Tennessee Williams’ Spring Storm paints a picture of a community where the prospects of a woman's life are dictated by her first sexual encounters. We are at risk of that today.
In the 2010s, the burgeoning conversations around consent and the MeToo movement reinforced a sense of emerging equality between the genders. However, just a few years later, the overturn of Roe v. Wade was a harsh reminder that suppressive attitudes towards women's autonomy are alive and well. We would be remiss to believe these attitudes are held only by a distant other unassociated with our progressive communities. It is only human to judge and feel shame. We must be mindful of the ways in which we limit each other’s autonomy.
In 1930s America, the time period in which Spring Storm is set, young women are ostracized for expressing sexual desire. In today’s America, efforts to repress female sexuality and autonomy are manifesting in another way: Limited access to abortion and birth control saddle women who choose to act on their sexual desires with non-terminable pregnancies. Worldwide, we are still unraveling the web of social limitations we have been caught in for centuries.
It was once radical for women to wear pants. Prior to that, the work of female artists could not be published or displayed. May we root out today’s equivalents. May we seek to dispel them just as Tennessee Williams did through his plays. We are still far from equal in treatment. It is our charge to change that.
-- Sophie Rose Hinerfeld
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