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RantThe sacredness of the women's changeroom
Something that is never acknowledged is the psychological differences between the male and female changeroom. It is exhausting to live in a world where you're objectified 24/7 until about the age of 35- every woman experiences this- it is a universal female experience to have your worthiness based on your appearance. These spaces where we are only with each other means something very powerful to women. It is a break, a reprieve from that objectification, from that alertness and it is felt in the soul.
A male who is so confused about his body that he wishes to "become female" and is willing to cut off his penis does not experience life the way we do. Males were the ones who objectified us, who were socialized to objectify us. That doesn't switch off once the man castrates himself or receives plastic surgery. Women can feel this truth. What these men objectify us for is a fantasy made up in his own mind, his own fetishization of what a woman is, it is not from the shared experience of women. Women can feel this truth.
When my young daughter uses a public women's changeroom I feel pride in these spaces. I'm proud to be in a space where woman have cultivated this aspect of safety for ourselves. We are nude and vulnerable but we are free from sexualization. We are free to view eachother in our many life stages from: young and old, thin and overweight, different races etc. we see eachother and we free ourselves from the objectification imposed on us by men. We must keep these spaces alive for us, for our daughters. My daughter sees what is normal for her body by understanding the truth we have built in these spaces. The truth that you will one day age, the truth that many images we see of women are derived from pornography and not from real women. The truth that is felt in our spirit that we are safe with eachother in these spaces must be understood and kept alive.