Women's Day

Every Wednesday from 9am-2pm the Russian and Turkish Bath house in NYC is women only. One of the perks of not working a 9-5 job is that I can go to Women's Day at the baths. Most evenings, it's crowded and the men dominate in size and number. But on Wednesday mornings, the atmosphere changes completely. Women go naked without feeling peering eyes upon them. Old women come with natural remedies--a raw egg to mix with mud for the hair, salt scrubs for the skin, and kombucha to quench the thirst. Young women come, revealing their secret tattoos. It's quiet, the baritone voices are gone, and it's relaxing.
It's a place to be free in your body. Some women have tummies stretched out from childbirth. There is a delightful variety of body shapes. There are a couple of older women with skin stretched tightly over their aging bones. Some breast sag low, others are small and perky.
Yet for all of the delights of enjoying the sauna in this laid back environment, I think one of the best parts is knowing that men are not allowed. That for five hours, there is a space where women can be together and be completely at ease knowing that men aren't invited.
Sitting there last Wednesday reminded me of a class that I took my freshman year of college.
It was a history of Ancient Greece class, and one day in particular, we were looking at the lives of women in Ancient Greece. It was a small class - only 6-7 students. It was an upper division class, and there weren't many history majors at Westmont College. It was taught by a new professor that year (1995-6), Dr. Robins. We students came to the room with the predetermine idea that women in Ancient Greece were repressed and isolated. What else could one conclude from a society that kept its women so separate from its men? We saw them as so far removed from our own enlightened age of feminism. Dr. Robins went through the historical evidence, breaking it down and asked us to think about this in a new way. Women washed clothes -- did we think this was something that could easily be done alone? Had we ever washed sheets or robes by hand? What about women's festivals. And she went on, with examples that I no longer remember. But at the end of her lecture, we were all wondering if those Greek women didn't have something special that our society doesn't really offer -- a women's world. Specifically because the sexes were kept so separate, women's lives had an opportunity to take on a distinct identity.
When I have an opportunity to be in women only environments, such as women's day, I think about that idea. Feminine support, strength, and understanding that doesn't have to prove itself in a man's world. Women's Day.