Comments on: Perfectionism, Feminism, and The Man

By: Like Mother, Like Daughter - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Like Mother, Like Daughter - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:16:49 +0000

[...] all the time, just in case we did anything that might have been possibly upsetting. And recently, I talked about the nagging voice in your head. But I don’t know if we’ve covered [...]

By: Evamaria

Evamaria — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:36:18 +0000

I actually read ‘Bird by Bird’ for the first time when a friend recommended it to me – not for writing but because I was going through a bad depressive phase.

So much wisdom in there!

By: The State of My Union « Hysteria!

The State of My Union « Hysteria! — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:42:33 +0000

[...] weeks at least. And it wasn’t until today, when PhDork at The Pursuit of Harpyness did her post on perfection, that I realized what’s been driving me down, and why it’s kept me so [...]

By: PhDork

PhDork — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:27:38 +0000

I’m glad that so many of you are finding that thought helpful. I have little cards and stickers all around my desk, with the hopes that one of them will catch my eye (and my conscience) when I’m ready to give up. I can’t remember where I read it (online somewhere), but another one, that goes along with the journalistic deadline-ethos: “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly–as long as you get it done.”

I would do so much better if I had external deadlines and the connection to money. Alas. No cash, and all “deadlines” are self-imposed. Which is to say, utterly fictional.

By: Nadia

Nadia — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:19:17 +0000

I’m going to print out that quote and stick it on the wall by my desk. Shitty first draft, here I come!

By: Mackey

Mackey — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:20:28 +0000

found a copy (called ahead of time), and have also sent out that quote to my fellow thesis writers at uni..

PhDork, thanks once again. I’ve got a couple of deadlines in the next week or so, and this has helped me to knuckle down and just write.

By: Mackey

Mackey — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:45:30 +0000

PhD – thank you thank you thank you…

I’m still half way through writing the nth draft of an intro for my thesis – trying to perfect.

I’m going to stroll around to some of the 2nd hand bookshops near uni to see if I can find this book. And I will be putting up that quote on my thesis wall. Writing good – editing done later…

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:27:53 +0000

Awesome post.

I’ve already found that feminism had helped me IMMENSELY with my perfectionism. Probably because my perfectionism was pretty much transferred to me by my perfectionist mother…and realizing how much patriarchy kind of forced that perfectionism on HER, and how badly it’s screwing with her now, it’s helping me to let go of those tendencies.

My new goal: don’t let the Patriarchy (and its insistence that women must be all things to all people at all times) fuck with me as badly as it’s fucked with her.

By: JetGirl

JetGirl — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:43:20 +0000

Yep, emilyanne — as a fellow journo, I’m all about “Done By Deadline is Good.”

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:32:58 +0000

This is where being a journalist comes in handy – years of having to file soccer reports as the whistle blow has cured me of perfectionism fear. Now I simply spew words on the page in cold, clammy fear that if I don’t get them done I won’t get paid.

(That said for longer feature pieces my technique is spew them on the page for three solid hours no break then edit for as long as I humanely can until the minute I absolutely have to file and like PHDork I have random notes too although mine are usually CHECK SPELLING OF NAME AND CHECK DATE AND DON’T TRUST STUPID SOURCES LIKE WIKIPEDIA -yes, it’s true I get grumpy with myself while editing)