We Are Not Hysterical. We Are Historical.
- Odetta J. Amesbury

- Aug 23
- 1 min read
There’s a dangerous narrative being pushed about women in this country that we’re emotional, dramatic, or imagining things. But what’s happening is not imagined. It’s documented, deliberate, and dangerous. This isn’t about one law or one moment. It’s about a coordinated rollback of autonomy, happening state by state, bill by bill, vote by vote. We’re seeing forced births in a country that refuses to guarantee paid leave. Clinics are being shuttered while crisis pregnancy centers multiply. Judges are quoting 17th-century witch trial logic to justify stripping away rights. Miscarriages are being criminalized. Wombs are being surveilled. And all of it is being quietly normalized.
This moment we’re living through isn’t hysteria, it’s history. It will be studied, quoted, and archived, assuming we’re lucky enough to still have books. This post isn’t a metaphor. It’s a timestamp. It’s a refusal to be polite while our rights are legislated into extinction. We’re not asking for permission to be angry. We’re documenting the erosion. We’re naming the tactics: legal gaslighting, moral manipulation, economic coercion, and bodily surveillance. And we’re not going to soften the language to make it more digestible, because what’s happening isn’t digestible. It’s violent. It’s systemic. And it’s happening in plain sight.
So let them call us emotional, we’ll call it evidence. Let them call us dramatic, we’ll call it survival. Let them call us radical, we’ll call it necessary. We are not hysterical. We are historical. And we are not going anywhere.


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