Until she was converted to feminism, my mother used to write 'string' on her shopping lists when she meant 'tampons' or 'sanitary towels'. I have long been fascinated by this - the unspeakable being unwriteable; the panoptic sense of surveillance which means that you are accountable for what you write in so private and impermanent a medium as a shopping list (although perhaps she was wise to feel visible ); the imagined dialogue with yourself in the shop 'ah yes, it says string here, I must have... read more
