Dis-embodying Misogyny
I have been paying attention to the absolute systemic nature of patriarchy and how domination is absolutely systemically part of our culture that plays out in all our lives and our bodies in incredibly powerful ways.
Early last year I watched the movie "Brittany Runs a Marathon" and identified way too personally with the themes. It is about a woman who decides to change her life (get skinny and fit) by running a marathon. The themes of self loathing (because she feels fat) dis-allowing herself to be fully open and connected to others, not feeling worthy, not feeling whole or beautiful hit way to close to home. Watching it took me down with tears and feelings and it began a new investigation into what it is to be an embodied woman in our culture.
As I was thinking the word "misogyny" came into my mind. I have honestly never even really thought about this word as something personal to me. I had to google it and learned it clearly goes back in text and practice to 150 BC Greece and has been in our line of civilization since in recordable and systemic ways.
Misogyny is hatred of women. I have never connected with that word until now as I dig through the layers of my body. They say "Misogyny .... is a central part of sexist prejudice and ideology and, as such, is an important basis for the oppression of females in male-dominated societies. Misogyny is manifested in many different ways, from jokes to pornography to violence to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies.” The line that stuck from wikipedia was "to the self-contempt women may be taught to feel toward their own bodies."
Ah ha. That is what I have been tracking and uncovering in my personal and professional work. How do we inhabit our flesh when there has been thousands of years of hatred and devaluing of women? How do we embody despite this his-story?
I feel like embodiment in this day and age is our right and my mission. Claiming our bodies as ours and being in our cells in a way that is free from fear and his-stories. It is an investigation for me and something I constantly strive for in my own body and to help women with in my practice.
What does it feel like to be embodied? We feel our divine essence in our flesh, we claim the moment of time we are in and live it fully, we feel sensations and flow through our cells with no impediment, we breath in and out fully in our world..... It is switching from OS Fear to OS Love.
It is imperative that we are kind to ourselves and others. There have been these institutionalized systems in place to make us feel horrible about ourselves and apologize for our own existence. I am so done with that. It is now about bringing our light and strengths unapologetically into the world and demanding our needs for respect and equality be met. Not just the needs of gender identified she/her, but the needs to all with respect as the basis, the moral imperative. On behalf of all life.
What would our world look like then?
That is something I want to be on the side of.
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