On a daily basis you are forced fed information by an algorithm and by media that matches your gender stereotype. Women typically are fed information around beauty culture and diet culture, whilst men get forced into the ‘productivity porn’ world.
The problem with both ‘diet’ and ‘side hustle’ culture is they leave little room for real world problems such as physical health, mental health and money.
What is ‘productivity porn’?
Productivity porn is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a bunch of videos, pictures and blogs that are aimed to waste your time whilst telling you to be productive. It’s usually the rabbit whole that leads to ‘side hustle’ culture and has you calling yourself ‘self made’.
It’s media where either the upfront or underlying messaging is ‘no rest for the wicked’. It’s a lot of bullet journals, waking up at 5am and not having a social life. These people make you believe that the only way to make it is to spend 3 hours a day watching their videos on ‘how to save 3 hours a day’, do you see the irony?
Unfortunately, stereotypes dictate that this culture is geared towards men, which is a huge problem in itself but a conversation for another time. This type of media will pray on men who aspire to do something different and encourage them to work 18 hour days and enjoy it. Leaving no conversations for work life balance and/or mental health struggles.
The reality is, there are people in the world who are addicted to working in this extreme 16 hour a day formula, but what they fail to understand and communicate to their audience is that attitude is genetics, not built, born with. To compare yourself and aspire to be someone that you are not sets you up for failure and as such restarts the cycle of ‘productivity porn’ all over again
The similarities between ‘diet culture’ and ‘side hustle’ culture
TW: Fatphobia and Hatred
Diet culture pedals the hatred of plus size people, perpetuating the idea that you cannot truly be happy if you are over a certain size. Side Hustle culture says the same thing about people who work a 9-5 and actually enjoy it.
The idea that you could ever be perfectly happy in a normal job or at a certain size, genuinely aggravates these people, they can turn nasty in a blink of an eye. You will hear insults such as ‘well, if you want to be mediocre’ ect. It’s damaging messaging that aims to insult and lower self esteem, because when you self esteem is low that’s when they can target you, pulling you into the funnel.
The messaging of both cultures are almost word for word. Phrases that promise results quickly, tell you it’s easy or all it really takes is some determination. Diet videos will show you 10 foods to remove for quick results and Side hustle videos will show you the 10 habits that will make you rich. The messaging tells you over and over again that when you make it your life will be perfect, they show you snippets of your future life to solidify a dream that you didn’t have 2 weeks ago. The worst similarity between the messaging of both is the way they convince you to spend money to find out the ‘secrets’.
Diet culture will convince you to spend hundreds on a pill or exercise programme.
Side hustle culture will convince you to spend hundreds on courses or organisational trinkets.
The last similarity that needs mentioning is the imagery in both cultures. As mentioned before both cultures used gender stereotypes while pushing messaging which can be seen clearly in the images. The images pray of your fear of failure using muscles or money to communicate damaging messaging, with failure often being seen as worse than dying.
Two Toxic Takeaways from Side Hustle Culture
Side hustle culture aims to entice you, with shiny cars, piles of money and big houses. It reminds you that anything is possible and there is a special formula to ensure success. However this formula can be extremely dangerous.
Firstly, there is an overarching idea that you can’t and shouldn’t rest. That downtime shouldn’t exist for a budding entrepreneur. It encourages you to throw away your social life and social commitments in order to succeed. It makes you believe you should remove friendship and family because money or success is important. Rest is not the enemy, in fact it is vital for success. A work life balance is not mentioned once when you fall into ‘side hustle culture’. Most people who start a company, blog, social media page will have some sort of social commitment, whether it’s a significant other(s), kids, family dinner or seeing friends. Establishing a balance and knowing when to stop should be priority. Being mentally or physically ill is not a weakness, and allowing yourself to stop in order to reset and recharge is never a bad thing.
Secondly, there is a lot of disdain towards people who work a 9-5. The culture will tell you that you are not happy and you should quit, without providing any means to pay the bills. Many people will have property, car and insurance payments to make monthly and cannot simply quit without a plan, but the only response to that is to work harder overnight and fatigue yourself. Money is only unimportant when you have it, and it’s easy for the culture of millionaires to tell you that it doesn’t matter, but in reality it does. This culture will also pray of monetary insecruites and tell you that you could be a millionaire, without mentioning the money you need to pay.
If you’re angry, you most likely have been seduced by Side Hustle culture
The culture tells you to ignore anyone who could threaten you, so naturally you would be angry when people come along and try to dismantle the culture that helped you grow.
However, the culture is toxic and unforgiving. It’s anti-mental health. Like Diet Culture it will have to change to exist in the future.The culture is not transparent, it’s still photoshopping it’s pictures before posting. It doesn’t allow you to take a break when you need one, in fact that’s often seen as a weakness.
Side hustle culture is leading the message that you should be using a worldwide pandemic to start a side hustle, and will call you a failure for choosing not too.