I found an interesting article this week by Angela Saini on National Geographic. It's not even new... its from 2024.

But it talks about how the patriarchy is a system of oppression that isn't as neat to digest as most people think.

And it got me to thinking... we don't have to live this way. When women finally decide to put their foot down and live a different way, the world changes.

So this week we're gonna chat about living in the matriarch NOW.

New on Substack​
​7 Ways to Live in the Matriarchy This Week

History shows us what happens when women stop making themselves small. When they withhold labor, claim space, and refuse to comply with systems that diminish them, the world bends.

The women’s strike in Iceland in 1975—90% of women refused to work for a single day—shut the country down. The streets filled, businesses paused, public discourse shifted. Women’s unpaid labor had always held the system together, and suddenly, withholding it made the world notice.

Or think of the countless suffrage movements, labor strikes, and grassroots organizing campaigns where women acted collectively and persistently. The needle only moves when enough people say: enough. When we stop performing the polite, invisible labor the patriarchy expects. When we live as if the world we want already exists.

The May issue of Illumine is here!

The May issue of Illumine is a love letter to the woman who is done shrinking—done asking for permission, done editing herself down. Let this issue be a reminder that showing up as yourself—fully, strangely, boldly—is the most powerful thing you can do. That authenticity is a homecoming, not a trend. This is the issue that hands you back your own voice and says: you already know.

Find it now in digital or print copies

Playlist: Sunkissed and Spellbound

When I was growing up, school ended at the beginning of May, which meant summer was finally here. Nowadays, school doesn't end until early June, but in my mind, May marks the beginning of Summer. And this playlist feels like the summer of my youth...

Cheering you on as you step into the matriarch in your own life this week and embrace the audacity of the women who burned their bras not so long ago...

Love you.
Mean it.
Big time.
xoxo,
gina