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The Self-Help Space Is Classist, Racist, Sexist, and Ableist
You can’t do anything you put your mind to.
I write about personal growth. At least that’s how I like to refer to it. Growing as a person. Learning new things. Reading new books. Meeting new people. Seeing new places. Slowly developing into a happier, healthier, more evolved person. Learning the lessons that will give you more peace and clarity and options, and make your life better and easier and slightly less stressful than average.
Unfortunately, that also puts me in the ‘self-help’ space as a writer, at least as far as many of my readers are concerned, and I’m not thrilled about that. Because self-help, while often well-intentioned, has some very toxic undertones.
A lot of self-help is based on the myth of meritocracy, making it inherently classist, racist, sexist and ableist. It ignores systemic inequality. It assumes we all have similar resources, time, and opportunities. It encourages emulating the uber-elite, most of whom derive their success from a mixture of inheritance and exploitation. And it assumes that if you’re struggling right now, that’s your fault.
The self-help space is full of toxic messages:
· You are in total control of your life
· Hard work and dedication is all…
