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    Mermaid No More: Breaking Women's Culture of Sacrifice
    Mermaid No More: Breaking Women's Culture of Sacrifice
    Mermaid No More: Breaking Women's Culture of Sacrifice
    Ebook39 pages38 minutes

    Mermaid No More: Breaking Women's Culture of Sacrifice

    By Stephanie Golden

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    About this ebook

    Why do so many women feel they must put other people's needs before their own—even when they don't want to? Why do they often give up what they really want in life, getting so enmeshed in taking care of others that they don't care for themselves?

    These are all forms of sacrifice—self-sacrifice, to be specific: of women’s own needs, desires, literally of their selves.

    But—you may ask—isn’t self-sacrifice good and noble? And isn’t it inherent in women’s nature to be givers and caretakers?

    Stephanie Golden answers: Sometimes... but also NO. Certainly sacrifice can arise from open-hearted, selfless generosity. But the impulse toward excessive self sacrifice comes from women's history, not their nature.

    Mermaid No More is a brief ebook updating Slaying the Mermaid: Women and the Culture of Sacrifice, Golden’s earlier book about this issue.

    Mermaid No More will help you figure out whether you’re sacrificing more than is good for you (and for everyone around you). It will help you stop doing so. And it will explain how to tell when making a sacrifice is the right thing to do.

    Based on new research and reporting, this 7,000-word ebook explains:

    •How women historically became the sacrificers for everyone else
    •How to tell whether you’re caught in excessive, unhealthy self-sacrifice
    •How to stop doing it
    •What healthy self-sacrifice looks like

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephanie Golden
    Release dateSep 16, 2016
    ISBN9781370830961
    Mermaid No More: Breaking Women's Culture of Sacrifice
    Author

    Stephanie Golden

    Stephanie Golden is an award-winning author of eight books (including five collaborations with expert authors) and a writer of website content, reports, manuals, and other copy for nonprofits and small businesses.

    Read more from Stephanie Golden

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      Book preview

      Mermaid No More - Stephanie Golden

      Mermaid No More

      Breaking Women’s Culture of Sacrifice

      Stephanie Golden

      Copyright 2016 Stephanie Golden

      All Rights Reserved

      Cover image by Amber, deviantroze.deviantart.com

      Cover design by Emma Grace, Inksplatter Design

      Smashwords Edition License Note: This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with someone, please respect this author’s work by purchasing another copy.

      Contents

      Sacrifice: Good or Bad?

      Why I Wrote About Sacrifice

      Not Your Fault! Sacrifice in Western Culture

      Sacrificial Suffering

      The Angel in the House

      Modern Mermaids

      Motherhood… and Beyond

      Am I Giving It Away?

      The Shadow Deal: A Common Trap

      The Victim Identity

      How Do I Stop?

      How To Set Boundaries

      What Does Healthy Self-Sacrifice Look Like?

      Do You Have a Sacrifice Story?

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      About the Author

      Also by Stephanie Golden

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      Sacrifice: Good or Bad?

      Gabrielle McMullen had been dating Michael Gartner for a while, but there were problems. It bothered him that she was introverted, disliked loud parties, and didn’t wear sexy clothes, plus she had interests he didn’t share. Tension between them threatened to torpedo the relationship, until Gabrielle hit on the perfect solution.

      All I had to do was take note of what he did and didn’t like about me and mold myself into a person who satisfied all his requirements, she explained. I suppressed my thoughts and feelings and completely changed who I am. Since then their romance has been blissful, and if he proposes, she’s willing to be this different woman for the rest of their lives.

      Does Gabrielle’s total personality replacement sound like total idiocy? Or does her behavior ring some bells?

      Maybe both. This news item, reported by The Onion, is fiction. But like all effective satire, it reflects a truth: an awful lot of women feel they must put other people's needs before their own—even when they don't want to.

      Do you ever:

      Suppress a

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