As I watch events unfold around Jeff Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, I am more and more aware of the “hysterical woman” within me. Nowhere was this more apparent than the feeling I had watching Ana Maria Archila scream at Jeff Flake in the elevator. Later, I saw her interviewed. She comes across as a very intelligent, well-considered professional woman. Ana Maria Archila is now an American hero. She has been a community organizer for years. According to the Washington Post she is now the co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy, a progressive community-based advocacy group in New York.
And I began to think about how often I present an intelligent, well-considered woman to the outside world and how often I am that screaming hysterical woman in the elevator in my mind. I was definitely raised to keep that woman within quiet. She is not supposed to come out and play.
I use the word “hysterical” advisedly. Derived from the Greek “hystero,” it shares the same root as “hysterectomy” — it means uterus.
It is a cliché that “well-behaved women seldom make history.” And I begin to wonder if those of us who have been showing up as the women who men in power are comfortable with, the women they like to be around need to bring the hysterical woman out to play.
Maybe there needs to be more screaming in elevators. Maybe a lot more.