Loving yourself despite your past and your scars - theunderargument.com

___Loving yourself despite your past and your scars

Like many people, I have felt the burden of perfection for most of my life. I was raised in a cult and we were taught to be on a constant quest for spiritual and emotional perfection. Oddly, physical perfection was discounted and we were strictly prohibited from wearing makeup, or dressing anything but modestly.

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It's just a body - theunderargument.com

___It's just a body

I’ve struggled with my body image for a long time, mainly because I never felt like I truly inhabited it. When people would comment on my physical appearance I wouldn’t understand – it felt like something detached from myself. Especially when I was 15-19, I really struggled to actually SEE my body, I didn’t have a relationship with it.

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Crohns Disease: Surgery can mean a better life - theunderargument.com

___Crohns Disease: Surgery can mean a better life

Everyone with Crohns Disease has a story to tell. For me, it had a fairly tight grip until I was 30 and was a very private illness. I’m a woman, and however wrong it may have been, it made me feel less feminine to discuss the symptoms. Everything took planning, even facing a plate of food. I was conflicted by hunger and fear. The potential for pain and embarrassment in getting it wrong was too great not to consider. 

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Speaking up against abuse - theunderargument.com

___Speaking up against abuse

Up until recently, there have been a couple subjects I am learning how to become confident to talk openly about from a personal point of view: Rape, Consent and Domestic Violence.

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The patriarchy you raise your kids in - theunderargument.com

___The patriarchy you raise your kids in

I was always a tomboy and I still think boys had more fun going on a pirate’s treasure hunts or pretending to fly to the moon or be a superhero while girls would pretend to be grownups raising families and paying bills on our pink calculators, or be princesses or hairdressers!

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Femininity (re)defined - theunderargument.com

___Femininity (re)defined

Since I shaved my head I’ve found times when I’ve really not felt feminine. I stopped shaving and that made me feel unfeminine at times too. I realised (and am still realising) that femininity is not defined by how I look or act and that being a woman can’t be boxed.

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To my unborn son - theunderargument.com

___To my unborn son

"Boys will be boys"… I disagree. I believe that there are values that we can consciously teach them when they are young and behaviours that we can help correct with awareness and communication when they are older.

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Mothering a son when you grew up the only girl - theunderargument.com

___Mothering a son when you grew up the only girl

When my son was born, he gave me the dirtiest look as if to say ' was that really necessary, I wasn't ready to be born! I knew he was a special child! I am the only girl and the youngest of all my brothers, all 4 of them.

Often when I relay this to people, they think I must have been spoilt but life was pretty lonely. 

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A Testimony to Standing Up Against Sexism by a Woman Neurosurgeon - theunderargument.com

___A Testimony to Standing Up Against Sexism by a Woman Neurosurgeon

My name is Julia. And I am a fighter. I was the first female trainee in my hospital in Lithuania to become a neurosurgeon. Medicine is still plagued with medieval traditions and ways, from bullying to discrimination and plain disrespect from seniors doctors towards their juniors.

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Detaching from stereotypes - theunderargument.com

___Detaching from stereotypes

I moved away from Italy to avoid fitting in a stereotypical patriarchal box that was built around me by the Church and the fear of men losing their power. The fear of the foreigner, xenophobia towards different mindsets, fat ladies, non-binary genders and minorities empowerment.⠀

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