logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
49m 3s

#222: Stop Being a “Good Girl” with Elis...

Mary Jelkovsky
About this episode

My whole life I have strived to be a “good girl.” But after this conversation with Elise Loehnen, I no longer want to be.

You will learn...

  • the history behind the 7 deadly sins and how they’ve been weaponized by the patriarchy
  • who Mary Magdalene really was and how she got mislabeled as a prostitute
  • why thinness is the dominant beauty ideal in our current culture
  • the connection between PRIDE and ENVY
  • subtle ways women undermine each other

Elise Loehnen is a writer, editor, and podcast host who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their two sons, Max and Sam. She is the host of Pulling the Thread, a podcast focused on pulling apart the stories we tell about who we are—and then putting those threads back together. Ultimately Elise is a seeker and synthesizer, braiding together wisdom traditions, cultural history, and a deep knowledge of healing modalities to unlock new ways to contextualize who we are and why we’re here. She’s also the author of the instant New York Times bestseller On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (Dial Press/PRH). The book weaves together history, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the ways patriarchy lands in the bodies of women and embeds itself in our consciousness—and what we then police in ourselves and in each other. Regardless of our religious provenance, the self-denial implicit in each of the Seven Deadly Sins—Sloth, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Anger—reads like a checklist of what it means to be a “good” woman. With awareness, we can begin to recognize these patterns of self-restriction, break the story, and move ourselves and each other toward freedom and balance.

Follow Elise on Instagram: @eliseloehnen
Get Elise’s book, On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good

And if you enjoyed this episode, screenshot it and share it on social media! Make sure to tag @maryspodcast and @eliseloehnen

Mentioned In This Episode...
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Up next
Aug 21
How to Love Yourself Through Bad Body Image Days
Many women phase bad body image days, especially in a world that equates beauty with self worth.If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and struggled to feel comfortable in your skin, then this episode is for you. The relationship between body image and self-love is complex, but I’m ... Show More
10m 47s
Aug 14
How Diet Culture Hijacks Women’s Wellness w/ Christy Harrison, MPH (Encore)
Diet culture has a sneaky way of showing up everywhere. From weightloss plans disguised as “lifestyle changes” to wellness trends promising to heal everything from your skin to your soul. In this encore episode, I’m joined by Christy Harrison, MPH, RD—author of The Wellness Trap ... Show More
1h 25m
Aug 7
To Love Yourself, You Have to Tell the TRUTH
You can’t truly love yourself if you’re lying to yourself.And you certainly can’t find peace in a version of you that’s not real.Because when you try to love a version of yourself that isn’t true, it feels empty. It’s like people-pleasing: if you sacrifice authenticity for approv ... Show More
23m 21s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2023
No more good girl - Uncut with Elise Loehnen
Elise Loehnen is the host of the podcast  “Pulling the Thread”  and is the co-author of 12 books, 5 of which were NYT best sellers. But then she wrote her first book under her own name “On our best behaviour. The price women pay to be good,” which was also a New York Times Best S ... Show More
46m 30s
Jul 21
4 Hidden Patterns That Keep High-Achieving Women Stuck—And How to Break Them | Cynthia Garcia (Fan Fav)
This is a Fan Fav episode. You know those times when you find yourself lost in a fog of “shoulds”—feeling stuck, comparing yourself to others, and letting old stories hold you back? Yeah, you’re not alone. On this powerful episode, I sit down with the unstoppable Cynthia Pascuala ... Show More
1h 5m
May 2024
Workers: Hiratsuka Raichō
Hiratsuka Raichō (1886-1971) was a Japanese feminist and social reformer, who founded a literary magazine by and for women. After becoming a mother, she became an advocate for working women in Japan, fighting for suffrage and better working conditions.  For Further Reading:  “In ... Show More
7m 33s
Aug 1
5 Game-Changing Rituals to Reclaim Your Confidence, Even When You Feel Unlovable | WOI Experts (Fan Fav)
This is a fan fav episode. You can be in a room full of people and feel completely alone. You can also have hundreds of relationships in your life and more friendships than you can count and feel unlovable and unworthy of love. History of abuse, emotional trauma and attachment is ... Show More
1h 45m
May 2024
Workers: Amelia Bloomer
Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) was an early suffragist, editor, and social advocate. After writing about a less-restrictive style of dressing for women, she became inextricably linked with it. She’s the reason we think of pantaloons as “bloomers.” And ever since, the women’s rights m ... Show More
6m 25s
Apr 2025
Stop Waiting. Start Living. Why You Feel Stuck - And How to Break Free and Reinvent Your Life | Natalie MacNeil (Fan Fav)
Lisa Bilyeu sits down with Emmy Award–winning entrepreneur, author, and creator of She Takes on the World, Natalie MacNeil. From launching her first company at just 21 to becoming a guiding force for women ready to embrace their full selves in business, Natalie shares her candid ... Show More
51m 9s
Aug 2024
Embracing Perfectionism with Katherine Morgan Schafler
Forrest explores how we can harness perfectionism’s strengths without getting captured by its vulnerabilities with therapist and author Katherine Morgan Schafler. They talk about perfectionism’s bad branding, and how our relationship with perfectionism can lead to it being either ... Show More
1h 21m
May 2024
The Myth of Resilience (Soraya Chemaly)
“This is the richness of the traditional wife explosion, right? There's this simple idea that you get to choose. Now you're choosing to emulate a situation that's a fiction in that those women didn't choose anything. They had to dress like that. They had to live like that. They h ... Show More
58m 1s
Feb 2024
Can you really escape female stereotypes? Selfies, shame, and the shackles of womanhood – with author Alya Mooro
What does it mean to live outside the stereotypes, and how can we free ourselves from shame?How do we stop caring about others' judgments and start living for ourselves? Alya Mooro, Egyptian-born and London-raised writer and best-selling author of The Greater Freedom: Life as a M ... Show More
1h 11m
Jun 2024
Overcoming Guilt
If you are a woman who is riddled with guilt or you constantly worry about how other people might feel when you make decisions, this episode is for you. Kate and Catherine share the reason why so many women suffer from chronic, neurotic guilt & anxiety. They show you how to break ... Show More
38m 24s