systlin:

karama9:

I was just reading an article on how much backlash Marie Kondo has been getting from some white westerners (especially women it seems).

And I’m just baffled. I expected dismissal from a lot of people, if only because of the animism and how some of the techniques are much more intensive than the average person’s… folding underwear, for instance, will strike most people as excessive when they first hear of it.

But there’s dismissal and there’s hatred, and it seems like the hints and bits I’ve personally seen are just the tip of the iceberg. 

I’ve seen people blogging or vlogging about “doing konmari!” and then proceeding to… not. “Oh, she says do it all at once but I’m just doing my closet”, “I’m not thanking stuff I’m throwing out because that’s just kooky”, “I don’t have time to pile EVERYTHING so I’m just doing a drawer at a time”… that kind of stuff. Doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, they’re trying to cash in on the method by drawing in people who want to see it in action without actually fully doing it, but it’s not hateful as such – they’re adapting it and for many of them, it’s probably not malicious click bait, they honestly think they’re making it work for them and sharing that. It’s dismissive at times (they actually do use the word kooky, I’ve seen it a few times), and I’m quite convinced some of them only even bother calling it by name for hits, but it’s nothing compared to what’s apparently going on if you dig deeper than I did.

Some people have called her a monster. Some people have literally stated they could have come up with what she did and stripping her of any credit. More generally, people have just been pushing back with actual anger because, for example, they feel her values are totally foreign and weird and she’s trying to force them on them. Well, for one thing, she’s not forcing anything on anyone – obviously. The real issue, when you compare the reactions she gets to the reactions white male minimalists get, is that she’s a woman of color and she’s offering advice. It gets turned to “weird non white/non christian lady is imposing her views on me and she wants to burn my books OMG”.

And it makes the click bait people seem part of a larger, uglier movement, now.

And it’s maddening to me because… I am SO happy she exists. This is a woman who has a passion for tidying because of how happy tidy and clean places make her and has made it her job to share that. That is literally what she’s doing: she’s making a living out of helping people get the happiness she’s achieved for herself. Realistically, her method cannot possibly help everyone, but she really believes they can help some people so she’s going for it.

Yes, she makes money. Good for her, she’s making things better for people and that should enable her to make a living of it, and if a lot of people are buying, more power to her. She’s not deceiving anybody, she’s selling books about tidying that plainly state they’re about tidying. 

Success is not evil just because it’s achieved by a woman of color instead of a white man. 

THIS