Are women too strong for their own good?

Woman Alive editor, Tola-Doll Fisher, spoke to Monique Thomas about her debut book Pressure Off and the important messages she has for women in the Church.

TDF: So why did you write Pressure Off (SPCK)?

MT: In my own life, I’ve experienced an incongruence whereby it’s felt like the Jesus I’m reading about and that I’ve grown to love doesn’t seem to translate easily to my Christian experience. One of the first things I ask in the book is: “When was the last time you were able to breathe?” Our Christian life is not in isolation from our life holistically. My Christian experience can’t just make sense in church, it’s got to make sense everywhere else. I hope these thoughts, reflections and conversations will be an encouragement to anyone else who is also trying to connect the dots between their faith and their reality.

TDF: Your book is separated into chapters including perfection, productivity, singleness, family life and prosperity. How you did you choose those sections to focus on?

MT: What was really important was the connection to my personal life story – so my lived experiences and also what was real in the conversations I was having with friends. You don’t actually have to look too hard to identify them. So, it was thinking about what feels real to me, what feels real to the lives of people that I’m talking to, and then what I’m seeing in the world around me.

TDF: Looking at the list, it does feel quite intuitive, even though I can’t relate to them all. However, what did strike a chord with me is this idea of hyper-productivity and the kind of strong, black woman rhetoric you mention, which was definitely present in my household. What was your experience of that growing up?