Women & Cutting

9 Pages 2248 Words

Opinion/ Research Paper
Best Kept Secret of the Blade

The least talked about of all disorders, and addictions among women is cutting. The question I would like to answer is what are the reasons that these women are cutting themselves? Many of the reasons women are cutting themselves are interwoven, just as the systems of oppression are.I believe that the main reason so many women are cutting themselves is because they are basing their self worth on things that are ever changing, and completely disconnected from reality. These women are craveing something that is real, that is an outlet for their pain, but most of all the control of our own pain that comes from cutting.
These women that I speak of are not some abstract statistic they are your mother, your teacher, your daughter, your next door neighbor, your best friend, or the girl who sits next to you in class. I am one of “these women” and I would like to start off with an autobiographical account of my own experience with cutting. Many of the reasons are interwoven, just as our systems of oppression are, so in order to get a real understanding of my experience with this disorder I must reveal a little of my past and the forces that led me to cut myself.
I grew up in extreme poverty. My family of seven lived off of welfare, food stamps, free lunches and my stepfathers part time low paying job. With all of our sources of income combined we were living off of less than $12, 000 per year. I was ashamed of being poor and took every measure possible to cover it up and not let anyone know the real financial standing of my family. All this time I was forced to internalize the feelings of worthlessness, and shame. Another key factor that played into the cause of my cutting was my biological father. He is a practicing drug addict and has been absent for most of my life. The times that he was in my life were very abusive, and I was exposed to a lot of things a young child shou...