Member-only story

I Read Those Overly Positive Articles Written by White Dudes

The same way I watch “Forrest Gump.”

Lisa Martens
4 min readAug 8, 2021
Paramount Pictures 1994, “Forrest Gump.”

Sometimes I see articles complaining about the super positive white dude lifestyle coach types. Out of touch, sexist, racist, refusing to acknowledge privilege — sure, definitely, blindly, most certainly, in any order.

I do sometimes read these articles, though, the same way every football movie includes a pep talk, the same way we know the guy will get the girl in the romcom, but we watch anyway. Sometimes I play TV shows from my childhood in the background — I know nothing bad will happen, and I know the world is fake.

But it’s kinda comforting?

I don’t know if these writers actually believe they live in a world where everyone can just be positive and outsource the work they don’t want to do to other people. Maybe they genuinely believe that. I dunno, and it doesn’t matter to me.

Sometimes, when I’m bummed about the fact that my parents didn’t sue a major airline because their flight attendant had me watch porn, and a settlement could have improved my life — when I get down about not being able to go to that Cambridge program when I tested for having a high IQ (due to cost), and when I get down realizing all the ways I almost didn’t have a hard life, I read those articles and…

--

--

Responses (2)