Personal Essays

Tattoo You

Alicia Dara
·
November 20, 2023
Tattoo You

A few years ago my husband and I took a short trip to Reno, Nevada, to get some sun and explore a new city. Reno has a High Desert climate, the polar opposite of the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve lived for years. Trees are scrubbier, flowers are smaller. Your skin itches in weird places. The air dries out your bones and the sky blinds your gaze. Most of…

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Bon Voyage

November 17, 2023
Bon Voyage

Hi! As you know, our current theme is “Travel Adventure”. Traveling strips away our routines and can reveal important issues that would not otherwise be visible. This vivid, honest, and funny piece by our friend Shigeko Ito (whose Womancake interview you can read here

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The Realm of Pure Chocolate

Alicia Dara
·
November 13, 2023

Astonishing, always, the flash flood of intimacy that can burst from strangers, especially among women. Whenever I’m traveling I look forward to it. Recently I was sitting in a quiet corner of the airport, waiting for my flight to start boarding. Across from me in a nearby chair I saw a middle-aged woman with pink cheeks and frizzy grey-red hair reach i…

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The Man In The Short Beige Trench

Alicia Dara
·
November 6, 2023
The Man In The Short Beige Trench

Oh my god, he was perfect! Standing directly across from me in the airport, each of us in our respective gate-boarding lines, this young man stood out from the thronging crowd. I memorized his outfit: a black silky shirt buttoned all the way to the top, tucked into black pants with a small pleat down the f…

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Wonders of New Mexico (Part 3)

Alicia Dara
·
October 30, 2023
Wonders of New Mexico (Part 3)

The strangeness of new places doesn't taste like fear. Traveling wrenches your mind out of the ordinary and forges a powerful curiosity that neutralizes fear, and relegates it to the background. From this mindset comes unlimited possibility for spiritual growth, a great leap forward. But there are no guarantees, only opportunities, and they often come w…

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Wonders of New Mexico (Part 2)

Alicia Dara
·
October 23, 2023
Wonders of New Mexico (Part 2)

The weather in New Mexico is a child with a hammer, rambling and curious, innocent of its own capacity for destruction. The early morning light is sometimes so clear you can see right through your muted everyday face to the ones you save for sex, or rage, or even joy. Seeing yourself exposed that way is shocking but liberating. It might be why so many p…

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Wonders of New Mexico (Part 1)

Alicia Dara
·
October 16, 2023
Wonders of New Mexico (Part 1)

In early 2008 I released a record of original songs, my fifth. I’d been working hard on my music for almost a decade, and the timing felt exactly right for a breakthrough. But without any real tour support (ie: money and marketing) from the tiny independent label that signed me for the project, I couldn’t push the record out very far into the world. Fin…

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Today Is (Also) For Women

Alicia Dara
·
October 9, 2023
Today Is (Also) For Women

Hello to all our new readers around the world! I’m Womancake’s Editor In Chief, Alicia Dara, welcoming you to the magazine. Today in America it’s Indigenous People’s Day (formerly known as Columbus Day). It’s a great time to celebrate the work of Indigenous women artists, and here are three that I love:

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Announcing Our NEW Quarterly Theme

Alicia Dara
·
October 2, 2023
Announcing Our NEW Quarterly Theme

A young groom married an even younger bride beside a rushing river in a small town in Italy, on a gorgeous summer afternoon in 1995. The bride, an American tourist in her early 20s, went for a long walk on the morning of the ceremony. She didn’t really know the man she was marrying. They had met randomly in a cafe in

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The Guilty Pleasure of a Surprising New Life

Johanna Dokken
·
September 22, 2023
The Guilty Pleasure of a Surprising New Life

10 years and a remarriage later, I still tip-toe back to the memories of my post-divorce life lightly. It was a transition that required releasing a deep history, like a snake shedding old layers to find itself newly raw and translucent. Maggie Smith’s elegant

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My Biggest Guilty Pleasure of All Time

Alicia Dara
·
September 25, 2023
My Biggest Guilty Pleasure of All Time

Hello to all our new readers around the world! Welcome to the last week of our quarterly theme, “Guilty Pleasure” (we’ll announce our new quarterly theme on Monday). What a wild ride it’s been! Hearing women speak openly about their GPs during their Womancake interviews has been enlightening, to say the least. For one thing, the list of guilty pleasures…

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Feet Are Everything

Alicia Dara
·
September 18, 2023
Feet Are Everything

While shopping for sandals back in May I noticed a 60-ish woman standing across from me in the shoe store. She had a smooth, steel-gray bob and glossy black glasses, and her fingernails were polished a vivid coral. She was dressed in a white linen button-down, and immaculate black pants with a crisp crease down the front. Her jewelry was steely, stealth…

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A Hollywood Healing

Alicia Dara
·
September 11, 2023
A Hollywood Healing

On a plane from New York to LA I started sneezing uncontrollably. The woman sitting next to me was kind and helpful, extracting fresh kleenex from her sleek leather purse, and leaning back politely while I blew my nose. As we chatted I learned that the woman, Susan*, was a Manhattan resident on her way to an appointment with her LA

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If Loving Food is Wrong, I Don’t Wanna Be Right

Alison Krupnick
·
September 8, 2023
If Loving Food is Wrong, I Don’t Wanna Be Right

Food for Thought Vibrant woman of a certain age bids adieu to the constraints of working and child-rearing life and prepares to embark on a new life that she hopes will resemble a Viagra commercial: frolicking with a sexy, silver-haired partner, visiting faraway beautiful vistas. Eating exquisite morsels of food while sipping exquisite wine. Wearing beig…

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A Scientific* Pleasure Principle

Alicia Dara
·
September 4, 2023
A Scientific* Pleasure Principle

Most scientific principles require decades, even centuries, of thorough and exhaustive research to confirm. Millions, if not billions, of dollars are spent on this process. There are no guarantees, and in the end it could amount to an expensive wild goose chase that leads to nothing and serves no one.

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Beauty

August 25, 2023
Beauty

Today we’re delighted to share this gorgeous piece by Annahid Dashtgard, whom we interviewed earlier this week. It’s from her book, “Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World”. I’m lying on my back, trying not to scrunch up my face in response to the zaps of pain travelling across my arm like tiny drill bits digging past the barrier of skin…

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Maui Is A Place On Earth

Alicia Dara
·
August 28, 2023
Maui Is A Place On Earth

It’s dark inside the catapult while you’re waiting for the action to start. You have to stay calm and trust that you’ll land in the right place, the right pair of arms. I had never done online dating before. By nature I’m a sensitive, introverted human who generally prefers the company of people I already know. Most of my boyfriends were friends-of-frie…

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The Best/Worst Gossip

Alicia Dara
·
August 21, 2023
The Best/Worst Gossip

Last week an old friend and I were walking down a busy street, lightly gossiping about people we know. We exchanged info about good things happening to them, and celebrating their wins. We also talked about sad things that have happened to some of our friends, illnesses, job losses, family deaths, etc. We conjured compassion and sent them healing vibes.…

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My New Favorite Word

Alicia Dara
·
August 14, 2023
My New Favorite Word

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help Womancake find a wider audience. Don’t know about you, but I am frequently captivated by words. They have personality and emotion that I experience in an almost visceral way, as if I can feel them in my body and taste them in my mouth. Some of my favorite…

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How To Make Art Again

Alicia Dara
·
August 7, 2023
How To Make Art Again

Sweeter than hope, in the life of an artist, is inspiration. An inspired artist will burst across the sky like a rocket, leaving a trail of hot, dizzy sparks. The artist, in this state, can overpower any obstacle to their work. The work is everything. They will burrow deeply into its warm embrace, forsaking all else, even forgetting to eat, sleep and co…

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Hello, and WOW!

Alicia Dara
·
July 31, 2023
Hello, and WOW!

Womancake is suddenly bigger! We’ve gained a surge of subscribers in the past 60 days, and it’s wonderful to have you as part of our community. To introduce myself, I’m Alicia Dara, Womancake’s founder and Editor In Chief. By profession I’m a speech and presentation

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Summer Blockbusters

Alicia Dara
·
July 24, 2023
Summer Blockbusters

Welcome to all our wonderful new readers! Our quarterly theme is,“Guilty Pleasure”, but this week our sub-theme is movies, and all our releases will touch on that subject. Enjoy this first installment, and please tap the little ❤️ above, and leave a comment below. We love hearing from you!

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I Double-Dork-Dare You

Alicia Dara
·
July 17, 2023
I Double-Dork-Dare You

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help Womancake grow! If you think you can’t sing, I’m here to tell you that you’re dead wrong. Singing is a natural part of the human experience, and we’re anatomically designed to do it. The action of singing evolved in order to help us release serotonin and ox…

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Menopausal Myth Busting (among other truths)

Johanna Dokken
·
July 14, 2023
Menopausal Myth Busting (among other truths)

“Nope. Do not get those Kegel balls!” Tylene told me once during a visit to see her in New York, looking over my shoulder as I gazed, tempted and captivated, at an open tab on her laptop for a website targeted at tools of her trade. “It’s bette…

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Summer Lovers, Had Me A Blast

Alicia Dara
·
July 10, 2023
Summer Lovers, Had Me A Blast

Summer lovers are something to revel in. They appear on your tongue for such a brief time that you never get tired of the taste. In my 30s I had one who had tangled with heroin and came out the other side. Although I’d been in the music business since I was a child I’d always avoided drugs, and I as…

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Fuck Nora Ephron's Bikini

Alicia Dara
·
June 26, 2023
Fuck Nora Ephron's Bikini

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help Womancake grow! Years ago I went on a date with a man whose insecurity about women took the form of pretentious date questions. He posed them to me with his eyes half-closed and his body slumped down in his chair, as if he were on the verge of dozing off. The only one of his questions I r…

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A Book That Changed Everything

Alicia Dara
·
June 19, 2023
A Book That Changed Everything

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help Womancake reach more women! Big news, Fam: this week Womancake gained over a hundred new readers. Welcome welcome welcome! If you’re here, you already know that women aged 40+ are dramatically underserved in al…

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Course Correcting to Freedom

June 2, 2023
Course Correcting to Freedom

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! PLEASE NOTE: sensitive content ahead. This is the extraordinary, and ultimately victorious, story of a woman who has overcome enormous odds to find her place as a Queer immigrant women in America. We have concealed her identity to protect her safety. T…

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80s Tina Sparked My Feminism

Alicia Dara
·
May 29, 2023
80s Tina Sparked My Feminism

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help spread the word about Womancake! The TV volume was turned down. There was only her image on the screen, in the 1984 video for “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. A denim jacket, a tight black dress, big red lips and hair that seemed electrified just from sitting atop her head. Men stared at…

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Questlove Was Right

Alicia Dara
·
May 22, 2023
Questlove Was Right

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! Questlove has a big record collection. Let me rephrase that: Questlove has a fucking epic vinyl stash. It’s so big that it has to be housed in multiple venues. But it’s not static, this collection. It keeps growing and growing, fed not just by Q, but a…

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Weekend Bathroom Revamp: A Midlife Reckoning

Johanna Dokken
·
May 8, 2023
Weekend Bathroom Revamp: A Midlife Reckoning

It is Sunday morning and I am all up in my head, trying to rationalize how arching over the toilet to paint the wall behind it might be meditative. I am enclosed in a bathroom swathed in blue tape seams, the breeze of the open window barely making a dent in the fumes of yesterday's painting bender. My arms are sore and I can still see a halo of the form…

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Something Tremendous Has Happened!

Alicia Dara
·
May 1, 2023
Something Tremendous Has Happened!

If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! All I ever want from life, essentially, is to be knocked on my ass by women doing awesome things. Whenever this happens I feel a renewed sense of faith in our individual and collective power, which (pretty sure you’ll agree!) we all need more than ever…

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Womancake Magazine
Fresh New Ears of 1988
If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere. When I was in Grade Eight I knew a girl who I’ll call Martine. She was in the same grade but very tall for her age, lanky and elegant like a blue heron. Her height wasn’t much of a social problem, because everyone knew t…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Alicia Dara
Womancake Magazine
Grudge-Busting for Beginners
If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! There was a summer when I took up Karate. I had returned home to Vancouver from my first year of theater school in New York City, during which I’d survived a terrifying…
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2 years ago · 1 like · 2 comments · Alicia Dara
Womancake Magazine
The Death of Puffy Sleeves
If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! My agitation with fashion is so intense right now that it’s actually started to show up in my dreams. The image happens fast, like a rabbit streaking across a field, but it’s often more vivid and lasting than any other dreamtime event. It is the death …
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2 years ago · 1 like · Alicia Dara
Womancake Magazine
The Father Wound: Parenting My Boomer Dad
If you like this post, please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! I look over and see my aging dad grimace in pain. “Dad? You okay?” He nods as he absently rubs his leg. “It’s just this damn knee. It feels like it’s on fire…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Havi Zavi
Womancake Magazine
The Blade of A Hopeless Knife
If you like this post please tap the little ❤️ above, it will help bring more cake to women everywhere! Yesterday something extraordinary happened in my ordinary kitchen. I was throwing together my usual Sunday dinner, a quick sheet-pan thing with roasted vegetables and chicken. The chicken came from my local grocery store, which has the unique distincti…
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2 years ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Alicia Dara

Tattoo You

Alicia Dara
·
November 20, 2023
Tattoo You

A few years ago my husband and I took a short trip to Reno, Nevada, to get some sun and explore a new city. Reno has a High Desert climate, the polar opposite of the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve lived for years. Trees are scrubbier, flowers are smaller. Your skin itches in weird places. The air dries out your bones and the sky blinds your gaze. Most of…

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