{"id":57872,"date":"2026-01-26T01:49:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=57872"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:25:18","slug":"dulle-griet-stages-a-new-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/dulle-griet-stages-a-new-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Dulle Griet Stages a New Assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>Sexism\/gender discrimination<\/li><li> Shaming<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p>(after the painting by Bruegel the Elder)<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<i>One woman makes a din,<\/i><br \/>\nhammering her stewpot into a sword,<br \/>\nclashing into armor that clashes<br \/>\nwith her apron and skirt,<br \/>\nand when told to be quiet,<br \/>\nnevertheless she persists.<\/p>\n<p><i>Two women make a lot of trouble<\/i>,<br \/>\ngossiping in corners about<br \/>\nhexes of protection, spells<br \/>\nto summon higher pay, about<br \/>\nsecrets they were told<br \/>\nno one would ever believe\u2014<br \/>\nsecrets, it turns out, too many<br \/>\nof them share.<\/p>\n<p><i>Three women make an annual market<\/i>,<br \/>\ngathering to sell<br \/>\nsafety, solidarity, sympathy, strength,<br \/>\ncommodities closed out<br \/>\nof the official economy\u2014<br \/>\nand when they are told<br \/>\nthey have enough, their hands are full,<br \/>\nthey point at the gold-<br \/>\nstuffed storehouses of men and ask,<br \/>\nhow much can your hands hold<br \/>\nand yet still grab our assets?<\/p>\n<p><i>Four women make a quarrel,<\/i><br \/>\na squabble, a spat,<br \/>\nany term trimming them down<br \/>\nto triviality\u2014inevitable debates<br \/>\nover strategy and blame,<br \/>\npersonalities prickling<br \/>\nas people perpetually do,<br \/>\nfault lines forming into factions,<br \/>\nimpatience taking a match to the market<br \/>\nand threatening to burn it all down<br \/>\nfor the flaw of imperfection,<br \/>\nwhile behind the smoke screen,<br \/>\nthe enemy fans the flame.<\/p>\n<p><i>Five women make an army<\/i>,<br \/>\nmarching arm in arm,<br \/>\nfractious, ferocious,<br \/>\nraiding at the very gates of Hell<br \/>\nto free those souls unjustly chained<br \/>\nand lock up the ones whose sins<br \/>\nhave gone too long excused,<br \/>\nto bedevil the comfortable<br \/>\nand comfort the bedeviled,<br \/>\nto resolve an unholy din<br \/>\ninto holy chorus, many voices<br \/>\nraised like the dead<br \/>\nfrom the silence<br \/>\nof oppression\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n<p><i>And against six the Devil himself has no weapon.<\/i><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><i>[Editor\u2019s Note: You can <a href=\"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/poem-analysis-dulle-griet-stages-a-new-assault\/\">click here <\/a>to read Marie Brennan\u2019s notes on the poem, a part of our criticism special.]<\/i><\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>safety, solidarity, sympathy, strength,<br \/>\ncommodities closed out<br \/>\nof the official economy\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[719,730],"class_list":["post-57872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-content-warning","tag-no-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-f3q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57872"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58438,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57872\/revisions\/58438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}