International Women’s Day: Pleasure as Power
Every year on March 8, people around the world celebrate International Women’s Day, a global moment honoring women’s achievements while continuing the fight for equality and justice. The day traces back to early 20th-century labor movements when women organized and marched for fair wages, better working conditions, and the right to vote.
More than a century later, the spirit of those early movements is still alive. International Women’s Day continues to recognize the social, economic, cultural, and political contributions of women while reminding us that the work toward equity is far from finished.
And this year, perhaps more than ever, many women in the United States are feeling the weight of the moment.
We are navigating a cultural climate that often feels designed to keep us divided, exhausted, angry, or afraid. In times like these, it can feel radical simply to return to ourselves.
Which brings us to something that is rarely talked about in conversations about empowerment:
Pleasure.
Pleasure Is Not Frivolous, It’s Foundational
For generations, women have been taught to disconnect from their bodies. To prioritize everyone else’s needs. To view pleasure as indulgent, selfish, or secondary.
But the truth is the opposite.
Pleasure is regulating, healing, and grounding. It brings us back into relationship with our bodies and reminds us that we are alive, worthy, and deserving of joy.
When we allow ourselves to experience pleasure, whether through touch, rest, intimacy, movement, laughter, or connection, we activate the nervous system’s ability to calm, repair, and restore. Pleasure releases stress and tension while helping us reconnect to a sense of safety and vitality.
In other words:
Pleasure isn’t just self-care.
It’s a form of resilience.
Pleasure as Resistance
In a world that profits from women feeling small, disconnected, and depleted, centering pleasure becomes something more than wellness.
It becomes an act of resistance.
When we prioritize our joy, our bodies, and our connection, we interrupt a system that benefits from our exhaustion.
When we nurture intimacy within ourselves and with others, we strengthen the very thing that keeps communities alive: connection.
Pleasure reminds us that we are not just workers, caretakers, activists, or survivors.
We are human beings who deserve to feel good in our bodies.
And that matters.
Honoring the Women Who Speak Truth to Power
International Women’s Day is also a moment to honor the countless women who continue to push the world forward.
The women who speak truth to power.
The women who organize and advocate for justice.
The women who stand up for the vulnerable.
The women raising the next generation to be kinder, braver, and more aware than the last.
Some lead movements.
Some quietly hold families together.
Some create art, build businesses, teach, heal, farm, mentor, protest, nurture, and imagine new futures.
Each act matters.
And collectively, they move the world.
The Power of Returning to Ourselves
At Upstate Mary, we believe intimacy is part of wellness.
We believe reconnecting with our bodies–our sensuality, our curiosity, our pleasure–is a pathway back to wholeness. It’s not simply an escape from the world but a way to sustain ourselves within it.
Because when women feel connected to their bodies, their pleasure, and their power, something extraordinary happens:
We remember who we are.
And from that place, we create, build, love, organize, and lead with far more clarity and strength.
A Gentle Invitation
This International Women’s Day, we invite you to celebrate the women around you and the woman within you.
Take a moment to breathe.
To rest.
To laugh with a friend.
To savor intimacy.
To nourish your body.
To remember that joy is not something we have to earn.
It is something we are allowed to experience.
And sometimes the most powerful thing we can do in uncertain times is simple:
Stay rooted in connection.
Stay rooted in pleasure.
Stay rooted in ourselves.
Because when women reclaim their pleasure, they reclaim their power.
About the Author
Melissa is the founder of Upstate Mary, a Hudson Valley-based sexual wellness brand rooted in clean ingredients, sustainability, and plant-based intimacy support. A breast cancer survivor, speaker, and advocate for body acceptance and pleasure at every stage of life, Melissa writes and speaks openly about perimenopause, pelvic health, intimacy, and reclaiming confidence in changing bodies. Upstate Mary and her work has been featured in national publications (i.e. Oprah Daily and Business Insider) and wellness platforms. She is committed to breaking taboos around sexual health, aging, and healing through honest, science-backed education and storytelling.
Melissa Eppard | Founder of Upstate Mary | Hudson Valley, NY