Episode 9 – Toxic Positivity
This episode is brought to you by:
Sandi Friedlos, Mind Body Connection Coach and Freedom Fertility Formula Specialist
With first hand experience beating infertility, Sandi knows it takes more than just positive thinking to fall and stay pregnant.
Sandi Friedlos helps couples cope with the emotional upheaval caused by fertility frustrations and challenges conceiving.
She focuses on your mental and emotional needs, and on strengthening your relationship, with simple yet practical tips, tools and resources that aim to improve your chances of successful pregnancy, without sacrificing your relationships and career in the process.
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Show Notes
Thank you to the following sources we’ve used to fact-check, investigate, and back up our claims to make this episode.
Inside Out Quotes: ‘I am positive this is crazy!’
Brigid Schulte: A woman’s greatest enemy? A lack of time to herself
Georgie Dent: A lack of discipline is not the only thing to hold a person back in isolation
ABC: 17 things Stella Young wanted you to know
Chloe-Ann King: The dangers of radical self-love
Chloe-Ann King: “Positive Attitude” Bullshit: On the dangers of “radical self-love”
Matt Barker: Relentless positivity is silly and annoying
Claire Gillespie: What Is Toxic Positivity—and Why Are Experts Saying It’s Dangerous Right Now?
Samara Quintero: Toxic Positivity: The Dark Side of Positive Vibes
Further reading
Barbara Ehrenreich: Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
Tonya Russell: Toxic Positivity in Response to Racism Isn’t Helpful

The Cackle Of Sisterhood
It’s been at least a couple of years since Jay and Jen’s friendship was forged by a mutual fiery love of feminism and the power of wordsmithery. It took a global pandemic and things generally going to hell in a handbasket for them to throw all the right ingredients into a pot and birth the Shrews Untamed podcast.
When they’re not yelling, “I know, RIGHT?” at each other on FB Messenger, Jay is an award-winning copywriter and copy coach and Jen is an author with her first book in the works. They are also mothers, sisters, daughters, and both fans of the C word.
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Our theme music is Celtic Impulse by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3484-celtic-impulse
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Disclaimer on historical and literary references, and views expressed on Shrews Untamed
Unless we say otherwise, the history sources Jay and Jen mention on Shrews Untamed are from the dominant Western scholarly tradition. (That means Western history and literature was written by white men, for white men, and about white men – and a few very ‘good’ and very ‘bad’ women.) Through Feminist scholarship, the achievements, stories, and voices of women are slowly being ressurected from the past; some are lost forever.
We acknowledge that for First Nation women and Women of Colour, the history books have been closed for much longer, and the pursuit of Herstory has not been equitable, or free of Western/colonial bias.
Unless we say otherwise, most of the literary references are made to Western literature. Western literature, poetry, and artistic tradition are all filled with the names, images, and stories of women – and of course, Western patriarchal bias which has dictated our history bleeds into literature and the arts. Whether writing based on Near-Eastern historical figures like Cleopatra, the Virgin Mary, and including Western fictional characters like our dear Kate from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew – each were envisioned and written by white men, and shown as white women, or fetishised exotics, for a largely white male audience.
The literary, cultural and artistic traditions, as well as current views of First Nation women and Women of Colour, or any non-binary person, should be told by people who have with lived that experience and/or tradition. And they are.
As we say in the outro, all opinions on content expressed on Shrews Untamed are our own. Jay and Jen are both white, CIS-het women; we can only speak with authenticity of our own white, CIS-het experience of Western culture and our world, and we do so without apology.
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Acknowledgement of Country
Jay and Jen from Shrews Untamed would like to acknowledge the land of the Karuna and Noongar people. We pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the cost that has come with the uneasy sharing of this land; land which was taken. We express hope that we can move to a place of justice and equity together.
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Jay Crisp Crow acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters, and community. This business pays its respects to them and their cultures; and to elders past, present, and emerging.