Almost 10 years ago for my Master’s Degree final thesis I conducted a content analysis on the Superwoman Phenomenon. I took multiple issues of two specific magazines, aimed at mothers, and looked at their advertisements and articles to determine what type of messaging they were promoting.
I found that the majority of the content simply explained that woman should be able to ‘do it all’ via the Superwoman Phenomenon if they just got more organized. (As if a 20 minute crock pot meal would solve all of our problems!)
Back then I was not married nor was I a mom. Even so, I found it repulsive that these magazines were telling Moms that most of their problems would be solved if they just got more organized!
Lesson today? Be critical and careful what messaging to which you are exposing yourself! What magazines do you read? Where do you spend your time online? Books? Music? What friends do you listen to? Spend most of your time with? Can you describe the messages that you spending time with?
I stopped watching one of my guilty pleasure shows because when I was able to step back, I realized that the content was so absurd that I did not want my brain to be bombarded with this type of messaging.
We all have 24 hours in a day. How much of your time is being spent with negative messaging that contradicts what you are trying to do? Be critical, be careful and choose wisely!
This post is right on! Thanks for putting this message out there. It serves as a great reminder to take a step back and not be so hard on ourselves. Thanks, Meg!