Women’s stories are creating space for connection
In My Opinion (IMO) is Transition Wrestling’s opinion column.
Women throughout the wrestling community are sharing pieces of their stories. In a single week, the #HowSheWrestles campaign has flooded, and is moving beyond, the wrestling space.
The videos being shared are powerful, but also a bit chilling.
I use the word chilling because women are speaking aloud about things that seem a bit taboo in the male dominated, although decreasingly so, sport of wrestling–emotions, feelings and the general human experience with acceptance and community.
But why does it feel so thrilling to actually hear these women speak?
I think a big part of the thrill of women’s voices is that women don’t often raise them, or put their vulnerabilities on display beyond their personal communities. Plus, men and women alike don’t hear most women as well as they do men or women with lower pitched voices. There’s an interesting study on this, here.
I also think it has something to do with an implicit prejudice many women hold against each other, whether they accept it or not. But this is a different time, people are listening, and it’s been a jarring week of vulnerability, courage and honesty.
What I find most powerful about these slices of real life is that so many people feel alone in their struggles. But the truth is, we are far more similar in individual experiences than we may like to believe. Partly because we want our experiences to be unique, but it’s also part of a conditioned expectation in the Western culture of individualism that would have us believe that we alone struggle, that we alone face adversity, and that we alone must fight shared battles. And I don’t mean similar in that our paths are the same. I mean similar in the emotions and challenges we encounter along our various paths.
It feels very much like the voices we are hearing right now are moving women toward connectivity, men toward understanding and granting the reach of the campaign a much needed learning opportunity. The voices are exposing commonalities, which by nature creates space for connection and camaraderie off of the mats. We can disagree and make demands, but we are all human–together.
We are not alone, and we are not a few.
My hope is that this moment, however long it lasts, will create genuine connection, a sense of respect through shared experience and a deeper understanding and empathy for others.
I also hope that this moment will solidify a demand we so greatly need filled–visibility and storytelling for the women in our sport. We have the power to lift each other up, and this moment will help design the history of women’s wrestling.
I encourage you to listen to the stories being shared throughout the #HowSheWrestles campaign and to share this message itself.
#HowSheWrestles
Twitter: @howshewrestles Instagram: @howshewrestles
Transition Wrestling is an independent women’s wrestling news publication.
Subscribe and follow to keep up with the latest news!
Twitter: @transition_wres Facebook: Transition Wrestling Instagram: @transitionwrestling
Have a question or want to work with us? Send an email to hello@transitionwrestling.com
