Audre Lorde & The Origins of 'Self Care'
Although the notion of “self-care” seems to be everywhere today, it hasn’t always been this way; such a saturated field of modern concern. The roots of our/the current ideas about self-care are to be found in a book by historian, Michel Foucault. In the third volume of ‘The History of Sexuality’, he examined how ancient Greeks pursued ideas about the “care of the self”.
This idea took on a new vitality in ‘A Burst of Light’, a book by Audre Lorde, written after she had been diagnosed with cancer for a second time. Lorde talks about “self-care” as a radical political act. “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence,” she wrote. “It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Lorde’s ideas about self-care were picked up by many in queer, feminist and activist circles at the time (c. 1988). Caring for oneself became a way of preserving oneself in a world that was hostile to one’s identity, one’s community and one’s way of life.
As all concepts should, “self-care” is one that today, is defined by the practitioner. Language is fluid and whilst we believe it is important to understand the origins of something - we also believe that there is no one size fits all model.
Modes of self-care or self-practice for one person may seem entirely trivial or even superfluous to any-other at any given time. As themes of “self-care” are as abundant as they have ever been in popular culture, can we partake in honest conversation with ourselves to decipher its true and entirely personal meaning/s?
What is self care to you? Is it preventative, or is it reactive? Are your practices performative more than they are restorative? Does self-care mean something different to self-love? Does self-care extend beyond application and into self-knowing?
This week, we’re really asking you to consider;
What IS self-care, to you?
Image: Audre Lorde
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