Female body hatred and fear have been reinforced by religion and culture for centuries, but can be transformed with female agency driven by unearthing and living healthy narratives of female strength and sacredness that will change laws and lives.

Hundreds of female eyes, locked in oil and clay, latch onto Jacquelyn’s body as she wanders the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Female images frozen in frames and on pedestals as virgins and victims adrift in a sea of male kings and conquerors. The fierce female gaze ignites a panic attack, and she swears she can hear their plea: Set us free.  

Two months later, a dream as insistent as the female eyes shakes her awake with a question: Where is my rogue? She searches New York sidewalks and Montana meadows. When she awakens, she knows her rogue is not outside but in. 

Jacquelyn knew rogue energy as a child but puberty stole her away. The eyes insist she get the energy back. How? By acknowledging her innate female agency, and replacing obsessions over external appearance with trust for her body, instincts, intuition and dream wisdom. Search, the eyes urge, for female rogue-models through time, and scour history for lies and blank spaces. Reject the biggest lie of all: sin wallpapers female bodies. 

Rogue is her passion and soul. “Be fierce,” rogue commands. “I am your body, soul, intellect and self.” Jacquelyn says yes. The eyes have it.

Jacquelyn L. Jackson is a writer, clinical social worker, and yoga instructor whose career has focused on female body issues. Her essays have been aired on NPR and she has published articles and op eds in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the Arizona Republic, and Arizona Daily Star. She completed a Winter Course at the Jungian Institute in Zurich and incorporates dream analysis in her clinical practice. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.