Why Women’s Stories Matter – Now More Than Ever
Your story is not a luxury. It isn’t something to save for when life slows down. In this moment, when so many voices are questioned or silenced, your story is both resistance and self-preservation. Speaking it aloud is a way of saying: I am here. I matter. I will not be erased.
The Urgent Reality: Erosion and Anxiety
In the United States, women and those in woman-centered spaces feel the ground shifting beneath us. What once felt somewhat secure is now fragile. That unease is not in your imagination. It is the honest response to the cultural and legal chaos we are currently navigating. For many women, particularly those carrying intersectional identities, the feeling of unease is constant. This is a direct consequence of undeniable facts that challenge our autonomy, safety, and self-definition.
The Erosion of Autonomy
The most undeniable symbol of this erosion is the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. This was far more than a legal event; it established a terrifying precedent: that rights, once secured, can be unilaterally revoked. This has created a fragmented landscape where access to essential reproductive care is decided by zip code, not by individual health or choice.
The message sent is unmistakable: authority over our bodies is conditional. This feeds a deeper, internal feeling of not being the ultimate author of our own lives. When legal structures communicate that a woman’s body is a public concern, it fundamentally changes how she relates to her future, her health, and her own story.
As a Canadian living in the states, I have two distinct perspectives: the shock of seeing rights actively stripped away here, and the awareness of how deeply such changes ripple beyond borders.
The Targeted Invalidation of the LGBTQIA+ Community
Simultaneously, we are seeing an unprecedented rise in legislation and aggressive rhetoric that specifically targets the LGBTQIA+ community, especially trans women and gender-diverse people who call woman-centered spaces home. Bills limiting gender-affirming care, excluding individuals from public spaces, and denying basic safety are rooted in the belief that their authentic stories and identities are illegitimate.
These are not separate struggles. The campaign to invalidate the lived experiences of trans women is a campaign to control all bodies and all voices. When one group’s foundational truth is deemed “political” or “invalid,” every woman’s story becomes vulnerable to the same scrutiny, dismissal, and hate. The fight for inclusive safety is the fight for universal safety.
The Silencing Online
Beyond the legislative attacks, the war is actively being fought in our online lives. Social media, once hailed as a space for democratic expression, has become a nightmare of misogyny, harassment, and exposing people’s privacy.
For women who speak out on sensitive topics like politics, parenting, health issues and identity (and many more), the flood of abusive replies and threats can be immediate and overwhelming. This anonymous toxicity forces an internal retreat. We begin to self-censor, convinced that the noise and danger of the public square outweigh the urgency of our truth. The result is a quieting of honesty and visibility.
The Heavy Cost of Silence: A Historical Wound
The choice to silence ourselves, however necessary it feels for survival, comes at a devastating cost. This cost is rooted in a history of pathologizing or dismissing women’s pain and experience.
In the nineteenth century, the diagnosis of “hysteria” became the medical label for any woman whose emotions or expressions didn’t fit social expectations. Any distress or discontent outside of approved norms could be—and was—medically classified as a disease rooted in her gender.
Today, we see its legacy in medical gaslighting, where women’s pain is routinely minimized or dismissed compared to men’s, often leading to late or missed diagnoses of serious conditions. We see it when trauma is dismissed as “overreacting,” or when burnout is blamed on “poor time management.”
When we cannot articulate our own reality, the trauma doesn’t disappear; it simply goes underground. It ferments into chronic stress, anxiety, emotional burnout, and a deep, isolating sense of loneliness.
Silence is not neutral. It is a heavy burden we carry on behalf of a culture that just refuses to listen.
Storytelling as Proof, Solidarity, and Healing
In a culture that is actively trying to rewrite our laws and histories, our shared stories become the most potent form of counter-narrative and self-care. Telling our stories is one of the most powerful ways we reclaim the ground beneath us.
Your story is your shield, your protest, and your bridge to others.
Story as Undeniable Proof
A story is not a statistic, it is evidence of a life lived. While statistics can be debated, a lived truth cannot be erased.
The #MeToo Movement wasn’t fueled by legal papers, it was fueled by countless women saying, “This happened to me, too.” The shared weight of those revelations made the truth undeniable. Similarly, the fight for basic human rights for all members of the LGBTQIA+ community is won by brave people sharing the most basic human details of their love, their family, and their desire to simply exist.
When policies threaten to erase our experiences, the simple, factual act of sharing your truth is an act of radical authenticity.
Story as Solidarity
Isolation is the current climate’s greatest weapon. Our stories are the antidote.
When one woman shares a vulnerability (the struggle with burnout, the shock of a diagnosis, the quiet grief of a difficult moment) and another woman says, “That’s my story, too,” a powerful bond is made.
Solidarity begins with recognition. Stories weave us back together, creating a collective strength that makes the burden feel lighter.
Story as Self-Reclamation
We tell our stories not just for ourselves, but for others. The act of sitting down and giving shape to a chaotic, painful, or confusing experience is the process of reclaiming ownership over that experience. It moves the memory from something that happened to us into a narrative that we define. This act of naming and defining is the cornerstone of all healing.
Recollections Within: A Sanctuary and a Shield
This is why Recollections Within exists and why spaces like it are critically necessary now more than ever. It is built not as another noisy public megaphone, but as a deliberate sanctuary. A space where you can let down your guard and put down the heavy weight of silence.
I do not believe that all stories are safe on all platforms. That is why I have prioritized an owned, curated space for the most intimate and urgent.
Safety from Algorithmic Fury
Our core community exists inside The Common Thread forum. By the nature of being a paid, private membership, these spaces are shielded from the toxic, uninvited commentary and automated hatred that pollute public social media feeds. This is where the deep work happens.
Explicit, Proud Inclusion
This is an open circle for all women, including trans women, non-binary people, and every member of the LGBTQIA+ community who feels supported and at home in a woman aligned space. Our shared mission is to witness and hold space for the experiences of those who are most often ignored, dismissed, or targeted.
Healing Over Performance
Recollections Within is not here to chase viral moments or perform vulnerability for engagement. It is here for the slow, messy, necessary work of speaking and being heard.
Your Invitation
Whatever your your stories hold – they deserve to be witnessed. In a time when silence is encouraged, your voice is an act of courage.
It’s time to stop waiting for permission and to start speaking our truths into a space ready to hold them. Together, we weave a quilt of shared experience that cannot be ignored.
Download our brand new free journaling guide and step into the circle of stories. It includes the Recollections Within newsletter—so you’ll receive news and community updates as you begin.
Your voice matters here. You are so loved.
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Read about how Recollections Within Came into being in the foundational series From Unravelling to Weaving.
