“Women can choose.” Ueno asks: under what conditions? If every “choice” is priced—be agreeable or be iced out, have children or have a ceiling, look young or look unemployable— then consent can start to look choreographed. What struck me most is her refusal to romanticize endurance. Patience is not liberation; it’s often delayed payment. She urges readers to track the costs: money, time, social standing, safety. Write them down. See who pays. After that exercise, some of my old stories— “I just prefer to keep my head down,” “I’m not the type to negotiate” — read like scripts I’d been handed. Ueno didn’t tell me what to do. She made it impossible to pretend the stage wasn’t built this way. #Entertainment #Books #Feminism #ChizukoUeno #Patriarchy #GenderStudies