We love this piece of Steinem’s wisdom and the vision it conjures up of a tribe of fabulous women full of wisdom, humour and plain old common sense calmly striding together to take charge of the earth.
It resonated with us even more in this month which has National Menopause Day (we love the fact there is an actual Day!) It’s been just six weeks since the launch of our brand Cucumber but it’s been a long journey to get here. From the start we were galvanised into action by the idea that we are a part of that ‘grey-haired army’ (though you may find we may not take the ‘grey hair’ bit quite so literally!) and frustrated by the thought that for many women with time, energy, experience and on their side, their hormones were decidedly not.
Every woman will go through the menopause: some will sail through and some will struggle through. We really wanted to try and break the mould and create something by women for women that could actually help not only practically, but emotionally, by making women feel and look good. These days our daughters talk happily and freely around the dinner table about heavy flows and cramps and cheerily send their dads and boyfriends out for tampons. Every wonderful stage and detail of pregnancy and birth now has been filmed and uploaded to be viewed online.
But we found that this wonderful army of older women were truly ‘soldiering on’, bound together in what seemed to be an omerta of silence. Choosing not to talk about their dry eyes, hot, sleepless nights, lack of libido and unexplained weight gain, not to mention pendulum swinging moods. Was this because the menopause instead of being heralded as a new beginning is instead wrongly sidelined as the beginning of an end?
We wanted Cucumber to help open the conversation up, and create something that made women feel beautiful and strong. Go grey (and other coloured) haired army, we’re with you all the way!
xCucumber
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