Welcome to Float, a look at kStyle's float through life. You won't find in-depth politics here--many blogs are already doing that so well, and I don't want to glut the form. Let's just dive in and see what we get.

Herbology: The Hidden Feminism

Seems Feminist discussions keep returning to the same topics: media, Roe v. Wade, unreasonable standards of beauty. These are important topics to be sure, but we keep looking at feminism negatively. I'm sure that many rejoice in the power of women and celebrate all the things that women can do, but seems I keep encountering battles over what women should and shouldn't do, anger over what women haven't been allowed to do, and so on. Meanwhile, we've neglected some of our most precious and valuable knowledge.

Plants. Those lovely green lungs of our planet traditionally have been women's domain. Many of the women killed for witchcraft throughout history were, in fact, accomplished healers. Potions? Those were herbal remedies.

I took a workshop on herbs recently, hoping to establish connection to this tradition of women healers, to somehow become more a woman through plants. Did I resonate with the herbs? Yes, I certainly did. I felt more whole after the workshop, like I'd found or claimed something that was rightfully mine all along, some forgotten part of my blood and bones. When I've finished my Shiatsu schooling and established my own practice, I'll delve deeper into this tradition, perhaps through a full apprenticeship program. Not surprisingly, many of the herbs we discussed that day were excellent for PMS, menopause, depression, and anxiety, common complaints of women. I learned that early female European settlers of the Americas saw that the Native American women had much easier childbirth than they and so learned about local herbs from their sisters.

Recommended reading: The Sweet Breathing of Plants:Women Writing on the Green World, Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson, eds.