Milk and Pea Oppression

Milk and Pea Oppression is a first-person essay written from a child's point-of-view. A daughter's perspective on life growing up being shuffled between two households as a child of divorce. It is about being a product of the 70s, the Brady Bunch era, the world of commercialism, television and an overdose of advertising; and it is about recognizing power-and-control dynamics among parents and also within the world at large.

Many of us remember being forced to eat or drink something at the dinner table as children. Milk and Pea Oppression takes that experience to a whole new level, tying it in with the over-televised culture of a generation growing up with Tom and Jerry cartoons, Shrinky Dink commercials and Folgers Coffee. Through a humorous, touching and eye-opening narration, the author of Milk and Pea Oppression articulately explains how forcing someone to drink milk can result in an examination of the patriarch, our mass consumerism and the fact that newer generations can more easily hum the tune to a Coke commercial, than recall important pieces of history, or what legislation is being passed as they turn on the tube to watch another episode of American Idol.

S.R. Coleyon is a writer and dog walker living and working in Philadelphia, Pa., who's been balancing these two careers for more than 16 years. She's written about that logo on your pen, adhesives on labels, active-living retirees, the lgbtq community, Canadian Geese and so much more. Milk and Pea Oppression is a tongue-and-cheek first-person essay reflecting on her upbringing, commercialism, step families, the patriarch and, maybe most of all, food!