Aubrey Hirsch is the author of Why We Never Talk About Sugar, a collection of short stories, and This Will Be His Legacy, a flash fiction chapbook. Her stories, essays and comics have appeared widely in print and online in places like American Short Fiction, The New York Times, The Nib, Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, The Toast,Brain, Child Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Florida Review, and in the New York Times Bestselling anthology, Not That Bad.
Aubrey earned her MFA in fiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh, where she worked as a teaching assistant teaching first-year composition courses as well as introductory courses in creative writing and fiction writing. She has also taught writing and literature courses in BA and MFA programs at Chatham University, Georgia College and State University, The Colorado College and Oberlin College.
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I sat with this for a while before I realized that I have experienced this most palpably as a mother worried that men would turn their anger to physical aggression towards my children. I read an article on preventing child abuse from New Zealand that recommend bringing tea to your partner to calm their aggression towards your children. I have internalized this idea of bringing tea to mean a whole host of pacifying behaviors (massage, affirmations, housework). Thanks for helping me see this for what it is.
Thank you for sharing. When I was little I learned I was not allowed to be angry. It was not for me. 50 years later, I still struggle with allowing myself to feel angry.