My thoughts on Untamed by Glennon Doyle — stop pleasing, start living
A friend gave me this book as a birthday gift. It’s not a book I would have ever bought, because I do a pretty good job of living, instead of pleasing others. Or so I thought.
As I read this book, it occurred to me how much I, the awakened woman, still attempt to please people in my life. I didn’t get a divorce as soon as I should have because I was worried it would make my parents look bad in society (we’re Indians. It’s a real thing). I anticipate my partner’s needs even when I’m under stress for my own things, even though he is a grown man perfectly capable of looking after himself and doesn’t actually ask me to do any of those things. I spent years in the workplace, waiting to have enough experience, enough seniority, enough confidence, enough something…so that I would deserve to move up, while the men around me needed no such validation.
Some of us are more untamed than others, but as a society, women are still spending a large part of their lives trying to please others. My mom has spent her entire life putting the needs of others before her own. My aunt spent her prime years looking after her parents, having no life of her own. Cultural differences matter. Family expectations for women are greater in some countries than others, but even in the West, we are not completely free.
