Author(s): Liz Byrski

Fiction

Margot detests shopping malls. Any distraction is welcome, and the woman, who has chained herself to the escalator, shouting about the perils of consumerism, is certainly that. She recognises Dot immediately--from their time campaigning for women's rights, and further back still, to the heyday of the Sydney Push.

Dot is in despair at the abandonment of the sisterhood, at the idea of pole dancing as empowerment and the sight of five-year-olds with false eyelashes and padded bras. She's still a fierce campaigner, but these days she isn't sure where to direct her rage.

Margot's despair is quieter; a haunting resentment that her youthful ambitions have always been shelved to attend to the needs of others. Together the two women turn to the past for solutions for the future.