12 Comments
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Wendy Sippel's avatar

Yes! Were wired to take criticism to heart more than approval and support. Somehow one awful slur has more impact than a hundred positive statements. I wish we knew how to shift away from that... Practice I guess.

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Carolyn Tate's avatar

I haven’t taken it to heart. It’s quite amusing and makes me want to write with more fury and conviction 😂

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Wendy Sippel's avatar

Best approach!

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Louise Brosnan's avatar

“Wired to take criticism to heart…” how horribly accurate , thank you for such a simple direct hit .

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Sara's avatar

Thank you for writing this, Carolyn! I’m sorry you received that kind of abuse. When I joined SS I felt super vulnerable about comments and judgements from other mums (I write a lot of parenting humour) but so far my only negative comments have been from men. The subtext is usually - you’re not a good mum or you shouldn’t have been a mum or something along those lines. Women have all found my writing totally relatable so far. As you say, the best thing you can do is keeping writing, keep telling stories and don’t let the bastards get you down.

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Carolyn Tate's avatar

I understand it’s vulnerable putting ourselves out there. Substack is gentle and kind compared to others that’s for sure. Keep writing! ✍️ ♥️

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D Wolfie's avatar

Laugh at them, and show them that they-and their options-aren’t important to you

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Carolyn Tate's avatar

Mostly I feel sad for them now 😢

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D Wolfie's avatar

Yeah, willfully stupid people I feel VERY sorry for..in many ways..

But they’ve dedicated themselves to not learning from life-

And then punishing others for it.

So..it’s us or them..

I’ll choose us, laugh at them, and work on it improving-

Because they’ll never admit they need to improve until they ACTUALLY believe they have to.

People make them too comfortable-

They feed off of anger or sadness, they love that-so laugh at them instead.

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Cesca Diebschlag's avatar

Great post. Like we say in the UK, "Keep calm and carry on". Don't let the bastards distract you from what you want to create.

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D Wolfie's avatar

Don’t ever let moronic INSECURE ‘men’ throw you off your game-

Know that above all..you speaking out irritates them because they have to FACE what they hate about themselves..

That’s why they try to tear you down.

Everything they hit you with..

Only proves how insecure they are about the topic-how much they despise themselves for knowing that most people will never love them for who they are..that’s why they hid who they were until hatred was so accepted.

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Carolyn Tate's avatar

Irritating insecure men might just be my new obsession 😂

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