Do I Have to Wear A Bikini to Be Empowered?
Eavesdropping on public transportation is one of my favorite pastimes. It’s also a great way to study our culture. I recently overheard two 20-something women talk about their summer plans. And, as luck would have it, the topic of conversation while I traveled with them happened to be bikinis. A snippet (from memory): While this may […]
What if You Are What You’ve Been Searching For?
One of my favorite stories is of a wild gazelle who, early in her life, smells a scent so magnificent that she spends her entire life searching for it, driven by the longing to re-experience its beauty. Many years later, as she lies dying, with her flank torn open by a hunter’s arrow, she’s engulfed in […]
Why Women Chase Perfection, Even Though It’s Killing Us
Women feel both outraged and powerless in response to the war being waged on our bodies, the coup for control over us. Women’s power is yet again being taken (or attempted to be taken). While this siege on women’s bodies is real and dangerous, in fact, the patriarchy has always controlled our bodies. Its narratives […]
How to Become Someone Who “Matters”
While “codependent” is not a clinical diagnosis or recognized personality disorder, it remains a widely-used term for someone who’s self-sacrificing, a caregiver who gives at the expense of her own well-being, and who enables her partner’s addictive or self-destructive behavior. Breaking behavior that could be described as codependent starts with greater self-awareness. Notice when you’re ignoring your own […]
Are You Ready to Stop Being a Victim?
A victim, according to Webster’s dictionary, is a person who has been attacked, injured, robbed, killed, cheated or fooled by someone else, or harmed by an unpleasant event. Everyone gets attacked, injured, cheated, fooled and harmed during their life, if not physically then emotionally. And everyone gets harmed by unpleasant events. We’re all victims, in […]