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Allie Ellenbogen's avatar

And yet another way the mindfulness-and-journaling-will-fix-everything narrative is damaging is by making women feel like what they are experiencing is THEIR fault. If only you had laughed more, meditated longer, or ate more vegetables you wouldn’t be in this situation! (Those are actual suggests from the Mayo Clinic on stress relief). Surely systemic issues like the lack of quality, affordable childcare; the gender pay gap; gender bias in the medical system; or the disparities in unpaid domestic and care work between men and women couldn’t be to blame. 😡🤯

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A. Perry's avatar

A few years back I was stuck in an awful - and I do mean *awful* - job, and desperate for solutions to help me make it through the day (beyond my nightly ritual of applying for jobs elsewhere). Over and over again, the advice the internet kept serving me, as I googled things like "how can I hate my job less" while sobbing on the toilet, was to keep a freaking gratitude journal. MFers, spending five minutes every morning writing down something I was grateful for was not going to help me sort out my bullying boss. I have kept a journal since I was seven years old, for pretty much every reason under the sun, and it is simply not a catch-all solution to life's lady-problems! (And it's always lady-problems, isn't it?

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