My name is Tatty and I am a difficult woman.

The challenge with being a difficult woman is that it is no challenge at all, so, I invite us all to sit as comfortably as we can in being occasionally deemed a nightmare.

I had a boyfriend a couple of years ago who was a music video director which sounds a lot more glamorous than it is. In reality you spend most of your time pitching for work rather than actually doing it. Less MTV more Powerpoint. One of his, rare, successful pitches was for the British singer Jess Glynne. This was back in 2019 when she was at the pinnacle of her fame, Clean Bandits’ “Rather Be” was THE track of the summer and as omnipresent as Love Island. It was a big deal and I was happy for him.

He came home after a production meeting and informed me that it was no longer happening. I was confused “But I thought they approved your concept?” “They did” he replied, “the music label love it but Jess is just being really difficult.” He says this in that conspiratorial tone reserved for mid-morning gossip sessions in the office kitchen.

I can feel a feminist rumbling inside of me. I know he’s gutted about the job but anytime a woman is described as “difficult” my fanny clenches and not in a good way. “Tread delicately” I tell myself as I feel the angry blood of my ancestors pulses through my labia- there must be a perfectly logical explanation for this…“Basically” he says “the label have developed this whole concept for her and apparently she’s just like ‘I don’t like it’ and wants to do something completely different.” Or not.