Semester of Graduation
Spring 2026
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Department of English
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
A divorced pilates instructor joins a fraudulent cult in her effort to escape a piece of carnivorous lasagna stalking her. A pair of aspiring pageant princesses compete for thinness only for their overbearing grandmother to grow jealous, stuffing them into an oven and turning them to ash. A middle school documentarian nail-files her face off to garner more views for her videos on the encroaching apocalypse, unintentionally starting a line of DIY plastic surgery products and, as one might guess, meat sourcing.
These are just a few of the storylines in WOMEN LOSING IT, a hybrid short story collection concerned with the increasingly macabre lives of women and girls. Each of these stories magnifies an otherwise ordinary experience to the point at which it becomes irredeemably–and more realistically–absurd. The women in these stories perfect their makeup, suck-in their stomachs, and contort their bodies however they can in order to keep up. These women internalize the absurdity surrounding them until they feel that it is indeed their own selves who are losing it, not the world, after all.
Date
3-17-2026
Recommended Citation
Stanish, Brooke E., "Women Losing It" (2026). LSU Master's Theses. 6294.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/6294
Committee Chair
Clay, Adam
LSU Acknowledgement
1
LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment
1