The Female Rogue: A Memoir of Living Fiercely 

By Jacquelyn L. Jackson

Yesterday morning, I awakened early, poured my coffee and scanned headlines on my phone (not a recommended way to start a day). I was drawn to yet another story of the release of Virginia Giuffre’s book, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. 

The title alone wore me out. Survive. Fight. What would a female life be if those verbs were not mainstays of our life on this earth when strapped inside a female body. 

My book, The Female Rogue: A Memoir of Living Fiercely describes the exhaustion and elation of life in a female body. The “Rogue” in my title came to me in a dream where I was scouring Montana meadows and New York City sidewalks to find my rogue. Where is my rogue? Where is she? I searched all night and in the morning realized Female Rogues are not in the world but are inside our bodies instinct, intuition, appetites and dream wisdom. Male rogues are more often defined as unprincipled, not to be trusted. Female rogues, however embody belly-deep wisdom, passion, energy, curiosity. 

I knew my rogue as a young girl. Never worrying about what my body looked like just running, sweating, climbing trees and eating without counting or measuring. Puberty, however, chased my sweet rogue into hiding, and littered my body instead with obsessions over external appearance.

My book tells my story of unearthing my inner rogue-energy which had been huddling behind my rib cage, awaiting, for so many years, my full attention. My book is memoir woven through with religious and cultural history that is replete with centuries of laws, dictates and mandates aimed at silencing, containing and corralling females. The hope that inspired me to write my book derived from the science of epigenetics: we cannot change our DNA codes but we can change behaviors and trajectories of our lives. The body not only keeps the score, we have the power to shift the score from losing to winning.

Which returns me to Viginia Giuffre, who, for the record, is dead. 

She reportedly took her own life on April 25, 2025. She survived for 41 years and far too many of those years – from childhood through adulthood – were poisoned by sexual and emotional abuse. Despite this, and because of this, she founded the organization Speak Out, Act, Reclaim to advocate for justice for sex-trafficked girls and women. 

Virginia described her own actively trafficked body as being passed around “like a plate of fruit.” Traffic. Fruit trays. Children described as young women. All euphemisms for heinous crimes. 

Is Virgina telling the truth? I refuse to debate that point. She is telling her truth, and I respect and admire her courage. In fact, if anyone mentions the phrase “He Said-She-Said,” I swear I will deck them.  That phrase too often should read: She Said-He-Denied. The preponderance of what is deemed truth, no matter the facts, falls in the He court. 

The She stands alone. 

I am not equating my life with the horrors Virginia endured, but variations on the theme of sexual abuse and harassment pop up in most female lives. And no one escapes trauma in their lives. 

Resurrecting my female rogue involved a fierce quest for honesty, and a willingness to learn and grow from trauma. My trauma included sexual harassment by a perverted chancellor at Pima Community College (PCC) in Tucson, AZ. I also witnessed up-close the murder and wounding of my friends when an assassin attempted to kill former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for whom I had worked. 

Trauma stopped me in my tracks, and led me back home to my own body. I deepened my knowledge of my own anatomy and physiology as part of my yoga teacher training. I learned breathing techniques, movement and awareness all of which blossomed inside of me a profound trust in my body, instinct, appetite and divine spirit. 

Female rogues are fierce diggers for truth. We dig for, unearth and try every day to live and breathe truth. But the courage to forge a different path forward take enormous energy. Female rogues also get tired. Worn out. Exhausted by a world that has forever wanted only small portions of our innate female energy, intelligence, imagination, spirit and divine light – all of which are sorely needed to heal the world. 

Virginia Giuffre. Say her name. Say Your Name. Be fierce truth-tellers. Learn about and deeply trust your body, appetites, intuition, instinct and dream wisdom. The Female Rogue inside of you awaits your return. Go Rogue.

For additional information and to order the book go to www.jacksonauthor.com 

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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.

The Female Rogue: A Memoir of Living Fiercely

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.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing