I've shied away from sylvia plath for most of my life and I think I will stay away. I also have had the amazing privilege of having read wide sargasso sea thank god
i also read wide sargasso sea and loved it!! a literary palate cleanser; if the rebuttal to my book was better than anything i'd ever written, i would off myself 🙃
i just want to get this clear: as far as i remember bertha was a mixed race woman right? and that her family owned plantations built on the backs on indigenous black people of the land and who revolted against bertha and family?
Agreed! There's just no excuse for not reading beyond dead white ladies. There's a whole world of literature out there waiting to expand your brain and perspective. Absolutely brilliant Ayan!
i love how this woman can be such a talent, and after enduring multiple rapes and abusive relationships takes her life, a lasting symbol for artists and feminists
…but nope shes a ‘dead’ white lady - absolutely stunning youd refer to someone who easily be alive if not for men driving them to an early grave this way - so her very existence makes her responsible for all the ills of the world
I love Sylvia Plath. She is one of my favorite authors. I’m merely making the point that there is sooo much more out there to consume that also has value! Sylvia Plath addressed pressing issues of sexism and mental health treatment that were relevant and urgent to her time. These issues still have relevance today, but there are issues now that are more pressing and more relevant, and there are amazing contemporary authors addressing them. However, they do not receive the attention that a "canonical" deceased white author like Sylvia Plath does, and that's problematic to me. I apologize if my tone came off as flippant.
This conundrum translates so well to the theatre world. For both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, the utter shock that would display on white faces when I didn't know every single f*****g Tennessee Williams play or Sondheim musical, but then it's crickets when I ask them if they are familiar with the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, etc. And it messed with my head for so long because I thought my cultural knowledge was inferior and those racist experiences made my journey to finding my artistic voice unnecessarily tumultuous. The 'canon' almost always means White, European, Western. Thank you for sharing and gathering these thought-less daughters.
Ayan I'm sat here wondering if we were in the same lit classes at uni! At mine the thought daughters iced me out immediately for suggesting taylor swift wasn't a literary genius, sat silently when a white boy in the class droned on and on about how race played no role in discrimination and exclaimed with wonder at how good my English was despite the fact that I was also sat in the same seminars as them.
jesus christ?! i feel like we should start a support group for all non-white literature students; the stories we could exchange alone would put anything on television to shame.
“when the revolution comes, they’ll be too busy trying to save their copies of the handmaids tale from the government buildings we’ll burn to the ground.”
SO good. If I have to hear one more conversation about getting activist burnout from english lit classes…
This is definitely going on my list of pieces I’ll be thinking about forever. You inspire me SO MUCH. All of your pieces are so entertaining and moving and inspiring and you WILL be referred to as THE biggest voice of my generation to my future kids for sure
I'm yet to read jane eyre but asking who one of the main characters of a book you shallowly praised to interupt your point is insane. I hate when people defend bigotry in classic literature with "it was a product of their time" like there weren't Black people in the past that had to deal with racism and naturally oppose it. Brilliant essay as always, Ayan.
my darling thank you for not only reading, but for sharing too. i HATE that we're expected to be the ones doing all the emotional labour in these classes. the 10 things i hate about you callout is SO real i'm almost upset at myself for not clocking it myself. the fact that you're seeking work beyond yourself is evidence of your openmindedness already; we are all born trapped in our own contexts, so having blind spots is natural. that's nothing to be ashamed of; actively choosing to stay ignorant is and you're not that. may every good thing find you angel ✨️ ❤️
as usual, another endlessly quotable and searingly pertinent piece by you miss ayan. i would have given little miss village the filthiest fucking side eye had i been in the room that day. my own experience at university was similarly fraught with sharing classrooms with “thought daughters” which is to say white women (and plenty of nonblack women unfortunately as well) who have too often proved that a university education does not, cannot, and will not compensate for the fact that some of y’all genuinely act and speak like you were raised by wolves. thank you for once again validating my unofficial self-titled position as “that one girl in class who will always make it about race.”
I thank you, specifically for the "everything is dystopian because they have never looked outside long enough to see that this is our reality; they’re too busy filming what’s in my bag videos set to chopin’s prelude in e minor to contend with something that requires as much self-interrogation as intersectionality." part because my country is witnessing a major resistance movement against injustice and years of tyranny for the last two months. I was and still am losing my mind. I am scared, for my own safety, for my friends' safety, for our future — I thought it was jealousy that they got to film what's in my bag videos and sing in the streets, meanwhile, our streets are filled with nothing but chants for liberation. It is unfair. No one, not even the white "reading is political. that's why i read" side spared a second. The same happened with Iran, where cutting hair was reduced to a trend. When they read from my country, shitty authors who talked about this issues in the past, they praise them, call those books tragedies or "dystopic". But hey, if you criticize thought daughters, you are a misogynist because how dare you attempt to shatter their sacred fantasy?
Hi I rarely comment on pieces because I don’t really know what to say, but this was AMAZING!! Like if I had to print articles to distribute to the public, this would be it!! I still feel like I don’t have the words to say but know that this is my favourite piece to date!!
I've only just come across your works through a YouTuber mentioning "in defense of pretension" (aDORED it BTW, ended up sharing that one with like 8 of my friends who also loved it) and I have to say that I've been voraciously reading your posts since. This piece really resonates with my own struggle in college classes being one of the few POCs where professors would also look at me to stir the pot. Unfortunately I was never as articulate as I wanted to be, being put on the spot and all, but the dread of "thought girls" was always and probably will continue to be there. Honestly I just thought about the girl from 10 Things I Hate About You and how she was also a self proclaimed feminist, but when put on the spot by her male black English teacher about black authors and you see her own perspective of the world crack in that moment I can't help but feel an incredible amount of satisfaction. I'm still on my own reading journey knowing that my views are still rather limited due to what was drip fed to us from public school and being in my own gray area of trying to find more Asian focused narratives with female voices, in fiction& non fictional settings. Still I strive to expand myself with the limited time we have on this earth and hopefully maybe be more self assured in my own version of "radical views" which really is just, It's Okay to Not Know Everything, But Don't Choose To Be Ignorant (ack i wrote so much ahfcslfsdahf, if you read this all the way through I hope your pillow is cool and that your drink is always at the perfect temperature on that first sip <3)
I think I disagree with about half of it, starting with Jane Eyre. I liked the novel. While the racism is undeniable and somewhat understandable given the time, I don’t think it diminishes the actual depth of the story.
Second, the dislike of the “thought daughter” idea—I find that confusing. Why do we believe in this intellectual hierarchy? Why do you have to crawl through thousands of checkpoints to be awarded the dignity of a simple title? Any woman who considers herself reflective, studied, or simply in love with thinking should be allowed to call herself a thought daughter. Why are we gatekeeping that now too?
I do agree with the points about dystopia and how some white “thought daughters” can be self-indulgent. I also agree that racism is too often excused just because “those were different times.” But the other points didn’t sit quite right with me.
Also, pardon me for the assumption, but you mentioned a headscarf and it made me wonder—if you are Muslim, does a part of you ever feel uneasy embracing certain feminist ideals while knowing that your sisters just a few countries away are suffering under the same institutions you show pride in? I don’t believe in choice feminism, but I do respect when women choose religion for themselves. I don’t think all religious women are indoctrinated. Maybe your love for your faith is genuine, but even then, how do you reconcile that with the fact that you’re participating in an institution that’s long been one of women’s greatest oppressors, while still holding feminist values?
Again, apologies if I’m misinterpreting or if you're not Muslim—I know other groups also wear headscarves. I'm asking out of genuine curiosity, not disrespect.
By your comment, and I hope you pardon the assumption, it appears that you belong to the exact demographic she has written about and your disagreements seem to be stemming from a misreading of what she has said. Not trying to speak for her though
You did it again! This piece felt so raw and powerful! I finally feel seen despite not being a literature student. The eurocentrism in alot of programs/classes in university has definitely some scars in me and some of my friends.
you literally took every thought out of my mind, you are so brilliant it's actually crazy, please never ever stop writing or speaking about things that matter.
this was absolutely amazing. poetic in its own right and with sharp commentary i’ve been trying to peddle to my white professors for years. you nailed it. right down to the definition of ‘thought daughter’ and the severe lack of thought in them. mind blowing!
I've shied away from sylvia plath for most of my life and I think I will stay away. I also have had the amazing privilege of having read wide sargasso sea thank god
i also read wide sargasso sea and loved it!! a literary palate cleanser; if the rebuttal to my book was better than anything i'd ever written, i would off myself 🙃
same and i could never be happier
i just want to get this clear: as far as i remember bertha was a mixed race woman right? and that her family owned plantations built on the backs on indigenous black people of the land and who revolted against bertha and family?
this is so fucking brilliant
Agreed! There's just no excuse for not reading beyond dead white ladies. There's a whole world of literature out there waiting to expand your brain and perspective. Absolutely brilliant Ayan!
caroline my love thank you as ever for reading and for just getting it ❤️ ❤️
i love how this woman can be such a talent, and after enduring multiple rapes and abusive relationships takes her life, a lasting symbol for artists and feminists
…but nope shes a ‘dead’ white lady - absolutely stunning youd refer to someone who easily be alive if not for men driving them to an early grave this way - so her very existence makes her responsible for all the ills of the world
brain dead
I love Sylvia Plath. She is one of my favorite authors. I’m merely making the point that there is sooo much more out there to consume that also has value! Sylvia Plath addressed pressing issues of sexism and mental health treatment that were relevant and urgent to her time. These issues still have relevance today, but there are issues now that are more pressing and more relevant, and there are amazing contemporary authors addressing them. However, they do not receive the attention that a "canonical" deceased white author like Sylvia Plath does, and that's problematic to me. I apologize if my tone came off as flippant.
Well said. Self-absorption is the miserable consequence of our individualist consumption-driven culture. Have you taken on Henry Miller?
not my bag tbh, fucked w it in undergrad to check the vibe and while i love his poetry and correspondence w Anaïs Nin him to himself didnt compel me
not to say its lacking it just didnt click for ya’ boi
🥹❤️❤️❤️ thank you my love
This conundrum translates so well to the theatre world. For both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, the utter shock that would display on white faces when I didn't know every single f*****g Tennessee Williams play or Sondheim musical, but then it's crickets when I ask them if they are familiar with the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, etc. And it messed with my head for so long because I thought my cultural knowledge was inferior and those racist experiences made my journey to finding my artistic voice unnecessarily tumultuous. The 'canon' almost always means White, European, Western. Thank you for sharing and gathering these thought-less daughters.
Our canon is so beautiful and expansive, yet they will convince us that our perspective is limited by race. It's frustrating.
exactly! we were never lacking.
Ayan I'm sat here wondering if we were in the same lit classes at uni! At mine the thought daughters iced me out immediately for suggesting taylor swift wasn't a literary genius, sat silently when a white boy in the class droned on and on about how race played no role in discrimination and exclaimed with wonder at how good my English was despite the fact that I was also sat in the same seminars as them.
jesus christ?! i feel like we should start a support group for all non-white literature students; the stories we could exchange alone would put anything on television to shame.
“when the revolution comes, they’ll be too busy trying to save their copies of the handmaids tale from the government buildings we’ll burn to the ground.”
SO good. If I have to hear one more conversation about getting activist burnout from english lit classes…
This is definitely going on my list of pieces I’ll be thinking about forever. You inspire me SO MUCH. All of your pieces are so entertaining and moving and inspiring and you WILL be referred to as THE biggest voice of my generation to my future kids for sure
my heart 🥹🥹 know that i love you and everything you write. you inspire ME. i'm just trying to keep up with YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I'm yet to read jane eyre but asking who one of the main characters of a book you shallowly praised to interupt your point is insane. I hate when people defend bigotry in classic literature with "it was a product of their time" like there weren't Black people in the past that had to deal with racism and naturally oppose it. Brilliant essay as always, Ayan.
my darling thank you for not only reading, but for sharing too. i HATE that we're expected to be the ones doing all the emotional labour in these classes. the 10 things i hate about you callout is SO real i'm almost upset at myself for not clocking it myself. the fact that you're seeking work beyond yourself is evidence of your openmindedness already; we are all born trapped in our own contexts, so having blind spots is natural. that's nothing to be ashamed of; actively choosing to stay ignorant is and you're not that. may every good thing find you angel ✨️ ❤️
as usual, another endlessly quotable and searingly pertinent piece by you miss ayan. i would have given little miss village the filthiest fucking side eye had i been in the room that day. my own experience at university was similarly fraught with sharing classrooms with “thought daughters” which is to say white women (and plenty of nonblack women unfortunately as well) who have too often proved that a university education does not, cannot, and will not compensate for the fact that some of y’all genuinely act and speak like you were raised by wolves. thank you for once again validating my unofficial self-titled position as “that one girl in class who will always make it about race.”
I thank you, specifically for the "everything is dystopian because they have never looked outside long enough to see that this is our reality; they’re too busy filming what’s in my bag videos set to chopin’s prelude in e minor to contend with something that requires as much self-interrogation as intersectionality." part because my country is witnessing a major resistance movement against injustice and years of tyranny for the last two months. I was and still am losing my mind. I am scared, for my own safety, for my friends' safety, for our future — I thought it was jealousy that they got to film what's in my bag videos and sing in the streets, meanwhile, our streets are filled with nothing but chants for liberation. It is unfair. No one, not even the white "reading is political. that's why i read" side spared a second. The same happened with Iran, where cutting hair was reduced to a trend. When they read from my country, shitty authors who talked about this issues in the past, they praise them, call those books tragedies or "dystopic". But hey, if you criticize thought daughters, you are a misogynist because how dare you attempt to shatter their sacred fantasy?
Hi I rarely comment on pieces because I don’t really know what to say, but this was AMAZING!! Like if I had to print articles to distribute to the public, this would be it!! I still feel like I don’t have the words to say but know that this is my favourite piece to date!!
this just made my day darling xx sending you all my love. thank you for reading.
I've only just come across your works through a YouTuber mentioning "in defense of pretension" (aDORED it BTW, ended up sharing that one with like 8 of my friends who also loved it) and I have to say that I've been voraciously reading your posts since. This piece really resonates with my own struggle in college classes being one of the few POCs where professors would also look at me to stir the pot. Unfortunately I was never as articulate as I wanted to be, being put on the spot and all, but the dread of "thought girls" was always and probably will continue to be there. Honestly I just thought about the girl from 10 Things I Hate About You and how she was also a self proclaimed feminist, but when put on the spot by her male black English teacher about black authors and you see her own perspective of the world crack in that moment I can't help but feel an incredible amount of satisfaction. I'm still on my own reading journey knowing that my views are still rather limited due to what was drip fed to us from public school and being in my own gray area of trying to find more Asian focused narratives with female voices, in fiction& non fictional settings. Still I strive to expand myself with the limited time we have on this earth and hopefully maybe be more self assured in my own version of "radical views" which really is just, It's Okay to Not Know Everything, But Don't Choose To Be Ignorant (ack i wrote so much ahfcslfsdahf, if you read this all the way through I hope your pillow is cool and that your drink is always at the perfect temperature on that first sip <3)
I think I disagree with about half of it, starting with Jane Eyre. I liked the novel. While the racism is undeniable and somewhat understandable given the time, I don’t think it diminishes the actual depth of the story.
Second, the dislike of the “thought daughter” idea—I find that confusing. Why do we believe in this intellectual hierarchy? Why do you have to crawl through thousands of checkpoints to be awarded the dignity of a simple title? Any woman who considers herself reflective, studied, or simply in love with thinking should be allowed to call herself a thought daughter. Why are we gatekeeping that now too?
I do agree with the points about dystopia and how some white “thought daughters” can be self-indulgent. I also agree that racism is too often excused just because “those were different times.” But the other points didn’t sit quite right with me.
Also, pardon me for the assumption, but you mentioned a headscarf and it made me wonder—if you are Muslim, does a part of you ever feel uneasy embracing certain feminist ideals while knowing that your sisters just a few countries away are suffering under the same institutions you show pride in? I don’t believe in choice feminism, but I do respect when women choose religion for themselves. I don’t think all religious women are indoctrinated. Maybe your love for your faith is genuine, but even then, how do you reconcile that with the fact that you’re participating in an institution that’s long been one of women’s greatest oppressors, while still holding feminist values?
Again, apologies if I’m misinterpreting or if you're not Muslim—I know other groups also wear headscarves. I'm asking out of genuine curiosity, not disrespect.
By your comment, and I hope you pardon the assumption, it appears that you belong to the exact demographic she has written about and your disagreements seem to be stemming from a misreading of what she has said. Not trying to speak for her though
You did it again! This piece felt so raw and powerful! I finally feel seen despite not being a literature student. The eurocentrism in alot of programs/classes in university has definitely some scars in me and some of my friends.
you literally took every thought out of my mind, you are so brilliant it's actually crazy, please never ever stop writing or speaking about things that matter.
MY DARLING I LOVE YOU you are the brilliant one 🥹❤️❤️❤️❤️
this was absolutely amazing. poetic in its own right and with sharp commentary i’ve been trying to peddle to my white professors for years. you nailed it. right down to the definition of ‘thought daughter’ and the severe lack of thought in them. mind blowing!