hawa ali drammeh | 8.11.2024 | 6:07am

[active draft]

this article might be controversial to some people. but this is my personal experience regarding my own gender, womanhood, and what i’ve noticed in myself, my girl-friends and so many other women my age and beyond who operate outside of our femininity and womanhood and how this manifests as physical, mental, & spiritual illness in the body.

i genuinely think this is a very important discussion that is not being talked about enough. women are forced to work in systems that were created for men and system/society that rewards and emphasizes letting masculine energy/traits dominate in order for us to be successful. we’ve been made to believe that no one will listen to us, take us seriously, or be inspired by us unless we are operating at extremely high (and dangerous) levels of masculinity, which is leading to extremely high amounts of stress which causes illness in the body. this is an epidemic. its causing disease and illness for so many young women and older women, manifesting in the form of:

• cancers
• breast cancer
• lung cancers
• autoimmune disease
• chronic illness and fatigue
• hormonal issues and illnesses
• high burnout rates
• depression, anxiety, etc.
• and ultimately, death.

im not a doctor, but this past couple years ive spent learning from doctors like Dr. Gabor Mate on how illness manifests in the body and is very much not random. there is a lot of info on the impacts of stress, trauma, and various other factors on the body. illness is not random. our bodies aren’t random.

i know this from my own personal experience. being an engineering major as a woman and working at such intense rates, myself and many of my women friends have gotten physically ill. lots of us have experienced issues of hormonal imbalance, conditions like PCOS, mental health, burnout, chronic fatigue and brain fog, and so much else. one of my friends experienced a really bad condition as a result of working too much and the excessive stress and working conditions.