Ever since the 1990s, we–especially women–have been hearing about the importance of self-esteem. It’s associated with better mental health, relationship outcomes, academic achievement, career success, you name it. It’s part of what it means to be a mature and emotionally developed person. Much time and resources have been expended on the development of children’s self-esteem–I …
Tag Archive: self-esteem
Nov 14 2012
More On Depression Origins and Parenting
Last week I wrote a piece called “Onset,” in which I described the way I first became clinically depressed about nine years ago. That was the first time I’d ever written about that or told anyone other than a few close friends, so the many positive responses I got were really encouraging. One commenter responded …
Feb 29 2012
Liking Yourself and Being a Good Person–Is There a Connection?
Read this quote: “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is …
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Brute Reason Tumblr
- I keep hearing all this stuff about how secularism/atheism has nothing to do with feminism and...I keep hearing all this stuff about how secularism/atheism has nothing to do with feminism and blahblah. Here’s the interesting thing. For me, my journeys to each of those identities were deeply intertwined with one another. Although I haven’t believed in god for a really long time, what really led to my final break with organized religion was when I travele […]
- "How unfortunate is it that my parents had to literally force me to wear beautiful parts of my..."“How unfortunate is it that my parents had to literally force me to wear beautiful parts of my culture because I was afraid of being ostracized, but Selena Gomez can take aspects of the clothing I grew up with and make money off of it? How unfortunate is it that South Asian immigrants and South Asian Americans are Otherized every single day for the way they […]
- "The next question people always ask me [about being a model] is, “Do you get free..."“The next question people always ask me [about being a model] is, “Do you get free stuff?” I do have too many 8-inch heels which I never get to wear, except for earlier, but the free stuff that I get is the free stuff that I get in real life, and that’s what we don’t like to talk about. I grew up in Cambridge, and one time I went into a store and I forgot my […]
- "It’s not just the internet. And we can’t push the problem aside with a wave of our hands and an..."“It’s not just the internet. And we can’t push the problem aside with a wave of our hands and an offhand comment of “Oh, that’s just how the internet is. Don’t you know better than to go to reddit?” For many women, reddit is not an isolated internet thing. It’s the community that we have to deal with face to face, day in and day out. So yes, we need to chang […]
- "I am one of the lucky ones. I managed to turn my history of science and philosophy degree into..."“I am one of the lucky ones. I managed to turn my history of science and philosophy degree into graduate education in a semi-practical field. I’m not too worried about my employment opportunities once I finish my PhD. But I have friends who are suffering. They are being bounced around between unpaid internships, or desperately sending out resumes, or stuck w […]
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Two things to keep in mind:
1. I am bad at answering lengthy emails. Sorry!
2. I may ask you for permission to blog about our correspondence. However, if you are harassing/abusive/trollish, then I no longer have to ask you for permission. Proceed with caution!
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