The other day, during one of my one-to-one meetings with someone I am currently mentoring, I was explaining the origins of the name of my Substack, White Ink.
This is so deeply, quietly, powerfully revolutionary. I love how you describe not what's happened to women, as though things are accidental and benign, but what has been done to them. These acts of silencing, of ignoring, of suppressing are not passive and accidental, but deliberate and targeted, designed to lessen and diminish and erase. Thank you so much, Anna, for your constant efforts to give women a voice. I love the thought that even when we're scrawling our thoughts into our private journals, we're engaging in important revolutionary acts. There is such power in that. 💕
I’m pleased you like that idea, Michelle, and I absolutely believe it to be true, particularly as a woman needs to know herself first before she goes out into the world with her story.
yes it is revolutionary - and powerful - for me it is important that it is a process that is from the ground up - no asking permission - just taking the space and speaking out
Thank you for another hugely important and insightful article, Anna. I've just ordered a copy of Szewczac's book, and I will go back to the essay I have sitting in drafts on that very same topic and perhaps one day soon it too will see the light of day. I'm really sorry that you had such a traumatic experience around birth and your concerns being so dismissed for so long. Thank goodness for that one doctor who listened, and for the healing (the physical and emotional) that could then follow.
Thanks Louise, I hadn’t really thought about it again until I came to write this piece so I was surprised to find myself writing about it. Sounds like a great book though so let us know what you think, and I shall be looking forward to reading that piece currently sitting in your drafts some day!
Wonderful piece of writing Anna. I am sorry that your pain and knowledge of your own body was ignored by Drs and midwives. As a midwife, I do hope I would have not done the same! And how fascinating that your body was able to begin healing after you were heard and your experience validated.
Yes it’s so interesting, isn’t it Nicky? I’ve never forgotten that, but funnily enough it was only when I was writing about that book The Stitch-Up that I thought to recall it. But it was definitely a case of physical healing as a consequence of having my pain acknowledged.
Definitely think that mental health is a real black hole - had skirmishes myself - appalling ignorant gaslighting - just about got the diagnosis. But truthfully I am lucky that I did complain - second time round I did not bother - I was still too vulnerable and decided that I did not need the brick wall to hit my head against. There are other avenues that I can challenge on my terms in my writing and through my photography. I have met some excellent Psychiatrists - yet this has been in training courses, (I am a psychologist) all women - who were curious and interested in other ways of seeing their patients.
I have also been ignored other times - post second hip replacement was told there was nothing wrong - even though I knew it was highly unstable. I week later it dislocated and I was on the floor in the kitchen for 3 hours, 4 in the ambulance outside the hospital, in the corridor for another 3 before there was a space. In pain - intravenous drugs - no fun at all.
It demonstrates that all areas of medicine can be at fault.
But - the NHS has done me so proud and I have worked with and still seen by excellent consultants, male and female.
it was an experience - yet the paramedics were brilliant. Plus I am ridiculously brilliant in a crisis. It is normal life that flummoxes more!
I know that I still face the privilege of being white "Dr" and obviously middle class...so better off in these circumstances.
Hope you are feeling - more settled, accepting - not sure what the appropriate words are... grief is a long term process that finds its way naturally. Looking forward to Sunday
Fascinating. Our stories and those of others reach places we / they may never know about. They matter and make a difference and to is good to be reminded of that. ❤️
This is so deeply, quietly, powerfully revolutionary. I love how you describe not what's happened to women, as though things are accidental and benign, but what has been done to them. These acts of silencing, of ignoring, of suppressing are not passive and accidental, but deliberate and targeted, designed to lessen and diminish and erase. Thank you so much, Anna, for your constant efforts to give women a voice. I love the thought that even when we're scrawling our thoughts into our private journals, we're engaging in important revolutionary acts. There is such power in that. 💕
I’m pleased you like that idea, Michelle, and I absolutely believe it to be true, particularly as a woman needs to know herself first before she goes out into the world with her story.
yes it is revolutionary - and powerful - for me it is important that it is a process that is from the ground up - no asking permission - just taking the space and speaking out
Yes absolutely, but sometimes we need someone to remind us not to ask for permission, right? Permission not to have to ask permission 🙃
totally - that is the power of a community - lest we forget with all that cultural pressure
Thank you for another hugely important and insightful article, Anna. I've just ordered a copy of Szewczac's book, and I will go back to the essay I have sitting in drafts on that very same topic and perhaps one day soon it too will see the light of day. I'm really sorry that you had such a traumatic experience around birth and your concerns being so dismissed for so long. Thank goodness for that one doctor who listened, and for the healing (the physical and emotional) that could then follow.
Thanks Louise, I hadn’t really thought about it again until I came to write this piece so I was surprised to find myself writing about it. Sounds like a great book though so let us know what you think, and I shall be looking forward to reading that piece currently sitting in your drafts some day!
Wonderful piece of writing Anna. I am sorry that your pain and knowledge of your own body was ignored by Drs and midwives. As a midwife, I do hope I would have not done the same! And how fascinating that your body was able to begin healing after you were heard and your experience validated.
Yes it’s so interesting, isn’t it Nicky? I’ve never forgotten that, but funnily enough it was only when I was writing about that book The Stitch-Up that I thought to recall it. But it was definitely a case of physical healing as a consequence of having my pain acknowledged.
Definitely think that mental health is a real black hole - had skirmishes myself - appalling ignorant gaslighting - just about got the diagnosis. But truthfully I am lucky that I did complain - second time round I did not bother - I was still too vulnerable and decided that I did not need the brick wall to hit my head against. There are other avenues that I can challenge on my terms in my writing and through my photography. I have met some excellent Psychiatrists - yet this has been in training courses, (I am a psychologist) all women - who were curious and interested in other ways of seeing their patients.
I have also been ignored other times - post second hip replacement was told there was nothing wrong - even though I knew it was highly unstable. I week later it dislocated and I was on the floor in the kitchen for 3 hours, 4 in the ambulance outside the hospital, in the corridor for another 3 before there was a space. In pain - intravenous drugs - no fun at all.
It demonstrates that all areas of medicine can be at fault.
But - the NHS has done me so proud and I have worked with and still seen by excellent consultants, male and female.
Oh Lucy, how awful. I cannot imagine the pain you were in. And yes, it is across all areas of medicine. Thank you for sharing.
it was an experience - yet the paramedics were brilliant. Plus I am ridiculously brilliant in a crisis. It is normal life that flummoxes more!
I know that I still face the privilege of being white "Dr" and obviously middle class...so better off in these circumstances.
Hope you are feeling - more settled, accepting - not sure what the appropriate words are... grief is a long term process that finds its way naturally. Looking forward to Sunday
Love the story behind your publication name. Thanks for sharing! I owe you an email this week 💛
Thanks Sarah! Yes, it seemed I needed to remind everyone!
Fascinating. Our stories and those of others reach places we / they may never know about. They matter and make a difference and to is good to be reminded of that. ❤️
Exactly!