On being female and not giving a f*ck.

I have always done what I needed to do, but when I tell people about my childhood and early adulthood and register their responses to my stories, I realize just how unusual my past was. Perhaps not everybody could have done what I did under similar circumstances (if you do not know my story, here’s a partial gist of it).

My friend Lindsay recently posted this article, 12 Historical Women Who Gave No F*cks, asking why my name wasn’t listed. “Because I’m not dead yet,” I answered. If it were listed, though, here’s what I imagine it would say:

I know this post is a little narcissistic and braggy, but men toot their own horns all the fucking time! I’m trying to change my ways.

Callie Neylan was a badass orphan from Colorado who, when she realized she was going nowhere fast in a fundamentalist church married to an abusive husband, kicked her husband out and raised her two children by her fucking self. Not only did she not give two fucks what those religious old white guys thought when she kicked her husband to the curb with two small children clinging to her skirts, she didn’t really give a fuck what God thought, either.

She enrolled in university, graduating with honors despite wiping noses and asses while simultaneously acing math, science, and technical courses along with the boys. She then went on to work at some of the most renowned design, journalism, and technical firms in the world, inspring young female designers – and hell, even some male ones – by kicking ass everywhere and not giving fucks anywhere.

 

And while we’re at it, how about some Good Fucking Design Advice.

 

Coincidentally, I learned about this female example of 100% badassery from a different source on the very same day: Susan Stern, a woman who showed Seattle and the whole world what not giving a fuck while actually giving a fuck could look like.