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Melissa Soalt's avatar

Another Great honest piece! Love the letting go of balloons image. And recollections from the dressing rooms.

My two cents? Wait till you get into your sixties or / and illness is visited upon you…. I mean, NO fucks given. It’s liberating in spite of feeling and often looking like shit. We women must stop catering to societal / cultural / media demands and to men who have largely promulgated such hideous ideals since forever— remember the tiny deformed stub of Chinese women’s feet leaving women pained and utterly helpless to mobilize therefore dependent upon men…. Or the whale bone corsets… the cruel misogynistic patriarchal system with its f’d up rewards and punishments associated with not being beautiful. To hell with all that.

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Sara Petersen's avatar

THIS IS IT:

"It was the walk of a woman on display and it brought forth an emotional memory, too: of being a young woman with an identity just barely developed. Someone who wanted to be seen while trying to make sure it didn’t seem like she wanted to be seen.

Then I exhaled, rooting myself back in my 40-something body. Just the memory of being that young was exhausting."

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