Lisa, I finally got around to reading your first few posts and love them. I found this sentence particularly powerful: "Make them feel terrible about their looks, and they will buy anything." So much of we all struggle with - whether we are trans, gender non conforming or just trying to be ourselves - is really about patriarchy. Also, you make me very thankful for the copy of "our bodies our selves" that made me cringe as a tween.
Thanks for writing about this. I wasted years hating my body. Depression, eating disorder etc. Yes of course everything is complex but underneath it all lies this substratum out of which spring these sad things that derail our female lives…gendered expectations that we should fit the mould of the day. Second wave feminism did a good job removing the last of the legal constraints that kept us constrained, but the gender stereotypes live on, inside us.
Perhaps, out of our current troubles, we can forge a new appreciation of real gender nonconformity, the kind where we’re confident to be female in whatever way comes naturally.
Lisa, I finally got around to reading your first few posts and love them. I found this sentence particularly powerful: "Make them feel terrible about their looks, and they will buy anything." So much of we all struggle with - whether we are trans, gender non conforming or just trying to be ourselves - is really about patriarchy. Also, you make me very thankful for the copy of "our bodies our selves" that made me cringe as a tween.
Thank you! We are now trying to convince our daughter that it is perfectly normal to be uncomfortable in your body.
Thanks for writing about this. I wasted years hating my body. Depression, eating disorder etc. Yes of course everything is complex but underneath it all lies this substratum out of which spring these sad things that derail our female lives…gendered expectations that we should fit the mould of the day. Second wave feminism did a good job removing the last of the legal constraints that kept us constrained, but the gender stereotypes live on, inside us.
Perhaps, out of our current troubles, we can forge a new appreciation of real gender nonconformity, the kind where we’re confident to be female in whatever way comes naturally.
these youtubers may be of interest
https://youtu.be/ODK2smY1mPQ
https://youtu.be/x5zNsgtETRI