Winter was a welcome respite from shaving my legs. Hidden under black opaque tights, jeans, dress pants, and with the secure love of my husband of many years I let my hair grow wild.
Why is it that “wild” is supposed to be an undesirable term for a woman? As if women must be tamed to be accepted, to belong, and to receive love. As if a man could not love a wild woman. So to receive the love we are so desperate for we tame ourselves.
Words Matter: WILD
There is a wildness in women that we are reminded of every month as we cycle through our menstrual phases into our pre-menstrual season where we might often feel like and act like a caged animal. Because we are. Our raw wildness is not allowed for in this society.
To throw our clothes off and run naked into the ocean.
To rage about generations of injustices.
This kind of wildness and rage has been reserved for men. While not necessarily approved of it is expected and it has been decided by men and women, over and over, that the best reaction is to simply ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen.
Women are not even afforded that. Any lapse of good judgement or propriety, let alone being fully witnessed in our wild, in our rage, and we are held accountable, punished for fear that allowing us one moment of wild will inevitably lead to our demise.
As if we were to remember our wild nature the entirety of society as we know it would collapse.
Wouldn’t that be delightful.
We have this visceral, bloody, connection to our animal selves every month. This reminder that we are not machines. We are not only the productive contribution to society that industrialism and capitalism would like us to be.
We are animal. We are wild. We create. We birth.
We rage. We scream. We cry. We feel.
We love.
And the absolute WILD beauty of our love cannot be received if the wild animal in us is not also witnessed.
So, when you feel like a caged animal each month in what has been called PMS, snapping at the hand that feeds you, pacing your cage in circles unable to rest or settle, growling at anyone or anything that gets close.
Embrace the wild animal that you are.
Lift the cage and allow yourself to roam free for a time.
Witness this beautiful wild part of you.
She has been ignored for too long.
[ORIGINAL ARTICLE - Words Matter: WILD by Kerryn Hewson. 2024.]
If you liked this article, you might like to read When Our Bodies Speak next.