Dismantling the Patriarchy Begins in the Body
- Jo Miller
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
We cannot dismantle the patriarchy until we dismantle how it lives within our body and nervous system. Our nervous systems were born into environments that teach us directly and indirectly, to control, suppress, and mistrust our bodies.
Messages like:
"Fix your body, it’s wrong."
“Don’t speak up, it’s dangerous.”
“Righteous anger will make you unstable.”
And perhaps most painfully,“Don’t trust other women, they’re your competitors.”
These beliefs are not innate, they are inherited.
Our mothers were told them, too. We absorbed them in the womb before we were even born.
The illusion of safety
From the earliest days of our lives, we were taught that staying small, not upsetting the status quo, and fitting in would keep us safe.
But this illusion of safety disconnects us from what is truly life-giving: belonging, self-trust, and embodied safety from within.
This is one of the most insidious effects of patriarchal conditioning. It convinces us to mistrust our own inner knowing.
Remembering the matriarchal way
This is where the wisdom of the matriarchy offers a path forward. Matriarchal systems are built on inclusion, on embracing all parts, all beings, and honouring the interconnectedness of life.
Embodiment and somatic healing, at their core, are acts of remembering.
They call us back into relationship with the body, not as something to fix or control, but as a source of deep wisdom, orientation, and collective transformation.
Healing as reclamation
When we begin to listen to the body, we start to unravel generations of conditioning. We learn to hold our emotions without fear, we learn to rediscover our belonging with other women and we reclaim the power that patriarchy has tried to divide and diminish.
Somatic healing isn’t just a personal journey. It’s a collective act of reclamation. Because dismantling the patriarchy begins not with our minds, but with remembering what our bodies already know.
Continue this journey
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Your body holds the wisdom of generations. The work is not to control it but to listen, and remember.