Role Reboot

I’m A Sensitive Woman, Not A Drama Queen

Since I was a child, my family has treated my sensitivity as a symptom of self-centeredness, a way of privileging my own emotions over others’ by, in their view, exaggerating them, inflating them, even inventing them. Sarah Bernhardt was a late 19th-century dramatic actress from France, earning her moniker, The Divine Sarah, for her celebrated […]

What Happens When You Tell A Woman She’s Being ‘Dramatic’

Being labeled “dramatic” served not only to shut down my ability to talk about my traumas, but enabled my parents to deny they ever happened. (Trigger warning for rape.) There is no trauma so devastating that a dose of familial guilt cannot make it worse. My sister called me at work late on a Friday […]