When Positive Thinking Is Undermining

Author Barbara Ehrenreich appeared on Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/13/author_barbara_ehrenreich_on_bright_sided) to talk about her new book “Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.”In it she describes her frustrations about the bizarre culture of always having a positive attitude, even when it is clearly inappropriate. Somehow, we are supposed to believe that thinking happy thoughts will translate into desirable situations. I agree with Barbara; being positive all the time can be exhausting, and unproductive. We aren’t like Wendy and the boys; we can’t just “think happy thoughts” and fly off to Neverland with Peter Pan, although I’m sure a lot of us wish that was possible. Sure, sometimes being positive is helpful and necessary. When you’re competing in a sports game or giving a presentation for class and you fumble (couldn’t resist) or make a mistake, I think it’s important to keep a positive attitude that will at least help you finish what you started. In this sense, a positive attitude can help fuel perseverance. But, like Barbara points out, Americans are increasingly encouraged to be positive and chirpy in situations that call for the exact opposite emotions. Barbara is a survivor of breast cancer, and she uses her experience to exemplify this prevailing positive thinking movement. She explains that lots of people (doctors, friends, etc.) encouraged her to have a positive attitude so that recovery would come faster. She was suffocated with pink ribbons and flowers and teddy bears. She was urged to suppress feelings of anger and replace them with uplifting feelings; people seemed to suggest that she wouldn’t get better unless she had a cheerful outlook. She writes, “In the most extreme characterization, breast cancer is not a problem at all, not even an annoyance—it is a ‘gift,’ deserving of the most heartfelt gratitude.” I think this is an interesting, albeit really screwed up, scenario that demonstrates how overwhelmingly gender roles are engrained into our society. When women are sick, they are told to be happy about it (?!) and are given pink, “girly” presents to help encourage feelings of hope and joy. How that’s supposed to help I will never understand. A lot of attention is given to breast cancer in particular because it is one of the most prevalent forms of cancer that kills women each year; however, nowhere near the amount of attention is given to prostate cancer, one of the major killers of men. There are no teddy bears and campaigns to help men cope with the fear and anger coupled with cancer. They are left to fend for themselves, while the women are encouraged to mask any undesirable feelings like rage and resentment.