Untamed by Glennon Doyle: is an empowering memoir about how women have been caged by society and encourages all women to break free. This book is for anyone who is looking for inspiration and motivation to be themselves.
Pairs With: Cadbury Milk Chocolate Mini Eggs because they become uncaged once a year.
Overview
Untamed by Glennon Doyle is an empowering memoir about how women have been caged by societal expectations and encourages all women to break free. This book is for anyone who is looking for inspiration and motivation to be themselves. It is also for anyone who is interested in learning more about Doyle’s story. This book is NOT for you if you do not enjoy discussing your feelings or do not enjoy reading about someone else discuss theirs. This book may also not be for you if you are not into women’s empowerment and equal rights for all. But if you’re open to reading another viewpoint on either then please go right ahead!
Structure of the book
This book is divided into three main sections: Caged, Key, and Free.
Within each section, Doyle provides 2-3 page mini-chapters that help make this book a quick read. Even though it’s a relatively quick and easy read, there are plenty of concepts to ponder and ideas that make you step back and think.
Here are some quotes that caused me to pause:
- “Because our culture was built upon and benefits from the control of women.”
- “Childhood stories promise us that girls who dare to leave the path or explore get attacked by big bad wolves and pricked by deadly spindles, so we learn to not trust our curiosity.”
- “Diet culture promises us that controlling our appetite is the key to our worthiness so we learn to not trust our own hunger.”
- “Politicians insist that our judgment about our bodies and futures cannot be trusted, so our own reproductive systems must be controlled by lawmakers we don’t know in places we’ve never been.”
- “We weren’t born distrusting and fearing ourselves. That was part of our taming. We were taught to believe that who we are in our natural state is bad and dangerous.”
- “A woman becomes a responsible parent when she stops being an obedient daughter.”
- “Strong, happy, confident girls and women are breaking our culture’s implicit rule that girls should be self-doubting, reserved, timid, and apologetic. Girls who are bold enough to break those rules irk us.” Doyle continues, “Girls can sense this. We want to be liked. We want to be trusted. So we downplay our strengths to avoid threatening anyone and invoking disdain.”
- “We say, ‘I feel like’ instead of ‘I know.’ We ask if our ideas make sense instead of assuming they do. We apologize for… everything.”
Conclusion
Doyle does a great job of sharing her story and incorporating all of the subtle ways women are tamed. She describes situations and feelings we’ll all encounter as women. This is a great book if you are someone who can relate to frequently doubting yourself and apologizing unnecessarily. I’m always hesitant to pick up super popular books for fear they won’t live up to the hype but this one did. I can’t see why so many people loved it and raved about it. Untamed is a quick easy read that serves as both a memoir and an empowering self-help book. Plus it has a pretty cover.
P.S. If you enjoyed this one you may also like Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.
