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     <div><p>medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><p id="6ac4">I read today that <a href="https://nlihc.org/oor/about">living on minimum wage basically prevents one from being able to afford a one-bedroom apartment *anywhere* in this country</a> (the United States), and that such a person would have to work a 100+ hour work week just to make rent alone.</p><p id="cb5d">So when I weaponize my being female, especially when I embrace and draw upon my identity status as a single mom sole care provider, I should be met not with scorn (as the player pick-up artist modus operandi seems to abide by as a rule of thumb that single mothers are “damaged goods” and “run through”). Rather, as a grown adult, I and any woman (or single dad/parent) who is making it work as a sole care provider should be met with nothing less than humility, respect, and admiration.</p><div id="53c5" class="link-block">
      <a href="https://healinglivmama.medium.com/men-it-serves-you-to-acknowledge-a-womans-spirituality-21ea9d5da822">
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            <h2>Men, It Serves You to Acknowledge a Woman’s Spirituality</h2>
            <div><h3>James Brown famously said, “This is a man’s world... But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.”</h3></div>
            <div><p>healinglivmama.medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><p id="33a9">I’ve hustled hard, and I’ve worked hard to come into my feminine powers, to embrace the wise woman/mother/goddess archetype, to re-parent myself, and to understand myself in an embodied way. I’ve worked hard to be able to provide without another primary provider for my daughter.</p><p id="f5cb">So no, access to me is not free. Access to me should not be taken for granted. <b>Access to me is a privilege. I can withdraw consent at anytime.</b></p><p id="9a10">I’ve learned that age and experience actually are serving to help me to <b>rise in my power.</b> So when I see that the old maid/crone/witch archetype is still very much alive, I feel both seen and slighted. For wise women have often been named witches and whores to have our powers taken away from us; we’ve faced ridicule and scorn often simply due to fear and lack of understanding of our powers.</p><p id="cf06">The belittling and shunning of wise women, of medicine women, and of witches and whores, by mainstream society, is a way to control women, to name and limit the ways in which it is acceptable or not as a woman to exist in society and in the world. Witch hunts are nothing new, and they unfortunately are still not wholly relics of the past.</p><div id="427c" class="link-block">
      <a href="https://readmedium.com/on-the-invisibility-of-being-a-woman-7258916c7eec">
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            <h2>On the Invisibility of Being a Woman</h2>
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Yes, this can be extended to all marginalized identities. Being a part of a marginalized group often entails systematic erasure. </h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*xQU6IYzHRocee9LyQ8mDDQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="733a">I am hoping that I am beginning to see glimmers of hope that society at large is beginning to accept the wisdom of wiser, older women. However, it is a long journey we are far from reconciling our views on, as we are still a youth-obsessed, superficial culture still plagued by the naivety and corruption of the patriarchal, individualist, materialist nuclear-family model.</p><div id="a5eb" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/men-why-you-should-call-us-women-not-females-or-girls-8148918b7b80"> <div> <div> <h2>Men: Why You Should Call Us Women, Not “Females” or “Girls”</h2> <div><h3>Calling women “girls” or “females” is to infantilize and dehumanize us, minimizing our power and humanity.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*plXWcK-eN0f96-sPsiYQ7A.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="eb4b">We are still plagued by the ills of individualism, and of the lures of beauty and wealth, when the real happiness lies not in hedonic pleasure but in sustained happiness and contentment from a life well-lived, with authentic, heart-centered purpose, community, and a deeper connection to both self and nature (for what are we if not a part of nature?).</p><div id="f593" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/what-you-can-learn-from-the-tantric-path-hint-its-more-than-s-x-94790163d7f7"> <div> <div> <h2>What You Can Learn From the Tantric Path (Hint: It’s More Than S*x)</h2> <div><h3>In the face of physical and mental health epidemics, we need to more consciously connect with ourselves and each other.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*j7rWj1k4No7HLi4qKjtlNw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="a06e">Like my writing? Become a <a href="https://healinglivmama.medium.com/membership">Medium member</a> today for only $5/month. Your membership fee directly supports Olivia Love and other writers you read. You’ll also get full access to every story on Medium.</p><p id="1439">Appreciate my message? Buy me a coffee! — <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/healinglivmama">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/healinglivmama</a></p><p id="35b5"><a href="https://readmedium.com/e04d278a0bdd?source=post_page-----f61727983afc--------------------------------">HealingLivMama</a> can be reached at [email protected] for consultations and further information.</p></article></body>

On Hustle Culture, Being Female, and Working in 2023

If everything is an exploitative industry, am I wrong to capitalize on my own exploitation?

Selfie by author

Is it exploitation if I consent and I am capitalizing on my labor/time/energy? Is consent possible under capitalism?

In a capitalist society, which we are in, it’s not truly possible to entirely extricate one’s identity from our financial status. It is, however, encouraged to play into gender roles, to be materialistic, and to equate materialistic wealth with happiness, while viewing poverty as akin to a moral failing (laziness and some vague concept of not understanding one’s social obligation).

Yet living in a time where it’s seen as odd *not* to capitalize on one’s side hustles and hobbies, not to be trying to build different streams of income, not to always be incredibly mindful of one’s financial status, where wealth is fetishized, while most people, regardless of their levels of wealth, are still living paycheck to paycheck — signifies to me how truly ill we are as a society. The mythos of capitalism relies on us alienating ourselves from our less well-off counterparts; it relies on us severing our connection to ourselves.

I read today that living on minimum wage basically prevents one from being able to afford a one-bedroom apartment *anywhere* in this country (the United States), and that such a person would have to work a 100+ hour work week just to make rent alone.

So when I weaponize my being female, especially when I embrace and draw upon my identity status as a single mom sole care provider, I should be met not with scorn (as the player pick-up artist modus operandi seems to abide by as a rule of thumb that single mothers are “damaged goods” and “run through”). Rather, as a grown adult, I and any woman (or single dad/parent) who is making it work as a sole care provider should be met with nothing less than humility, respect, and admiration.

I’ve hustled hard, and I’ve worked hard to come into my feminine powers, to embrace the wise woman/mother/goddess archetype, to re-parent myself, and to understand myself in an embodied way. I’ve worked hard to be able to provide without another primary provider for my daughter.

So no, access to me is not free. Access to me should not be taken for granted. Access to me is a privilege. I can withdraw consent at anytime.

I’ve learned that age and experience actually are serving to help me to rise in my power. So when I see that the old maid/crone/witch archetype is still very much alive, I feel both seen and slighted. For wise women have often been named witches and whores to have our powers taken away from us; we’ve faced ridicule and scorn often simply due to fear and lack of understanding of our powers.

The belittling and shunning of wise women, of medicine women, and of witches and whores, by mainstream society, is a way to control women, to name and limit the ways in which it is acceptable or not as a woman to exist in society and in the world. Witch hunts are nothing new, and they unfortunately are still not wholly relics of the past.

I am hoping that I am beginning to see glimmers of hope that society at large is beginning to accept the wisdom of wiser, older women. However, it is a long journey we are far from reconciling our views on, as we are still a youth-obsessed, superficial culture still plagued by the naivety and corruption of the patriarchal, individualist, materialist nuclear-family model.

We are still plagued by the ills of individualism, and of the lures of beauty and wealth, when the real happiness lies not in hedonic pleasure but in sustained happiness and contentment from a life well-lived, with authentic, heart-centered purpose, community, and a deeper connection to both self and nature (for what are we if not a part of nature?).

Like my writing? Become a Medium member today for only $5/month. Your membership fee directly supports Olivia Love and other writers you read. You’ll also get full access to every story on Medium.

Appreciate my message? Buy me a coffee! — https://www.buymeacoffee.com/healinglivmama

HealingLivMama can be reached at [email protected] for consultations and further information.

Entrepreneurship
Female Entrepreneurs
Writing Life
Hustle Culture
Work Life Balance
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