How well

"For millennia, women have been told how to think, act, speak, be; they have been told not to trust their bodies, their intuition, their knowledge, their guiding force, their gut.  No woman is more bereft of her sense of trust in herself than a woman confronting herself for the first time.  For her whole damn life the world has told her that her worth is wrapped up in her looks, service, and submissiveness; that her power comes not from within but from without.  For her entire existence, she has trusted the advice of others who surely know better about her than she does.  How well did that work out for her?  How well has suppressing our own knowledge in favor of what other people think worked out for any of us?"

From Quit Like a Woman, Holly Whitaker.

Photo from the Cinque Terre, 2000.