Reporting From the Field: What Would Our Conversations Be if We Quit the “Fat Talk?”

Some of them were in their 20‘s and 30‘s, some of them were in their 50‘s and 60’s, some of them were recovering anorexics, some of them were overweight, some of them were therapists, some of them were in treatment, all of them were women who came together to explore what it means to be in a female body.

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Indwelling IV: Living in a Female Body, organized by the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute.    What a great event.   As you may or may not remember The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute contacted me after they saw my post Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus on Skirt!  It was so nice to meet these fantastic ladies in person and to have the chance to be part of such a meaningful dialogue.

What I loved about this event and the Women’s Therapy Centre philosophy is that it’s rooted in the feminist movement which is something that a lot of us take for granted.  I know that  I do.  So to be in a room with so many women who were trailblazers of the feminist movement in the 1970‘s was really incredible.

The afternoon began with Nona Aronowitz who is the author of the book: Girldrive-Crisscrossing America, Redfinining Feminism.  Nona is in her 20’s and is a serious voice in the third wave of feminism.  I really admire what she’s doing; it’s so important to build on the feminist movement that came before us and Nona is doing that.

The amazing Cheryl Cochran re-enacted a piece from Toni Morrison’s Beloved which was about the body and had the crowd in tears by the end.  It was so very moving and Cheryl is so incredibly talented.

The big event of the afternoon was the Speakout.  Each woman was invited to come up to the microphone and share her thoughts  or experiences for 3 minutes.  There was no talk back from the crowd you just got up and said whatever you felt about being a woman, being in a female body or anything else.  Naturally for about the first three minutes, we were all staring at the microphone wondering who would be the first to get up.  Finally one brave soul went up to the microphone and just said “gratitude”.  Eventually one by one each woman got up and shared a story or her thoughts.  Some of them made us cry and some of them couldn’t stop crying because they felt so moved by everything that was happening.  It’s a very healing thing  to give a voice to your pain or your struggle in a room full of women. There’s also something about hearing other women talk about the same things you’re going through. knowing that you’re not alone in the struggle actually transforms it.

After the speakout, Courtney Martin, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters got up and spoke.  Courtney talked about the experience of doing her book tour and speaking at colleges.  She said that there was one element that she saw over and over again while speaking to young women across the country and that was how painful it was for all of them to be in a female body.  Much of the speakout reflected the same thing.

Courtney unveiled the 2011 plan of  the Women’s Centre Therapy Institute:to take that pain and translate into action with their 2011 initiative: Endangered Species:  Preserving the Female Body.  the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute has thrown down the gauntlet and is getting ready to take it to the streets.  This is going to be a world-wide campaign that will pool resources of all the women’s organizations and groups that are out there working to destroy the elements in our culture that cause women to hate their bodies, feel uncomfortable about the way they look, or want to be anyone but who they are. There are lots of interesting plans in the works that haven’t been revealed yet but I can tell you that this is going to be BIG!!!  Stay tuned for updates about this campaign and how you can get involved.  And thank you again to Skirt! for providing a forum  the Women’s Centre Therapy Institute and me find each other!!!