Self-help gurus script acceptable affect for self-branding, naturalizing and gendering it

Evidence

These comments reflect Garyvee’s ideal of the constant hustler, a neoliberal subjectivity through which people organize themselves and their lives according to market principles. Interestingly, both Ferriss and Vaynerchuk use emotional, affective language to evangelize particular types of labor: think of “following your passion” or “crushing it.” Just as one’s peers determine what makes an interesting Twitter feed and Valleywag polices the right type of micro-celebrity, self-help gurus script what the “right” sort of affect looks like for social media users looking to capitalize on self-branding. The net effect of this policing is that self-branding, which requires both immaterial and emotional labor, has been both naturalized and gendered. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 510

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘having a calling’ / affective labor literature and to how self-help discourse polices emotional norms, e.g. Ehrenreich’s critique of positive thinking. — connects to: Self-help tech gurus succeed by affirming, not challenging, tech culture’s core values — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 463; Self-branding imposes significant emotional and temporal costs on practitioners — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 508; Self-branding demands maintaining an edited yet authentic self before an audience — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 507 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Defines Garyvee’s ‘constant hustler’ as a neoliberal subjectivity organizing life by market principles.

Broader Connections

• Self-branding exercises frame profit-seeking as the discovery of an authentic self. #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 496
• Self-branding treats the self as a salable commodity marketed to employers #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 418
• Self-branding imposes significant emotional and temporal costs on practitioners #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 508
• Self-branding demands maintaining an edited yet authentic self before an audience #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 507
• Social media instruments natural empathy to modify behavior for others’ benefit #complicates (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1489
• Authenticity in self-branding means displaying hidden inner life, not mere honesty #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 285