Short story- thing
Stars turn into spirits turn into the women they once were, climbing down their rope ladder, chewing wild onions and cracking jokes about all that they've seen.
Stone turns to men turns to the husbands they once were, stoic and traditional, used to indulging their women. They grumble about their foolish wives and go to meet them.
Coyote laughs.
Seven women work high profile jobs, enjoy sex and capture the hearts of a nation with their charisma, light hearted feminist agenda and wisdom gathered from years of keen observation.
Seven men work blue-collar jobs doing carpentry for local families. They spend their evenings in bowling alleys and abars, weekends at shooting galleries and local fishing spots. Beer is omnipresent.
Coyote laughs.
Seven women and more than seven boyfriends. "Open relationships, people."
Seven men and seven brides-to-be, pretty, vapid, and unemployed.
Coyote laughs.
Cooking shows - "Eat what you want to eat." Clothing lines - "Wear what you want to wear."
Seven new wives watch seven old wives and begin to talk.
A variation of the original story can be found here.
Seven wives, all sisters, find and eat wild onions. The onions are their favorite food, but the husbands hate the smell and make the wives sleep outside when they eat them. The wives are good friends and sort of talk together about how awful their husbands are and decide to run away. So they cast their eagle feather ropes, take some wild onions, and climb into the sky, where they turn into stars.
The husbands try to get them to come back, but they won't stay with them unless they can eat wild onions. The husbands, in a sort of typical misogynistic way, assume that their wives will eventually come back. Since they won't be moved, they decided to wait and are eventually turned into stone.
... stupid husbands and stupid society. Everyone should be allowed to eat what they want - if they were annoyed their wives smelled, there would be easier dialogues than "you can't sleep inside if you eat wild onions." Also, if it really was SUCH an issue there should be easier ways for wives to leave their husbands.
(Although, you wonder how much the women liked their husbands if they realized they wouldn't sleep with them if they ate the onions. Maybe it was coming anyway)