Self-care is not an indulgence but a necessity. From the burnout women’s rights activists face to the everyday burdens of women and girls, self-care is about reclaiming time, space and energy as a means of survival.
Hannah Coombes / Womankind
As of today, there are more 43 million posts on Instagram tagged with #selfcare. What was once a radical idea is now mainstream. The problem is that we have become so saturated with a media generated idea of ‘me time’ that it’s easy to misunderstand self-care as a combination of consumerist fad and unhealthy self-obsession. But in reality, the notion of self-care has deeper, feminist and even political roots.
Self-preservation not self-indulgence
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence,” wrote Audre Lorde in her 1988 book ‘A Burst of Light’, which was written soon after she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. “It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
Lorde’s framing of self-care as a radical act and a defence against a hostile culture is important in understanding its radical roots and importance beyond mainstream depictions. Self-care in the feminist sense is about protecting and preserving women’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing in a world that continuously exploits women’s labour with little rewards and is hostile to a number of identities. For this reason self-care is particularly important for women and other marginalised groups who have to operate in systems that discriminate based on gender, race, class, sexuality etc.
Taking back power
The demands placed on women in an unjust system mean that globally women carry out 76% of unpaid care work, three times that of men. Women also have less access to and control over resources, as well as fewer opportunities to hold positions of power and have control over decision that effect their lives.
Self-care is about autonomy, its about taking control and ownership of what works best for you. It is about challenging everyday norms and expectations – moving away from society’s predefined roles for women and pressures of capitalism, and instead recognising and defining your own needs and working out how to meet them.
Self-care is a form of fight back, an insistence that personal meaning for women matters. It’s a way of pushing against an oppressive and often violent system of oppression that prefers to negate you, disregard you or at the very least see you as marginal or less important. It’s a way of saying that you matter. You are worthy of care.
Self-care and activism
Women’s rights activists challenge the status quo and those who hold power and work to disrupt societal norms, because of the nature of this work they face increased risks of attacks. This increased risk, combined with this area of work often being under resourced, creates a challenging environment that can lead to burnout. At Womankind we know that for women’s rights activists to be able to sustain themselves and the work they do, self-care must be an integral part of how they operate. Supporting self-care initiatives is just one way we support women’s movements to strengthen and grow.
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