She Must Be Mad – Marie Prichard

She is a lady, a loving wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, and an educated, contributing member of society. And fuck is her favorite word.

Is she mad?

Fuck. Fuck me. Fuck you. Fuck it. A well-placed fuck used alone, as a noun or as a verb, makes all the difference in the world when she’s expressing herself.

When she’s in a good mood, she likes to say it with a smile on her face and a lilt in her voice: “Fuck yeah!”

When she’s sad, she can stretch it out for an impressive amount of time: “Fuuuuuuuuuuuck me.”

But when she’s enraged––and she finds herself enraged quite a bit these days––the words just bubble up and out they come: “Fuck! Fuck you! Fuck it! Fuck off! FUCK!”

I wonder if she’s mad?

To those who tell her that fuck is not a dainty or ladylike word, she says, “Who the fuck cares?”

If she needs to get someone’s attention, you can bet your sweet little dimpled ass she’s going to add a well-placed fuck. If she needs to express how angry she is at what’s happening in our country, fuck in all its variations is the word for her.

I suppose she could be mad.

When she listens to the news about white men in the government taking away abortion rights, she rages. She becomes incensed.

She screams, “Fuck you!” to those misogynistic pieces of shit who think they can control women through their bodies.

I bet she’s mad.

When she reads a Facebook post from a so-called Christian, preaching against gay marriage, preaching against her marriage, using their bible as a weapon, her blood boils until it explodes through her veins.

“Fuck off!” gets slammed across the keyboard and splashes across the screen.

I think she’s mad.

The word gets hurled against the walls when she sees the person in charge of our country and his supporters on television. Their unchecked, gleeful bigotry disgusts her.

The Make America Great chants, the “there are good guys on both sides” interviews, the narcissism, the gaslighting, the insidious use of power against the helpless festers until “FUCK!” is ripped from her throat.

I’m pretty sure she’s mad.

Build that wall … build that wall … the battle cry of racism that has caused children to be wrenched from their parents lost and forever damaged, locked in cages, left in facilities that “shouldn’t be compared to concentration camps because that would just be wrong” makes her chant, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

She must be mad.

So, to those who say that fuck is not a dainty or ladylike word, you may or may not agree with her. You might have already judged her to be a dreadful person, someone who is un-dainty and un-ladylike. Perhaps just reading this has insulted your oh-so-delicate sensibilities. Maybe you think she cares. But guess what? She doesn’t. Because she has zero dainty, ladylike fucks left to give.

She’s mad.


Marie Prichard is a longtime writer and educator. She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her wife, their two wiener dogs, and a Munchkin cat. She loves reading, writing, walking the beach, and filling her wife’s pockets with heart rocks. You can read more of her writing on Medium

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