Presenting the Pomodoro Penwoman

Greetings!  

For the past, on my, nearly ten years I have been an inconsistent blogger--certainly in the quantity and I dare say in the quality of my blogposts--and I feel a little like I'm cheating on my spouse with this new blogging project.  I've loved SuperCogitansing with you all and I expect I'll be back to it now and again, but I'm trying something new. 

Welcome to Pomodoro Penwoman!

What the heck? Why do you keep naming your blog weird things that no one understands?

 Well... it makes me laugh. And really, I can't think of better reason to do anything.  And I even made a silly logo!

But in all semi-seriousness.  Many of you out there are probably familiar with or at least aware of a time management system called The Pomodoro Technique.  It crossed my radar during my work-from-home-days during the pandemic, as I'm sure it did for many of you as well.  It was a new experience working from home. And coming from a work environment where there were literal bells that rang when it was time to begin a new task, I found it sometimes difficult to maintain a helpful structure. I didn't actually use the Pomodoro Technique then (and I will confess I'm not really using it now either), but I've been wanting to write more and several writer friends swear by it, so I thought I'd give it a chance.  Plus, it makes me think of those adorable tomato-shaped timers, and that alone is worth the experiment. 

My faux Pomodoro will consist of 45 minutes of writing.  Nothing else that isn't strictly related to the writing project allowed. And I want to do it every day.  Yeah, I know that really isn't anything like the Pomodoro Technique... But I will give myself some checkmarks!  And I will practice the intense focus of the Pomodoro Technique. And I'll get to say Pomodoro a lot. 

I decided to call this experiment the Pomodoro Penwoman because, duh, alliteration.  Seriously.  I looked up a large list of words that begin with the letter P, hoping to find, if not inspiration, then at least something passably clever.  Which is not a bad summary of my life philosophy: Not exactly inspired, but passably clever. 

To be honest, though, I didn't actually know the word "penwoman" existed. I had to Google it to make sure! The definition I found: "A female writer, authoress." Which definitely goes along with the whole, writing to do more writing thing I've got going on, so I stopped browsing words before I even got passed the "Pe"s. 

It did make me think, however, which, you know, happens now and again, about the relative infrequency of the term "authoress," which made me think about the sticky situation surrounding gendered terms for careers.  I suppose I think about it most often when I notice a person, specifically a woman, chose the term "actor," rather than "actress" to describe her profession. 

Like so much about gender, the distinction is fraught. On the one hand, we do live in a culture that emphasizes the gender binary and however much we may find that binary stifling or insufficient, I suppose I still fall into the camp that would argue that there are general and specific differences between men and women. Stop me if I've lost you.  And because of those differences, again setting aside whether the differences ought to be as stark or as emphasized or as rigid as they might be, I think it useful, from the point of view of the practical use of language, to have distinct words for distinct ideas.  There might be situations where having the words actor and actress both in use could provide a useful distinction of meaning in a specific context. 

"Deliver this pizza to the actress standing next to those actors."

For instance. 

However, where this all becomes stickier is that the experiences of those on either end of the binary are not the same. And, were all things equal between the sexes, I don't suppose we'd find much to complain about when our gender is identified in our job title. But since that is sadly not the case, the term "actress" unfortunately does not have the same connotation as actor.  It's subtle, but no less pernicious.  There's something about "actress" which sort of implies that you shouldn't be taken as seriously, and you definitely should be paid as much.  So the woman actors who have decided to abandon the term actress are seeking something to put them on the same footing with their male colleagues.  A word that doesn't imply they should be treated differently. And so they've opted for the same word. In fact, I just learned that the Screen Actors Guild Awards gives awards to "Male Actors" and "Female Actors," quite a bit more progressive than their counterparts at the Oscars and the Golden Globes.   

This makes a lot of sense to me (and I'm not getting into what we might do when the first non-binary person is up for an acting award...maybe we'll just abandon the whole thing all together).  

I'm thankful that in countless professions, this isn't even an issue.  You don't have pilotesses, just pilots. And, happily, many of the more ridiculous female-coded job titles have, mercifully, fallen out of use: no more sculptresses, aviatrixes, or usherettes.  And thus goes authoress and penwoman to be retired as well (except, of course, in this blog). 

I can't let the issue lie, however, without one more slight pique. Isn't it shame that we must rely on the male word to be the gender-neutral one?  Poor fragile male egos.  I can't imagine society as a whole adapting "actress" as the gender-neutral one. The male word must be good enough for all of us, if we want to prove we're just as good as men.  So the thinking goes.  Some women even prefer the male term when a gender-neutral one is widely used. Just ask this congressman.

All in all, I'm all for gender-neutral and gender-inclusive language and will attempt to use it widely and often in this blog, except when I write the title of it.  

To tell the truth, I'm rather excited to try on the title "Penwoman." It feels ancient and exclusive, like I'm joining a secret sisterhood of women, sharpening their pens and trying to sort out the world with words.  I don't have a literal pen.  Thank goodness!  I'm so out of practice writing with a pen that I can't imagine trying to write with my hand for forty-five minutes.  My hand hurts just thinking about it. 

Well, my first forty-five minutes is almost up.  I hope you enjoy these petite presents from the Pomodoro Penwoman. It really helps me to have somewhere to put my writing. Somewhere that I can't just lock it away and never let anyone look at it.  Not that I think anyone will really look at this.  

But if you are, thank you.  And I'm sorry. 

And now... CHECKMARK!