The Indignities of Being a Woman

An Audible Original

Written and Performed By: Merrill Markoe, Megan Koester

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Markoe and Koester knock this one outta the park!

Or may I, perhaps, pretty please, call them Merrill and Megan, as I feel they are now close personal friends after experiencing 8 hours of hell and hilarity with them?

Two childless comedians, one who’s seen a lot of life, and one who’s navigating her foray into adulthood in today’s society, taking on the world! Merrill tells us the history of women/society/religion, etc. from ancient times to the 20th century, and Megan tells us all such histories from the 20th century through to our current heyday of the 21st.

And I had no ideeeeeea!

And I had to stop several times between bitesize portions of history/the current environment. Because I had to fume, sputter, stamp my foot, laugh out loud, digest food that simply would NOT digest cuz I was getting so sickened by what I heard.

But I carried on as this was our audiobook club’s pick (thanks, Mom!), and a tremendous discussion was to be had after all was said and done, and the credits rolled. The Indignities of Being a Woman was a hit for all of us. Alllll of us. …alllll threeeee of us (Hey! Three is PLENTY!!!). We had a rollicking good time talking about whether it was better now, or just as bad. Because Megan brought up some pretty awful indignities to follow Merrill’s horrors from history. Whoulda thunk that ancient Egypt was waaaaay better for women than those enlightened Greeks? Ancient Greece was simply awful! We laughed too cuz Merrill would regress to past lives where she was living those horrors, in a desperately funny way.

I suppose desperate is a good word for the content of this audiobook. It makes your toes curl even as your mind jumps and twists, your brain does little flops and free falls as you try to comprehend all that women have gone through. Megan and Merrill cover everything from marriage, status, body image/views on bodily functions, religion, fashion, and where I reeeeally had to stop for breathers: Politics. Oy vey! I was in a tailspin, I tell you! A veritable tailspin!

All of it, however, is told with suuuuuuuch humor, some of it in-your-face, but oh so funny. Which is good cuz I probably would’ve keeled over dead if it had been told straight-man style. My Mom kinda had a problem with the speed of Megan’s delivery, felt like she was talking too fast, as tho’ simply trying to get it all over with, but I didn’t really feel that. She just seemed a tad bitter, but just a tad. Both she and Merrill were quite open with the indignities and flat-out abuse and degradation they’ve suffered in their lives, and that made it all the more real to me, possibly to all.

I listened to this at x1 speed, I know, I know! I NEVER listen to anything at that speed, but really. With this audiobook, I wanted to, would “savor” be too odd a word to describe a hilarious HORROR show?!? Cuz that’s what I did: I saaaaavored every wickedly clever comment, every deliciously candid turn of phrase!

Expect a bit of profanity and very, very OPEN discussions. It took me awhile to get used to the openness, as I live my life in shaaaaame, so this was all quite new to me.

But do also expect to laugh, to have your eyes opened, to be motivated to stand up, speak out. You might even be inspired to act.

Reeeeeally!!!