<p><em>It </em>could mean a lot of things. "She Wolf" is deeply campy and a bit weird. It features, among other strange lines, the lyric, "I'm starting to feel just a little abused, like a coffee machine in an office."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>Its accompanying music video added another, fiercer dimension to the song. Featuring iconic images of Shakira dancing in a nude bodysuit in gold cages and various locations, it's actually a glorious protest and a celebration of Shakira's internal wild sexuality, completely on her terms.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODcwNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjY1NzExNH0.mNZFXf4auVzoxi8TILV26idVgkkbuD4OQ5DvN0azdog/img.jpg?width=980" id="65914" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="58f318c66e52d02a98e1a7e256b60b71" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Shakira">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Shakira </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nVnp-B4EynQ/maxresdefault.jpg" target="_blank">YouTube</a></small></p><p>But the song also touches on a deeper archetype: the inner wolf, an archetypal symbol of the internal "wild woman," the ancient, liberated and divine feminine source that appears over and over again in folklore across the world.<br></p><p><strong>With "She Wolf," Shakira asked her listeners to embrace their desire to be free from a boring male partner—but she also asked listeners to embrace their animal sexualities and desires. </strong>Even deeper than that, she asked listeners to tap into their deeper wild she-wolf.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p>The book <em>Women Who Run With the Wolves </em>by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/901977.Clarissa_Pinkola_Est_s" target="_blank">Clarissa Pinkola Estes</a> explores the wild woman/wolf archetype beautifully, threading myth with modern anxieties, advising women to tap deeper into their true longings and spirits. </p><p>"The old one, the One Who Knows, is within us. She thrives in the deepest soul-psyche of women, the ancient and vital wild Self," Estes writes. "Her home is that place in time where the spirit of women and the spirit of wolf meet- the place where the mind and instincts mingle, where a woman's deep life funds her mundane life. It is the point where the I and the Thou kiss, the place where, in all spirit, women run with the wolves."</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODY5NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODI0NzM2NH0.2uPF1Y2XGHLzVNLLO0T5pAMIwj95BGQC1oQ6FvDJpqk/img.jpg?width=980" id="d7b11" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e8d53ee70128dd8dea77b2c9dbcbcc0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jaSsORXP_E4/VvKp4i6vUlI/AAAAAAAAXyE/QIAc6SIZC5Q0x_8vlkyAKQ-0eCGTlnm8g/s1600/women%2Bwho%2Brun%2Bwith%2Bthe%2Bwolves.jpg" target="_blank">Frommoontomoon.blogspot.com</a></small></p><p>The Spanish-language version of Shakira's "She Wolf" is called "Loba"—a term that is also the title of a book of poetry by <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-di-prima" target="_blank">Diane DiPrima</a>, a Beat poet who dedicated herself to reintegrating the wild into the feminine.<br></p><p>Sometimes viewed as the female counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's <em>Howl, </em>like Shakira's "She Wolf," DiPrima's poetry is about the reclamation of internal wildness. It "explores the wilderness at the heart of experience, through the archetype of the wolf goddess, elemental symbol of complete self-acceptance," its liner notes read. <strong>Loba, DiPrima writes, is "the wolf / is taboo, w/ the bear / the birch, the owl because / because it forces / to see / bring the eye / to a focus of the semi- / or in- / visible."</strong></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0ODY5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjM2NTM4MX0.4aUfq-Hz6wfGgrjNvzKsI9M1CpFw8iZTuwS8Y8K6MnY/img.jpg?width=980" id="150f9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2af82ce1d397d2f6334de25a1e8f5382" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Diane DiPrima">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Loba</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."><a href="https://pictures.abebooks.com/BOOJUM/22732782806_2.jpg" target="_blank">Abebooks</a></small></p><p>So Shakira's "She Wolf" entered into a tradition of female liberation in an era before #MeToo and modern intersectional feminism took flight. When Shakira sings, "There's a she wolf in the closet," she may have been talking about the ancient wolf archetype, or she may have been talking about internalized queerness or another deep secret held below the threshold of conventionality.<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-632"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - undersecond12 - under_second_paragraph --></p><h2></h2><p>Either way, on this day 11 years ago, Shakira called a whole generation of wild women out of the closet, and we have no choice but to stan.</p>From Your Site Articles
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