Finding My Power: How Shaving My Head Gave Me Freedom
Perhaps this wasn’t the weight they were encouraging me to lose, but it’s changed my life.
I watched the video of her shaving her head over and over. Watched her cry, her hair falling down her body in long blonde strands, the slashing of a feminine power which, for years, had contributed to her feelings of powerlessness. The paradox of beauty and all its trappings. Rebecca Woolf — All of This
This story begins last fall, on an otherwise-ordinary September day just over 3 months after the repeal of Roe v Wade. I knew immediately that Friday in June that my old life had ended, and a new life had begun. While you may be tempted to accuse me of hyperbole, the shift inside me was immediate, heavy, and permanent. It affected everything, from my relationship of 8 years to the way I interact with people to my spirituality and core beliefs about the country I live in.
Beyond that, it affected my relationship with myself. In those moments, and the ones that followed, making myself palatable to people who denied my basic human right to life-saving medical care became a non-concern. In fact, I thought, let them choke.
When you get down to it, this is a story about weight. This is a story about the weight of expectations and what…
