Hello my lovely friends! Happy International Women's Day to us all! I was thinking to myself, what does it mean to me? And my mind goes back to the first time I visited Spa Castle in Jersey, years ago.
For those who don't know (ie anyone who doesn't live in NYC), Spa Castle is a giant Korean health spa place. There is a women's floor on the ground floor, a men's floor on the 3rd floor, and a mixed floor for hanging out all together in the middle. On the single-sex floors, everyone is totally naked and there are big showering areas and saunas and pools. To go on the mixed floor, you put on these pajama-y shorts and t-shirts (pink for the women and white for the men). On the mixed floor there are more saunas and pools and lovely restaurants, and by the time you get there after you've already been baked and showered and relaxed, you feel a bit like you're in heaven, eating kimchi.
Anyway. I remember going to the women's floor at Spa Castle for the first time, quite nervous and not really knowing what to expect or how I'd feel. And then going into the main shower area -- and I remember so clearly how happy and deeply moved I felt when I went in. There were women at every stage of life imaginable there. Old ladies. Little girls. Young women, middle-aged women, large women, small women, women who'd had mastectomies. And we are all together. Women helping each other out with the showers, women going about their business. Everyone looked so beautiful in this way that was just so outside the box of TV sexualization, beyond the whole navigating-the-gaze thing. Just beautiful, wonderful women.
It still fills me with such joy and spirit to think of it now. I think it moved me so deeply partly because I saw myself in each of those women: the little girl I was, the teenager, through to the the old lady. One rarely gets to see the panoply, and all together, and naked! And it felt so natural, and like it should be available to us all. I think I also liked that nearly all the women there were Korean and not speaking English, so I didn't feel like I had to fit into any particular western ideas about femininity or nudity. I could just be.
While I do believe that we all share the same pure consciousness or spark of divinity, regardless of what body we're in, I feel such a body-soul-wide connection with my women in this way. So I am just letting you know here, women: I love you, I support you, and also, yay!
And one last thing: To all you wonderful, brilliant men, who are also loving and supporting us, and each other — Thank you.
Love to all!
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