I think there are a lot of rules for women. We have a lot of expectations and a lot of rules for women. So we're expected to march in a straight line, and when we don't, all hell breaks loose.
Roxane GayRead
It sometimes feels like the workplace is immune from social upheaval. We go to work and do the best we can, and at the end of the day, we return to our lives. We don't abandon who we are, however, when we begin and end our workday. Who we are shapes how we are perceived in the workplace and, in turn, how we perform in the workplace.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our identities influence our performance at work and how we are seen by others.
This quote emphasizes the integral connection between our personal identities and our professional lives. It suggests that even though work may seem separate from the broader social context, our true selves inevitably shape our workplace experience, affecting both our interactions and performance.
Themes
IdentityWorkplacePerformancePerceptionSocial Upheaval
In practice
Example use cases
During a team meeting to discuss company culture and values.
More from Roxane Gay
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Public intellectuals are often put in the position of having their words, no matter how off-the-cuff, treated as doctrine.
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No one is helped when cultural critics use their voices irresponsibly.
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I have never dreamed of being a princess. I have not longed for Prince Charming. I have and do long for something resembling a happily ever after. I am supposed to be above such flights of fantasy, but I am not. I am enamored of fairy tales.
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There has been, and there will continue to be, vigorous discussions about race in America. I worry that little will come of these discussions because we aren't addressing what must be done to change the current racial climate.
Roxane GayRead
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Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially 'deify.' We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think ourselves as highly irreligious.
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As soon as a woman's primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as the attainment of virtuous beauty. It did so to substitute both a new consumer imperative and a new justification for economic unfairness in the workplace where the old ones had lost their hold over newly liberated women.
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