Radical

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“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.” ~ Gloria Steinem

I think this started back in my late 30’s when I started to discover my kinks and my sexuality. I found myself shedding years of expectations and carving out a life for me that felt authentic and made me feel alive.

In the last couple of years, but this year in particular, I will admit that peri-menopause has come along and changed things. My sex drive still simmers but it used to boil and rage, my body is more achy and I get tired more easily. There are days when I really feel every bit of my age (52) and more besides.

I have the odd moment of longing for that boiling raging horn, and every now and then it will creep up on me and I will welcome it with open arms but I am also enjoying the calmness that this change has bought. There is a peacefulness in it that I find myself truly embracing.

That might not sound radical but actually it totally is because capitalism does not want us to be happy and content, it wants us to want and to conform. To believe that buying the right cream will make us look younger and therefore more acceptable in a world that values youth over almost everything else. It wants us to believe we need to shave our hair, buy a gym membership, pay for diet advice, or even maybe plastic surgery. (Note; There is nothing wrong with enjoying these things if they bring you joy, I am talking about feeling like you have to do them because society tells you that is what makes you of value) We are meant to desire what we are being sold. We are not meant to be happy in our bodies and so anything that even closely resembles that is radical.