How to Start a Revolution with Your Body
How to care for your body in a world that wants to control it.
I have a new piece up on MSNBC this weekend about Florence Pugh’s decision to freeze her eggs following a confusing diagnosis (and then un-diagnosis) with Endometriosis and PSCOS—but it’s about so much more than a celebrity’s medical journey… It’s about how to survive as a woman in a society that is increasingly determined to control our bodies rather than support them. You can read the piece here on MSNBC’s website, but I wanted to share it here too, because these aren’t abstract ideas—they’re about our lives, our futures, and how we fight back.
In the piece, I explore the troubling imbalance between the attention given to women’s bodies and the care we actually receive.
And yet, while our needs are ignored, our bodies are relentlessly scrutinized. They obsess over the size of broom closets in abortion clinics to shut them down, demand access to our period-tracking apps, and create entire systems to spy on, legislate, and control our bodies. But when it comes to addressing our pain—endometriosis, maternal mortality, reproductive health struggles—our needs are met with silence and neglect.
It’s a system designed to scrutinize, shame, and regulate us, all while ignoring the real issues we face. Women’s bodies get all the attention, but none of the care.
The next four years are poised to intensify these challenges. We’re on the brink of a second Trump term—one that promises to be even worse for women. Imagine a cabinet where RFK Jr., accused of sexual assault, is Secretary of Health, and where the people in charge of women’s rights and health are the very ones who have built their careers—and their power—on controlling, abusing, and silencing women. This is the reality we’re heading into, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. We’re also now living in a dystopian reality where states are disbanding their maternal mortality review boards if they show their abortion bans are killing women.
But we can do something about all of this.
If you’re mad, that’s good!! It means you’re alive.
History is brimming with women who didn’t just survive—they used their bodies as vessels of resistance, power, and change. Inspired by Dr. Elizabeth Comen, whose extraordinary book All in Her Head is a must-read for every woman and the learnings of Timothy Snyder on how to survive authoritarianism, I came up with strategies that might seem small, but are acts of resistance in a system designed to disempower us.
1. Master Your Body, Disrupt Their Agenda
It’s important to tune out the noise and tune into yourself. A world that wants to control you will try to convince you that you don’t know your own body—but you do. Track your symptoms, write down your questions, and walk into every doctor’s appointment like you’re running the show (because you are). They can dismiss you all they want, but they can’t dismiss the power of a woman who knows her body better than any chart or system ever could. Women in Poland, where abortion has been largely outlawed, have leaned on underground networks to share reproductive health information and resources. We will need to do the same. When the world tries to silence us, knowing our own bodies becomes an act of rebellion.
2. Build Networks of Care That Defy Their Power
In 1930s Germany, as the Nazi regime criminalized abortions, underground networks of doctors and midwives defied the law to provide women with care. Their quiet acts of defiance prioritized health and autonomy in a system obsessed with control. Today, this legacy lives on in organizations like Aid Access, which helps women access abortion pills in restrictive environments. Supporting these groups, sharing resources, or simply creating safe spaces for women to connect are modern acts of rebellion.
Autocrats and oppressive systems want you to believe that you need them—that without their structures, you’re powerless. But women have always created care systems outside of the mainstream, and that’s exactly what makes us dangerous. Women have always taken care of each other when our governments have failed to.
When systems fail, we don’t wait for permission—we build our own.
3. Defy Their Control—Disappear When You Need To
In Argentina during the Dirty War, women under surveillance used mundane disguises—grocery bags, baby strollers, everyday routines—to evade detection while organizing. Today’s modern fight will require you to protect yourself and your data. They’re already too interested in our bodies—don’t let them snoop any further. Period-tracking apps, medical data, personal records—treat this information like gold. Use privacy-focused tools or go old-school with a paper calendar. Look to contemporary examples: activists in restrictive countries use encrypted messaging apps to organize and protect themselves from government interference. Download signal. Don’t text anything you wouldn’t want the government to know. Protecting your data is protecting your freedom.
4. Become the Problem They Can’t Silence
Every choice you make for your body—big or small—is an act of rebellion. Control isn’t just for people with privilege—it’s for anyone who refuses to let a broken system win. So be loud. Be bold. Be impossible to ignore. Call out anti-abortion nonsense at dinner, refuse to fake-smile at someone spouting regressive views, and make it clear that their outdated ideas aren’t just wrong—they’re unacceptable. Timothy Snyder says authoritarian systems thrive on politeness and passivity. Don’t give them that satisfaction. Push back, make it awkward, and remind them: you’re not here to make anyone comfortable. You’re here to own your power—and they hate it. Good. Do it more.
5. Remember That Change Comes From B*tches Like You
History proves no system is invincible, and women have always been at the heart of its undoing. Ireland overturned its abortion ban because women fought relentlessly. Argentina’s “green wave” movement led to legalized abortion after decades of persistence. In 1917, women’s bread riots in Russia helped spark the Bolshevik Revolution.
Every time you care for your body, stand up for your rights, or support another woman, you’re continuing this legacy.
Change doesn’t come from systems—it comes from women like you. Every act of defiance, no matter how small, pushes the world closer to justice.
How are you using your body to challenge the status quo?
Please read this piece, share it, and have these conversations with the people in your life. Because while the system is designed to control us, our voices and our actions can be what saves us.
With determination
x
Liz
taking care of your body counts as rebellion!!!
Great piece. As we move through the time of this administration it will be important to lean on each other in order to recharge or find encouragement. I’m here for it!