Mandy

“In my experience, there is only one thing worse for a woman’s mental health than trying to be a superhero, and that is being told to “chill”—especially since any efforts to do so incur swift blowback.”
― Ada Calhoun, Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis

“A middle-aged woman’s midlife crisis does, I know, pose a dramaturgical problem. In my observation—and as many experts I’ve spoken with have affirmed—women’s crises tend to be quieter than men’s. Sometimes a woman will try something spectacular—a big affair, a new career, a “she shed” in the backyard—but more often she sneaks her suffering in around the edges of caretaking and work.”
― Ada Calhoun, Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis

“Gen X women had sky-high expectations for themselves. The contrast between our “you can be anything” indoctrination and the stark realities encountered in midlife—when you might, despite your best efforts, not be able to find a partner or get pregnant or save for retirement or own your own home or find a job with benefits—has made us feel like failures at the exact moment when we most require courage. It takes our bodies longer to recover from a night of drinking and it takes our spirits longer to bounce back from rejection. We may wind up asking questions like the one my friend posed to me the other night: “Do you think my life is ever going to be good again?”
― Ada Calhoun, Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis

“Anyone desperate enough to escape can lose themselves in the delicious twists of novels, allow themselves to be transported into the bodies of wild women or small hungry boys, taken to strange cities or enchanted woods, dropped into wartime or the end of times.”
― Georgia Harper, What I Would Do to You