, my boy, let’s get started, from “For me, the perfect hostess is the lady with the whip,” German Artist’s Book, 1960s.
- Best Loved Nursery Rhymes Picture Book, circa 1950s.
- Photos of Ryan Zinke from “Interior Secretary Orders Protester To ‘Be Nice’ During Visit To Bears Ears,” Huffington Post, May 2017.
- Family group on a grave marker from Athens, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
- “An American Girl in Italy,” (Ninalee Craig) by Ruth Orkin, 1951.
- Mess of Fish, Paul Klee
- The coat-stand (Porte manteau), by Man Ray, 1920.
- Calliope, Augustin Pajou, 1763.
- Vogue sewing pattern, 1980s.
- “The history of the pussy bow blouse,” Bethany Armitage, CraftWorld, March 2019.
- Atlas Was a Woman, by Céline (Melle-T), Deviant Art, 2007.
- From the collection of Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) a German-Austrian psychiatrist + early sexologist, 1886.
- “Nevertheless, she persisted” – an expression adopted by feminists, especially in the U.S. after the Senate voted to require Senator Elizabeth Warren to stop speaking during the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.
