The End of Self Negation

At the foundation of the old idea of woman is that she is a possession—partial and dependent. Embedded in this is the idea that she is a reflection of man, the way the moon is the reflection of the sun. She is not substance in and of herself. A whole subset of beliefs and behaviors follows from this construct, upon which the old paradigm is built. It is from this internalized belief that women ourselves continue to hold the existing system in place. First and foremost, on the path to women’s liberation, it is essential to remove this idea of woman as a possession, reflection, and without substance. 

By holding this idea in place, we absolve ourselves of the true work of liberation for women—that of developing an identity. Instead, we have taken on masculine spiritual concepts designed to bring the masculine into balance—namely that of self-negation. But self-negation, when we have never developed a self, is not honorable; it is remiss. Woman does not need to extinguish her appetite, her hunger, her desire, her power. She needs to develop, evolve, and come to know it. She does not need to engage in another selfless act when she has no self to begin with. She does not need to renounce or deny her body when her body has never been her own. She needs to claim these—every single one.