it was just part of the lifelong, pervasive alienation from my body that every woman absorbs to some extent. Your body is never yours. Your body is your enemy. Your body is gross. Your body is wrong. Your body is broken. Your body isn’t what men like. Your body is less important than a fetus. Your body should be “perfect” or it should be hidden.

But women also possessed an organ of the highest biological – and social – value: the uterus. Possession of this organ defined the purpose of women: to bear and raise children. Knowledge about female biology centred around women’s capacity – and duty – to reproduce. Being biologically female defined and constrained what it meant to be a woman. And

In this concurrent telling about body, we spoke of the slings and arrows we received throughout our lives because, according to the great “they,” our bodies were too much of this and not enough of that.

“Why Does It Hurt So Bad” to Whitney;