Anyone who has looked even slightly into the sociological data on men and women by gender can easily see that women get the short end of the stick: in pay (men made $50,033 compared to women’s $39,157 in 2013), in workplace sexual harassment (1 in 3 of us get sexually harrassed by our male colleagues), in leadership (of Fortune 500 Companies’ CEOs, just 32 of them are women). Yet in spite of these disheartening figures, women are being raised to be stronger than ever before.
It’s high time we took a look at what strong women don’t have to give a damn about:
Stop giving a damn about other people’s opinions.
For two reasons: they don’t matter and you’re not going to change them. You choose how much you let others’ (often highly uninformed) opinions affect you, so choose to let it not affect you. An awesomely strong woman named Sarah Knight wrote a fantastic book about this.
Stop giving a damn about conformity.
Exercise your well-informed opinions and speak up! There is no room for shrinking violets in this society anymore; if you are fortunate enough to live in a place that allows free speech, use it!
Stop giving a damn about your status…or others’.
Seriously, there are so many better things to spend your time and energy on, and if you are too busy keeping up with the Joneses to be living a fulfilling life, say buh-bye to the Joneses. You’re your own person; start acting that way.
Stop giving a damn about a so-called perfect body.
While we’re at it, let’s throw in all diets not based on a solid plan of nutrition and exercise, “goal weights”, and terms such as “cankles”, “double chin”, and any other horribly offensive terms you can think of based on weight and generally aimed at women. There is no such thing as a perfect body. It doesn’t exist. Stop striving for it.
Stop giving a damn about social media.
We publish to social media platforms on this site. It’s important for the continued growth of our company. Know what it’s not important for? Your increased growth and strength, self-worth and well-being. Numerous studies have shown that social media contributes to low self-esteem and low self-confidence. If you’re basing who you are on your likes, friends, shares & retweets it’s high time you took a major break from it.
Stop giving a damn about mistakes made.
Because a) you’re not going to be able to change them and b) ruminating isn’t going to fix them. If you can take steps to fix a mistakes, great, but if you can’t, own it a move on. Even if you are fixing a mistake, stop being so damn hard on yourself. Literally everyone makes mistakes in this world. It’s okay. Move along.
Stop giving a damn about toxic relationships.
We know, you still feel for him, and your empathy is admirable. Also, it’s unhelpful. Ruminating -there’s that word again- over the past is not going to help you build your future. So be empathetic…and move on.
Stop giving a damn about staying in your “place”.
I’m really grateful that this is something I have never been subjected to…my parents were old-school hippies/civil rights activists who championed women’s rights and raised myself and my sister to believe our place was anywhere we made it. This is 2017, not 1917. Your place is defined as you want it to be, not relegated to the kitchen or the laundry room or God forbid, the bedroom. Ew.
Stop giving a damn about your bad ex.
Your intentions in caring about this unsavory jerk are admirable, but that’s all they are. Stop living in the past. You are strong and capable and more than able to understand that caring about your bad ex isn’t going to help build your future.
Stop giving a damn about fashion.
Okay, hear me out here. If you’re devoted to wearing certain fashions for personal style, that’s awesome. If you’re devoted to wearing certain fashions to keep up with anyone else, or the latest trends, that’s ridiculous. Also, you are spending an insane amount of money on clothing. Which is fine. You do you. As long as that’s what it’s all about.
