Radio Free Beszel

Live Not for Others

Alphonse Season 1 Episode 14

Affirmation is a trap. It makes us dependent, weak and unhappy.

It starts in school. Some comply and are rewarded. They do well in school: but if they have come to expect praise, they may be lost or angry in lie. Others resist and are punished, and lose out as they enter the world of work. Often it is girls who comply, and boys who do not. Both are sabotaged in life.

But instead of teaching independence, instead of making school more like life, we have chosen the opposite: we are making life more like school. But adults who are dependent on others to praise them will have unstable identities and lack independence.

0:01
Good evening. This
is Radio Free

0:04
Beszel. I'm Alphonse.
Tonight: Pleasing.

0:09
When I was in elementary
school and high

0:11
school ,a couple of
things were clear.

0:15
First, girls did better
than boys. They got the

0:19
top grades almost always.
The other was the girls

0:23
did what the teachers wanted
and the boys didn't.

0:26
And that wasn't just because
boys were inherently

0:29
uncooperative. We also
knew, or most of us

0:32
knew, that if you were
the kind of boy who

0:35
did what the teacher wanted
then you were kind of

0:38
a suck. You actually weren't
a proper boy at all.

0:42
And so I suspect a
lot of boys stayed

0:44
silent and didn't volunteer
in class.

0:49
Now of course the things
the teachers wanted

0:52
weren't always academic
things. The teachers

0:56
wanted praise, they
wanted people who'd

0:58
feed them back whatever
they told the class

1:00
whether what they told the
class was reasonable or

1:02
not. Certain kinds of arguments
weren't welcome.

1:06
So generally speaking,
the girls didn't

1:08
make those arguments, and
generally speaking

1:11
the boys probably didn't
either because they

1:13
didn't say much at all
- or some of them did,

1:16
but the boys who did - you
know those were the

1:19
the nerds and the geeky ones.
That's the code as I

1:22
understood it anyway, and
I'd suspect that hasn't

1:25
changed necessarily all that
much in many places.

1:29
But I realized something
towards the end of high school.

1:33
Which was that although
the boys weren't doing

1:35
as well, they weren't
getting the grades,

1:38
and the girls were getting
all the top marks

1:40
(and that has certainly not
changed by the way),

1:43
but I thought in the
long run it was

1:45
the girls who were going
to suffer more.

1:48
Because the girls were
pleasers. They

1:52
had been trained
from a young age

1:55
to do what other people
wanted. Not to live

1:58
for themselves but to
live for others. That

2:02
they would get rewards
from teachers for

2:05
doing what the teachers
demanded of them.

2:09
But then I thought,
and I really did

2:10
think in the last year
of high school,

2:13
what happens when they leave?
What happens when

2:16
they get out of school into
the wide world and the

2:20
teacher isn't there to give
them a reward? What

2:23
are they going to do? And
I felt sorry for them,

2:27
because I thought the boys who
basically said we don't care

2:32
would be okay. Their motivation
came from within.

2:35
But the girls, because
they have been trained

2:39
and had this reinforced again
and again that their

2:42
motivation should come from
others praising them,

2:46
would be lost without
that praise. I don't

2:49
know for a fact that that's
what happened.

2:54
But I have my suspicions.
I have the impression

2:57
a lot of women do very
well in school.

3:01
They try very hard, they
do what's asked of

3:04
them, they do what's expected,
they work hard.

3:06
And the boys, you know,
kind of slack

3:08
off, don't take it
very seriously.

3:11
And then the girls do
get out of school and

3:14
they find that the hard
work they did in school

3:16
doesn't necessarily have
the same effect in the

3:20
world outside. And they
feel betrayed - as well

3:24
they should - and they
look for something

3:27
to blame. Now the current
thing that they

3:30
blame is patriarchy. And
I'm not saying that

3:32
has nothing to do with
it - perhaps it does,

3:36
but I think part of what
happened is that they

3:38
were told a story that wasn't
true. And it wasn't

3:41
really in their interests
and they got hurt by

3:44
it. And the boys got hurt
by it too because we

3:47
know today that getting
those grades is really

3:49
important to getting the
right education which

3:52
is important to getting
the right credentials

3:54
which is necessary for getting
the right jobs.

3:57
So what we're ending up
with is a lot of boys

4:00
who might be capable,
who had the potential

4:04
and didn't have it realized,
because they didn't

4:06
do the things, didn't jump
through the hoops that

4:09
they were supposed to jump
through - and girls

4:11
who did jump through the
hoops and were very

4:13
successful and showed how
hard they could work and

4:16
how smart they were, but now
discover that they're

4:19
not getting the rewards
that they thought they

4:22
were promised. It's a sad
situation all around.

4:27
And it's not just that
those girls are

4:29
also taught to be pleasers.
In general,

4:31
and it's not just in school,
girls are brought

4:34
up to do things for other
people - to put other

4:37
people first. And so, you
know, we know that they

4:40
they don't ask for raises
as much in the job.

4:44
They probably are
self-sacrificing. I'm

4:46
talking generalities
here, of course

4:49
this is all averages
there are

4:50
plenty of exceptions.
But anyway,

4:53
they're more likely to be
self-sacrificing with

4:56
their partners for example,
and they'll get taken

4:59
advantage of. And they
see it as sexism and

5:01
in a way it is because
that's how girls are

5:04
brought up. But in a way
it's also because of

5:07
this dynamic. And I just
think it's really sad.

5:12
But look what we're trying
to do to fix it. It

5:15
seems the solution seems
to be to make more and

5:18
more of life like high school.
To make life beyond

5:22
school as if it's still
assessed by these same

5:25
kinds of criteria. I mean
the irony is is that

5:29
school itself structurally
is patriarchal - in

5:32
other words, you can take
the men out of it, it

5:35
doesn't matter, but it has
had that same hierarchy

5:38
where you're working for
someone who's up on top

5:41
and that person approves
of you and that person

5:43
gives you your self-worth
by saying you're

5:45
worth this, you know you
got these grades.

5:48
And we're doing that
more and more in the

5:51
outside world. And I think
that's a mistake.

5:54
It's reinforcing again
the same dynamic that

5:58
has made girls and boys men
and women miserable.

6:04
But that's the romantic
thing maybe. I sort

6:06
of wonder if that's part
of the reason that

6:09
that Hogwarts and HarryPpotter
are so popular:

6:12
because they they recall
that dynamic, that place

6:16
where people have been
so successful by

6:18
following the rules and maybe
bending them a bit.

6:22
So what are we doing about
this. We're making the

6:26
rest of the world more like
school. We're making

6:29
it so that in more and more
areas of life we're

6:33
working inside hierarchies,
inside systems. We're

6:37
striving to please somebody,
striving to please

6:40
everybody in fact - not
just the people in our

6:42
organization but the people
for whom we have to

6:45
perform in our personas
that we wear online and

6:49
on social media and all
of this stuff. And it's

6:51
a constant question of, Are
they approving of me?

6:54
Are they affirming me? Or
are they not? and that

6:58
affirmation is fundamentally,
I believe, damaging.

7:03
You know this is, I think,
one of the really

7:05
dangerous things about identity
politics. In fact

7:09
I object to the concept
of ascribed identity.

7:13
In other words, somebody
who really has a secure

7:18
identity, who really
knows who they are,

7:20
doesn't need a box or
a label to put on it.

7:24
They're just themselves.
My identity is

7:27
me. That's what i want
it to be anyway,

7:32
but if I depend on other
people recognizing

7:36
me as an X, whatever
X might be,

7:40
affirming me as an X, then
I have taken power

7:44
away from myself and I've
given it to them.

7:48
Now I am dependent on
what other people

7:50
think of me and I'm
not independent,

7:53
I can't decide who I
want to be anymore.

7:56
And if those people
decide to judge me

7:58
differently then I've
got a real problem,

8:01
because then my identity
is under threat.

8:05
So to stop that from happening,
I need to please

8:09
them. I need to play up
to whatever identity it

8:13
is that I'm supposed to
have. And in the end

8:18
the result is that I'm
weak. I lose myself. I

8:22
think identity is one of
those things - many of

8:25
the most important things
in life are like this,

8:28
things like love, things
like wisdom, things

8:32
that you can't actually chase
them and catch them

8:37
the harder you try to grab
them the harder you

8:39
hold on to them the more
elusive they become,

8:42
the things that that come
while you're doing

8:45
other things, while you're
working with the flow

8:48
of life and the flow of
the world, but if you

8:51
fight too hard for them,
they will elude you.

8:56
I think identity is like that,
but i think our structures

9:00
from our schools that teach
us to please, from

9:04
how we teach our girls to
please, to be pleasers,

9:08
and from the whole political
social thing

9:12
around identity is all
going down this path

9:17
that I think is really damaging
and dangerous,

9:20
and leaving people not knowing
who they are. And

9:23
even if they think they
know who they are, it's

9:27
a fragile place to be because
it could be hurt

9:30
by anybody else who doesn't
see it the way they

9:34
need it to be seen. If we
really want to be free

9:39
we need to start peeling
away some of

9:42
the layers, some of
the affirmations,

9:45
some of the praise
that we give to

9:48
people, and let them
just be themselves.

9:54
This is Alphonse for Radio
Free Beszel. www.beszel.ca.

10:01
Good night.