Most online dictionaries describe wiggling as something like “movement from side to side or up and down in short, quick movements.”
My wiggling
I wiggle for reasons ranging from self-care to pain management to fun. I wiggle while in bed after I wake up, to wake up my muscles. Sometimes I like to wiggle right after a shower, waterdrops flying. I have some L4, L5 issues in my back, so I will wiggle to relieve tension and pain, especially after sitting. And of course, I definitely wiggle when I dance.
I’m trying to identify when I wiggle, it led me to think about my body movements that would not be considered wiggling, such as jiggling:
The difference between ‘wiggle’ and ‘jiggle’ is the control had in the movement. If something jiggles it is uncontrolled… how far it moves, which direction etc etc may be constrained, but are essentially random. If something wiggles then the movement is controlled.” (English Language Learners)
While I am fairly sure my wiggling is controlled and therefore not jiggling, I also cannot easily sit still (as my partner often reminds me). My body seems to need to be busy. So, I present many wiggle-adjacent behaviours as well.
Synonyms for WIGGLE: fidget, twitch, squirm, toss, jerk, twist, fiddle, wriggle (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
My mind is as wiggly as my body. I enjoy wiggling around in topics that pique my curiosity. I pride myself on being able to wiggle out of problems I get myself into. I seem to thrive—physically and mentally—when there is plenty of wiggle room:
Wiggle Room: the freedom or opportunity to do something or to change your mind and do something differently if that is what is needed (Cambridge Dictionary).
Wiggling through this post
When I was first conceiving this post, but my negative inner voice dismissed the idea (too silly, too childish), I knew I needed to find a way to wiggle out of this thinking.
And what better way to do that than to use a generative AI chat bot to think for you? 😉 So here is Copilot on the matter of how wiggling relates to feminism:
Copilot doesn’t think. It doesn’t understand it’s own generated text. This last algorithmically predicted suggestion is a word salad. But the first three ideas make sense to me: I see my wiggling as helping me feel free, be in control of my body, and express joy.
Your wiggling
Do you wiggle? Would you consider your wiggling an empowering act? Is it time to get wiggling a little right now?
A child of the 80s and childfree today, The Wiggles, an Australian children’s entertainment group from the 1990s, never made it onto my radar until recently. But I was happy to discover that another fellow blogger, @isekhmet (Christine) knows about The Wiggles!
So, whether you are well-acquainted with this song, or you are just hearing it for the first times (or few dozen times—it gets in your head), here is “Get Ready to Wiggle” by The Wiggles (song lyrics). This is the “OG Wiggles.”
Get Ready To Wiggle” is the very first song performed by The Wiggles. The song inspired the band’s name because they thought that wiggling described the way children dance.
