One of my favorite things about reading the biblical text is imagining the scenes outside of the narrative. In one of my classes recently, I had the opportunity to think about the opening chapter of the book of Esther, and imagine what happened at the women’s banquet when the Eunuchs tried to bring Vashti before the king. I modeled my imagining off the work of Wil Gafney, whose Womanist Midrash is much loved by a wide array of Bible nerds, scholars, and ministers. In this scene, I’ve given voice to Vashti’s refusal to come before the king, and brought to the forefront the women who are tied to arrogant, selfish, incompetent men finally hit a breaking point.

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You can command me all you want to, but I already told you, I’m not going. Ahasuerus and his pretend friends won’t get the honor of seeing me in their midst. I don’t dance for fools. And I’m sure as hell not a play-thing for men, not even for my great husband, the King.

Oh, don’t worry about yourselves. Listen to me—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, Carkas—did the King ever do anything that his ministers didn’t tell him to? No! And he’s not going to start thinking for himself now.

I can tell you what is most important to men like Ahasuerus and Memucan, and it’s not pretty women like me that they can use for their own amusement—it’s that they appear powerful, because they know in their hearts that they are weak. They’ll blame me for all of this, not you. Because if they get rid of you, who then will keep watch over all the other girls that Ahasuerus likes to play with? Hmmm? You’ll be fine.

I’ll be punished in some way I’m sure, but it doesn’t matter. I’m done with being a toy for a man who is too insecure to figure out anything on his own, and who treats women as if they were just another of his possessions to be shown as a display of his power. He can get someone else to show off to his “friends.” I’m not going to be a tool to assuage his ego. Not anymore. And you can tell him I said that! If he has a problem with it, tell him he can come down here and say it to my face.