Hi Ho, Battling Your Needs and Desires Must Go!

Hi Ho, Battling  Your Needs and Desires Must Go!

A major cultural transition is in place in our society. Our generation is confounded in the disorderly transition between the old cultural standards of dependence and the developing culture of independence, power, and career orientated women. This creates an incredibly challenging world for us to live. We are experiencing the in-between stages of past societal norms and the pushing cultural standards for women’s empowerment and independence.

I hope to read more feminist writings resembling that of Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa.” We could not have read Cixous’ essay at a better time. Cixous inspired me to put my guard down and write the truth. Unfortunately now that my surname has been revealed there is a greater vulnerability to write from a personal level, but I should practice what I speak and take ownership for what I write. I have struggled with an eating disorder for nine years and have been trapped a prisoner of my mind for many more. Unfortunately the number of women developing eating disorders is on the rise and many more suffer from distorted eating and body image.  Society is by no means the trigger for the volcano, but does add a shift or two under the earth’s surface prior to the eruption.

This class grabbed my attention for selfish reasons. I took this class in hope it would help me in my search of self- discovery and struggling apprehension of my womanhood. Fear of experiencing pleasure and connecting with our bodies is a fear of connecting with our inner self. Fear of our own power and womanhood is an issue that many of us regardless of an eating disorder grabble. Today, women may feel greater encouragement to thrive on independence but we must be careful not to lie to ourselves that we need nothing to flourish.

Cixous writes, “…as soon as we come, we go and make ourselves feel guilty…” Whether it is pleasure felt after eating a delicious dessert or having sex, many of us cannot feel pleasure without guilt. The symptoms of an eating disorder are only a displacement of the true emotions. Food may be feared because pleasure is feared, and what if god- forbid we enjoy food! We must learn to accept that pleasure is okay and that guilt does not have to follow each moment of freedom. Guilt exists only to produce irrational thinking which triggers distressing feelings that feed on one another to keep us in chains. We have to fight hard for mental and emotional freedom. One thing that we have to fight against is guilt. It does not have a place

“We’ve been turned away from our bodies, shamefully taught to ignore them to strike them with that stupid sexual modesty…” writes Cixous. Feminism today should focus on accepting ourselves, owning our bodies, letting go of shame and guilt for wanting more than what we have, to allow ourselves to feel pleasure and not be ashamed.