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Living in a woman's body

Stories of strength, pleasure and pain

19 February 2022

  • Photo by Neil Mockford. Johnny Knoxville at Global Radio Studios, London, on 7 February.

    Johnny Knoxville, Marina Hyde, Emma Thompson, Jay Rayner – podcast

    In this week’s episode, Chris Godfrey interviews Johnny Knoxville about his life as a world-famous stuntman, Marina Hyde laments the fact a computer system was believed over humans, actress Emma Thompson explores the intersection of three generations of women in her family, Jay Rayner reviews Chef Tee’s Sugarcane London, and Nell Frizzell gives 10 tips to revive a longterm relationship.

16 February 2022

  • Lebogang Mashile

    Living in a woman’s body: Mama’s War – an original poem

  • Judith Clark at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York State in 2017.

    Living in a woman’s body: I left prison, but can’t forget how it feels when desire is criminalised

15 February 2022

  • Monique Wilson participating in the One Billion Rising demonstration to highlight violence against women, in Manila, 2018.

    Living in a woman’s body: as the world moves on from Covid, I feel the pain of being left behind

    I have blood cancer and continue to isolate, living without touch, hugs, intimacy or love. It is heartbreaking
  • Laura Pearson

    Living in a woman’s body: I want my daughter to be inspired by my miraculous scars

    When I was pregnant, I discovered that I had developed breast cancer – just like my mother before me. One day, the child I was carrying may face the same hard choices
  • Terry Tempest Williams

    Living in a woman’s body: like Earth, we are changing quickly through the violence of climate collapse

    Our bodies and our planet are united – and it is time to listen to what both are saying to us

14 February 2022

  • Saru Jayaraman

    Living in a woman’s body: hospitality workers have always suffered abuse. In the pandemic, it got worse

    Many women working in restaurants and bars say men routinely asked them to remove their masks in return for tips, putting their lives at risk
  • Illustration of a female dancer

    Living in a woman’s body: as I dance I get lost, enjoying the ride of the beat

    A choreographer and dancer describes how it feels as she moves from perfect stillness to a glorious explosion of movement
  • Shabnam Hasmi

    Living in a woman’s body: hate has taken hold in India and I am restless with grief

    I was taught our minds were the most important part of us – now so many have been captured and polluted

11 February 2022

  • ‘Being a woman – cisgender or trans – can feel like you’re are being set up to fail from the start’ … Juno Dawson.

    Living in a woman’s body: my body belongs to me. I can harness and shape it as I see fit

    We get the body we get at birth. But I learned eventually that I didn’t have to accept it, that changes are within our grasp
  • Joanne Cacciatore

    Living in a woman’s body: when my child died, my every cell hurt. She was worth every tear I shed

    After almost three decades, I still miss my daughter. But losing her taught me that grief is something to venerate, not deny
  • Illustration of a pregnant body

    Living in a woman’s body: I was obsessed with being thin, then I became pregnant and felt invincible

    After years of disgust, I saw the possibility of beauty in my body just as it is. Now I am the happiest I have ever been

10 February 2022

  • Agnes Pareyio

    Living in a woman’s body: I was mutilated – and I swore I would stop this happening to another girl

    I was told I was a coward if I resisted female genital mutilation. For decades since then, I have worked, and risked everything, to protect other girls
  • Arifa Akbar.

    Living in a woman’s body: it’s a potent myth that all women want children – but I have experienced other wonders

    The lie that all women have a yearning to be a mother can feel like biological gaslighting. I’ve had a different kind of life – and it is meaningful, rewarding, joyous
  • Emma Thompson: ‘I am grateful I can still get up a hill’

    Emma Thompson on living in a woman’s body: my daughter thrums with life, my mother is frail – and I’m balanced between

    When three generations of my family were together I realised how, wordlessly, we recalibrate each other

9 February 2022

  • ‘This body is ready to make its mark, if only the trains were accessible, personal assistants funded and housing usable’ … Frances Ryan.

    Living in a woman’s body: this body is a genetic mistake – but it is sex, laughter and beauty too

    It is radical to love a body that the world says is wrong – and I love mine completely
  • A woman walking in Kabul in January.

    Living in a woman’s body: the Taliban fear our beauty, strength – and resistance

    Growing up in Afghanistan I was taught to hide my body. Now I see it as a symbol of rebellion against those who would try to control me
  • V (formerly Eve Ensler)

    Living in a woman’s body: our fists raised in defiance, we are taking back what is ours

    Women’s bodies are forever under threat, making themselves smaller. In the first of a new series, the writer and activist explains how women are reclaiming their power
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