A friend recently shared an article from Slate Magazine, entitled “Stop Saying ‘Do What You Love, Love What You Do.’ It Devalues Actual Work.”
Intrigued, I gave it a glance, which became a read, which became clicking to the second page (how often do we actually read articles spanning multiple pages anymore?!), which became a moment paused in reflection.
How often have I found my own heart dancing to the rhythm of those words? Will those words lead us to that wistful destination we so often dream of - a place of healthy work-life balance and true, profound fulfillment for not only ourselves, but for everyone?
Before I elaborate, let me break this article down for you TL;DR-ers:
The author, Miya Tokumitsu, argues that the notion of “Do What You Love” or DWYL for short is an ideal encouraged by those of privilege, those who can spring for advanced degrees, who can get help from parents or spouses while slaving away at unpaid internships, doing it as a “labor of love” in anticipation for that glorious future when they can earn income by doing what feels good and authentic to their passion.
Those who have no choice but to wait tables, stock shelves or pick crops are most likely not doing that work out of some great love of the work; they do it because they have to, and by society continuing to idealize the lifestyle of DWYL, they are choosing to turn a blind eye to jobs and workers without which and whom our infrastructure would crumble.
As I lay in bed, article in hand, helping my little one drift off to sleep, I couldn’t help but examine my own career aspirations which, yes, have been motivated by that golden mantra. I mean, who doesn’t want to make money doing something that they love, something that feels custom fitted to their essence? Even after reading this article, I maintain that this is a good aspiration.
What this article taught me is that, nice as dream as DWYL is, it is a dream offered to the privileged.
How often do you think of yourself as privileged? If you have internet access in your home, if you have a bank account containing more than you or your spouse’s most recent paycheck, if you have numerous choices for tonight’s dinner plans, you are privileged. If you have nurtured dreams of writing or teaching or creating for a living, you are privileged. Even more so if your family supports you in having those dreams.
Regardless, we as Mothers know a thing or two about Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do. If we didn’t, we would not survive the days upon months upon years of being a hair’s width away from insanity, and then seeing our little one smile or say, “I love you, Mama,” and suddenly wondering why we were angry in the first place. If anyone knows about DWYL, it’s us.
Tokumitsu gets that. She argues that the DWYL mantra has helped perpetuate gender-based pay inequality, stating that many feminized industries - fashion, art, education - thrive by exploiting women in low-paying positions, tantalizing them with doing the labor “for the love of it.” She suggests that this continues because women have always been sacrificers, and are thus used to being paid in feelings.
What’s your take on the article? Do you agree with the author? Is its possible to utilize DWYL in a healthy way? Sound off below!
I actually just read another article saying that the pay inequality between genders was a myth because women consistently choose careers in lower paying fields such as teaching/social work vs. engineering/computer science. If comparing salary based on field then women and men made similar salaries. I think the last part of this article where it's pointed out that "do what you love" is exploited in order not to pay a decent income for work really hit me. Why is it that fields often chosen by women are so consistently undervalued when they are so important to maintaining a healthy society? Very frustrating...
ReplyDeleteInteresting article! I think it also goes to this industrialized idea that "work" is the most important thing. I remember when I lived in Italy, the whole idea of work/life balance was so different. People do their work in order to LIVE, not live to work. All the shops close down for two hours in the afternoon for lunch, and they take way more vacation days and work less hours than Americans. The trade off is less money, but more time with family, friends, more time enjoying other things. If work is the only thing you have, then yeah, it would be pretty miserable to not be able to really love it. But those Italians laugh at Americans who work 12-16 hour days just for some extra pocket cash. They would much rather take two hour lunches, and a three week vacation with their family...which makes that sacrifice they put in (of maybe not so fun work) completely worth it.
ReplyDeleteobviously I'm talking in generalizations...there are plenty of Americans who understand the work/life trade off, and Italians who work 18 hours a day...but in general, the culture and society perpetuates a certain attitude when it comes to the value of work.