"Claudia" Poem

Title

"Claudia" Poem

Subject

Feminism, Lesbian culture

Description

A poem written by Susan Sojourner about a lesbian female worker named Claudia who was fired from her job.

Source

Susan Hasalo Sojourner Collection, M539, Historical Manuscripts, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

Date

1980-03-15

Rights

Copyright not evaluated.

Format

Image/gif

Language

En

Type

Text

Original Format

Typed poem

Files

Page 1 of typed poem titled claudia<br /> <br /> claudia didn't get fired for being a lesbian though the idea certainly disgusted george her immediate "superior" harold the personnel director and christina her old college chum whose belief that such proclivities were unhealthy was shared by her colleagues.<br /> <br /> claudia did not get fired for being too fat overweight to the point of massive<br /> <br /> though the chairman knew something was wrong with the new girl being assigned to the front office right outside his door (with senior staff men grimacing in joking astonishment at her size).<br /> <br /> and claudia didn't get fired for being a psychic hearing other voices seeing auras <br /> <br /> she only brought that to the office when asked -- they'd arrange a session over lunch in an empty office (for pay) (a professional psychic).<br /> <br /> but it was only with believers and not the reason claudia was fired.
Page 2 of typed poem titled claudia<br /> <br /> george said no longer the afterhours phone call she had freely loudly had having wrongly assumed he had left for home? or just her not proofreading letters, worrying him to catch her typos, answering his phone without sayin Doctor So-and-So but simply George S-&-S....<br /> <br /> harold said it was her poor typing, sloppiness, but also pushy aggressiveness -- too difficult to get along with believing she alone knows the only way keeping overdetailed account of her comp time with only herself to count her overtime.<br /> <br /> if she were even one-tenth what she believes herself to be -- skills and execution -- but she's not, harold says, she's less.<br /> <br /> yet - if claudia were a normal weight heterosexual with more suitable clothing and less weird voices who didn't need so to be so pushy and aggressive to survive in a world where she barely survives (or, perhaps if she were male) then she would have survived staying on indefinitely in a place where inefficiency and sloppiness are rarely cause for dismissal and where for no one reason but for a combination of all the above claudia did get fired.<br /> <br /> today was her last day.<br /> <br /> susan sojourner<br /> 15 march 1980<br /> <br /> red handwritten note: tighter cut (illegible) slow

Citation

“"Claudia" Poem,” Online Exhibits at Southern Miss, accessed September 25, 2023, https://usmspecialcollections.omeka.net/items/show/366.

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