Dr. Christiane Northrup: Healing the Little Girl in YOU!
Dr. Christiane Northrup and Healing the Little Girl in You
By Christiane Northrup, M.D.
Years ago feminist Germaine Greer wrote, “I know of no woman for whom the body is not a fundamental problem.” That quote has stuck with me for decades, and I have seen the truth of it both in my own life and in the lives of the thousands of women I have met over the years.
Yet no little girl begins her life feeling as though her body is a fundamental problem. Nope. Little girls love to dance, spin, wiggle their bums, and revel in the joy of being embodied.
So when does this change? Pre-puberty? Adolescence? Young adulthood? For me, the love-hate relationship (which many women have with their bodies) began when I was still a toddler. My parents had a friend who was a former German Olympian named Karl (the Arnold Schwarzenegger of my childhood). Karl used to sit me on his lap, pat my belly, and say “starky” in a thick German accent. Starky meant something like “solid” or “fireplug.” That message went right into my bone marrow, and stayed there, running my sense of self for the next 40 plus years!
I remember playing on the carpet one day, while my parents talked with some friends, including Karl. Although I was only about four or five, I remember one of them talking about my body. “She’s built like an Mack truck,” they said, spelling out the word M-A-C-K. Of course, I had no idea what a Mack truck was, but I sensed it was something bad. I will never forget the first time—several years later—that I actually saw a Mack truck with the bulldog hood ornament. My stomach plummeted, and something precious in me was never quite the same.
Of course many women experience far worse—sexual abuse of all kinds. Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising movement points out that one in three girls and women have been or are being abused on the planet right now. Many are told that it is their fault—and the fault of their bodies.
