Speak From Your Vagina is now: Fembodiment

On November 10th, 2016, I decided to launch a movement of women’s circles. After spending the evening of November 8th in shock and the full day on November 9th despondent (on my couch with lots of snacks), by the 10th I was ready for action.

I’d already been forming this women’s circles project for over a year. The idea was initially sparked by the following series of events:

1. A student came into a workshop I was teaching for actors — I’m a voice and movement teacher — and said she’d been told she needed to “speak from her vagina.” I thought the idea was brilliant (though anatomically not possible), and I decided I wanted to teach a class called “Speak From Your Vagina.”
2. I spent months wondering what the heck I would teach in such a class. Then one day I had the epiphany that I didn’t need to know. Instead of teaching, I could simply facilitate a conversation!💡
3. Stevie (now the Head of Technology of this movement) suggested we should hold an initial brainstorming session: a Scrum. It was decided that the format for the evening would be a voice/movement practice, a potluck, and a conversation around a theme.
4. Vagina Scrum caught on. Each month I invited my friends (and their friends, and friends of their friends) to come together for three hours on a weekend evening.

By the time the US Presidential election happened, we understood the structure of these circles quite well. So when it became clear that it was important to take action to promote and protect femininity, I put out a call to those who had participated in circles up to that point asking for help, and we launched “Speak From Your Vagina.”

Our name arose organically, and in fact preceded the movement. As founder, I came to understand how to choose themes, structure practices, coordinate potlucks and discussions, and invite others to participate and lead through the lens of our name. However in the past few month it’s become evident that we’ve outgrown our name. I realized this when we went public and I began working with a (totally phenomenal) leadership team.

The biggest problem with the name “Speak From Your Vagina” is that it conflates femininity with anatomy. Certainly many people on this planet feel that their femininity is connected to their sex organs, vagina et al. However many people don’t. Our anatomy is independent from our gender identity, which in turn is independent from our sexuality. Our original name does not reflect our desire to be open and accessible to all who want to explore femininity. The conversations we want to invite are nuanced, and our name must reflect that.

So we’ve chosen a new name: Fembodiment. This name encompasses exactly what we hope to explore, embodying the feminine.

Our updated mission statement is: To create community by exploring our experiences of embodying femininity through practice, presence, stories, and action.

Though our mission is about embodying the feminine, we feel strongly about creating a space where your femininity is not defined for you. Rather, we hope participating in a Fembodiment Scrum or event will empower you to define (or continue defining) it for yourself. There are a lot of ideas and assumptions out there about what it means to be feminine, but the bottom line is that every person’s experience of femininity is unique and individual. Our vision is a gathering that transcends boundaries; a generationally, racially, culturally diverse room where your conservative Aunt and transgender friend come together to embody their own versions of femininity and share their experiences in conversation.

We’ve grappled with the question of inclusivity regarding how to make a safe space for women, while still encouraging men to explore their femininity too. Our current solution is that Fembodiment Scrums are for those gender-identifying as women, but our larger events are open to all genders. If you have feedback about this structure, please contact us, because we would absolutely love to hear your ideas.

So, on behalf of our entire team — Liz, Stevie, Monica, Allison, Sara, Sam, and myself — welcome to Fembodiment. We hope to see you soon at a Scrum or event. ❤ (You can sign up for our mailing list here).

P.S. If anyone wants to connect me to their lit agent friend, please do! I’ve got a book I want to write… it’s called “Speak From Your Vagina” 😜