Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: Audre Lorde / WIKIMEDIA.
THE MINISTRY OF IDEAS
Feminist Self-Care Beyond Capitalism
Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: Audre Lorde / WIKIMEDIA.
THE MINISTRY OF IDEAS
Feminist Self-Care Beyond Capitalism
In October 2020, what began as a trend on X (formerly known as Twitter) would become one of the most significant moments in Nigeria’s contemporary history. The hashtag #EndSARS emerged as a symbol of wider socio-political discontent, beginning with protests against the police brutality perpetuated by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigeria Police Force. SARS had, over the years, been perceived as notorious given their record of abuse, false profiling and extrajudicial killing of Nigerian citizens. This time, in 2020, angry Nigerian youths reacted to the killing of a young man by a SARS officer with a massive nationwide protest. Fuelled by wider displeasure with misgovernance in the country, #EndSARS took on many meanings and became a movement through which angry youths called for a renewed governance.
But in the blink of an eye, we witnessed some of the nationwide protests degenerate into nights of concerts, music and even a teaser for a pageantry. However, the most disturbing element was the commodification of the movement itself. In a few weeks, brands began to sell Soro Soke ‘merch’ using different platforms. ‘Soro Soke’, which translates to ‘speak up’, was a rallying cry for Nigerian youths who were demanding an end to police brutality. It represents a rejection of silence and oppression, a symbol of resistance that urges people to raise their voices against injustice. Simply put, Nigerians were protesting for their right to life. For many Nigerians, the term represents the pain and history of the ones we have lost. When we say ‘Soro Soke’, we think of people like Bolanle Raheem, a pregnant woman who was shot and killed on Christmas Day in 2022 in the presence of her family. We think about the peaceful protesters shot at Lekki Toll Gate on 20 October 2020. We do not think of it as wearable items or things that should be profited off of like the ‘Soro Soke Denim Jacquard’.
A popular influencer had also released a collection of candles and named it ‘Soro Soke’. Although she did issue an apology and withdrew the candles from the market, the fact remains that the very core of things that are personal and collective to us have been slaughtered at the altar of capitalism. Think about the very core issues that we create movements for and see how capitalism has encroached upon them. When we reduce our movements to disembodied fashion items, we dilute their radical potential, spirit and letters, turning our activism into mere consumer products. We shift the focus from systemic change to individual expressions, which makes activism only about performative participation. With this, we disconnect the struggles behind movements, and activism only becomes a tool that benefits capitalism. For instance, what does the Soro Soke dress do for or tell someone who has never heard of the #EndSARS movement before? What does it tell someone who encounters the movement through its ‘merch’ first? It evokes no sense of solidarity or empathy. This, by itself, dishonours the sheer will and power of the movement.
Today, brands have co-opted ideologies and movements to suit a single narrative. Feminism is now often reduced to slogans on T-shirts, surface-level campaigns by organizations that promote ‘empowerment’ but fail to address systemic issues like gender discrimination at management level or wage gaps. Empowerment has often been reduced to individualistic success stories, constantly celebrating ‘giant strides’ but core issues such as unpaid care work, lack of access to sexual reproductive health and rights are conveniently ignored. Think of #BlackLivesMatter and the sales of stickers, shirts and beanies, the constant superficial campaigns held by organizations who have refused to address racism and discrimination at their workplaces.
Self-care has been co-opted into this capitalist consumerist culture as well. What is meant to serve as a revolutionary act is now characterized by luxurious living and activities. Pleasing the self and funding expensive services—spa days, retail therapy, lighting candles, vacations and massages are surface-level things we have now come to refer to as self-care. Brands are constantly partnering with influencers to promote their ‘self-care’ products and promote their taglines and hashtags. While all these may seem harmless, a deep understanding of the history of self-care shows that the idea of caring for oneself by engaging in acts that are only accessible to people with money or other forms of privileges is harmful.
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THE HISTORY OF SELF-CARE
Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare. —Audre Lorde.
Self-care became a buzzword in 2016 following the United States elections. The keenly contested elections between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presented the United States with an opportunity to walk the talk in gender equality. Following Clinton’s loss, and the inevitable tragedy of Trump’s administration, women began to rally around one another to grieve and heal. Since then, articles on self-care have continued to appear in major outlets like the New York Times, Forbes and The New Yorker.
Self-care as a concept has a rich history rooted in gender, race, sexuality and class. It is imperative for us as feminists to understand this history so as to practise it according to its spirits and letters. A feminist writer, Sadie Trombetta argued in 2018 that before self-care became a tool for fighting oppression, it was a tool for maintaining it. She traced its history to how it was used against African slaves and every other marginalized class in history.
African feminist scholars, Patricia McFadden and Patricia Twasiima have spoken about how patriarchy perverts the feminist movement in a bid to make it ‘palatable’. We have been fighting all our lives and the constant resistance against being exploited or reduced to mere private property for men has burned out feminist activists. In fact, the very act of resistance is considered something to be punished for. For example, in 2003, in a year-end poll conducted by Uganda’s biggest daily newspaper, New Vision, 717 people voted Professor Sylvia Tamale, a Ugandan lawyer, academic and human rights activist, as ‘The Worst Woman of the Year’ for her vocal support of sexual rights. Yet, feminist activists have always been organizing. McFadden expressed it rightly when she argued that we carry the burden that the state should carry and we do not question whether it is our burden or an imposed agenda. Another African feminist scholar, Jessica Horn, described exclusion and marginalization as ‘two intersecting axes’ that continue to have a huge impact on African feminists. She expressed the high level of pressure feminist activists continue to face, some of which impacts their emotional and mental health and at times compromises their safety. In spite of all these, Horn draws from a solid statement by Yara Sallam, an Egyptian feminist, who said:
I insist that we are also a priority in the sphere of struggle for a better and more beautiful life. Revolutions don’t happen for us to be miserable, nor do they happen for us to get sick, or for us to neglect our own lives. For Revolution—as I believe in it—is an action for a change so that beauty can win over ugliness and hope can win over pain.
Self-care is a powerful tool for social change. Stemming from the passion to achieve collective freedom, self-care is a practice that takes a holistic look at individual healing and power to cater for the collective. It is the very idea that individuals who are fighting for the collective must first of all be healthy, both mentally and physically, before they can fight for others. It is hinged on the principle that one cannot pour from an empty cup. In other words, to continue to fight oppression and discrimination, the body fighting must be fit to fight. The willingness and ability to care for that body is a basic human right everyone should have. While this may seem basic, there are thousands of women who did not and still do not have the luxury of carrying out this singular act. Women who have faced misogyny, racism and/or sexism have always been told their welfare did not matter, so being able to care for themselves, regardless of the actions and words of their oppressors, was/ is defiant.
Perhaps one of the most significant and most referenced lines on self-care comes from Audre Lorde, a Black feminist scholar (highlighted above). Her view of self-care as a form of self-preservation and warfare hinged on the conviction that oppressed groups deserved to not only live but live well. For women who were victims of enslavement, women who did not have bodily autonomy, women who faced femicide and Black women who were either unpaid or underpaid, self-care was not for taking a luxurious vacation or a weekend getaway, it was a way to be away from toxic environments, to grieve and heal, so that they could continue to serve the collective better, regardless of the disposition of the oppressors. So, self-care was an act of courage against oppression, and it was deeply rooted in the collective class and not individualistic parameters.
It was also rooted in educating oneself about one’s physical well-being. Lorde was visually impaired and later diagnosed with cancer. She had to focus on her well-being because not doing that could increase the risk of her illness worsening. Lorde wrote:
I respect the time I spend each day treating my body, and I consider it part of my political work. It is possible to have some conscious input into our physical processes—not expecting the impossible, but allowing for the unexpected—a kind of training in self-love and physical resistance.
In other words, self-care cannot be carried out outside of time or during ‘personal time’ as capitalists would prefer. Instead, she argued that it is a continued engagement that must be integrated into one’s living. It shows responsibility for your own health and well-being even as we continue to dismantle systems that foster oppression. Marginalized groups have often used self-care as a means of reclaiming agency and fighting burnout from advocacy and activism. Therefore, it is an absolute necessity that marginalized and oppressed groups have to engage in self-care in order to thrive in the systems that harm their personal and communal existence. As rightfully posited by writer and sexuality educator, Cameron Glover:
To dismantle the systems that keep so many people oppressed and vulnerable to unnecessary grief and struggle, we need to give ourselves permission to enjoy beautiful things in whatever form they may take. Because for marginalized people, pleasure can be a lifeline to the humanity we fight so hard to have others recognize in us—and to see in ourselves.
Therefore, self-care is not only personal but radical, collective and political.
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THE COMMODIFICATION OF SELF-CARE
Given the rich history of self-care, the tension between the authentic, political roots of self-care and its commodification within capitalist frameworks, which transform it into a profit-driven industry, is deeply concerning. The wellness industry has boomed into a billion-dollar industry offering various ‘wellness’ services to people. These services, which are fundamentally different from the original idea behind the term itself, have very harmful implications.
First, like Nassoro Kitunda, an assistant professor at the University of Dar es Salaam, argued, the class structure established by capitalism, especially in imperialist-dominated regions, is the major driver of women’s subjugation. Capitalism may have been the most ‘developed’ epoch of human society, yet it remains the most exploitative. It is for profit, and it does not care whose ox is gored. Therefore, if your business profits from ‘self-care’ (read capitalism), it definitely relies on consumers who are staying in a continuous cycle of stress and anxiety.
The labour theory of value argues that the economic value of a good or service is determined by the total amount of ‘socially necessary labour’ required to produce it. The surplus produced over this is what translates to profit in capitalism as surplus value is dependent on labour. But after distribution, it is dependent on capital—which translates to exploitation. Mixing self-care with this only serves capitalism and profit; it negates the very root of what it stands for as capitalism in itself is oppressive. It promotes class struggle which comprises of the ‘haves’ and the ‘haves not’. This class struggle forms the basis of self-care, hence, commodifying it as part of the capitalist framework only promotes oppression.
Second, the class of the ‘haves not’ has always faced structural and systemic inequalities which have always prevented them from even accessing basic self-care practices. This means that a group of people have been systemically erased from enjoying basic human rights under this same structure. Brands and corporations have always marketed self-care as a ‘time off’ and ‘necessity’ for well-being. That means that the status quo is continually upheld as opposed to dismantling it.
In addition, capitalism has made self-care rely heavily and thrive on exclusivity and privilege. Self-care has been positioned to be only accessible to affluent individuals or people who have one form of privilege or another. Wellness products have categories to pick depending on the purchasing power of the individual who wants to buy them. Flights have been separated into business class and economy, and VIP access has been created even in the cinemas. So, self-care is now continuously tied to the purchasing power of individuals. For people who cannot ‘afford’ it, self-care, what should be a basic right, is then transformed into a privileged idea. This creates one class that benefits from the privileges while the other class has to pay for those privileges. Self-care’s very basic activities have been divided into classes and categories, further perpetuating social inequality.
Lastly, capitalism shifts the burden of self-care onto individuals, ignoring the systemic causes of stress and inequality. What necessitated self-care in the first place was the multi-layered oppression faced by different marginalized groups. For example, in a capitalist system where labour is underpaid, its effects trickle down. In a capitalist system, the entrepreneur owns the means and factors of production, whereas the only thing the labour class has is their labour. Therefore, labour becomes useless if the owner of the factors of production has no use for labour. In other words, if the entrepreneur has no need for labour, then the only thing the labour class has at their disposal no longer serves them in getting wages. This is why labour produces surplus value. However, workers are aware that they are underpaid but there is nothing that they can do about it. To put it into better context, let us unpack the life of a hypothetical man named Ade, who works at a bakery. Ade gets paid ₦50 as wages but the real value of Ade’s labour is ₦500. Ade will not complain about this partly because he is aware that there are multitudes of Ades who will fill the vacuum should he choose to exit but also because he does not get to pay for any care work that is done by his wife at home.
Ade and his wife, Bola, both go to work and when they get home, Bola enters the kitchen to prepare food, washes the dishes and clothes, cleans the house and takes care of the children. The value of this care work is not paid by Ade and, as such, he will not demand higher wages. Yet, this care work is not only unpaid but also undervalued despite it taking a rigorous toll on Bola. Bola goes to work and has to contend with problems that Ade will not contend with. The burden of care rests on Bola. She already faces unequal pay, as statistics have shown that women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value, with even a wider wage gap for women with children. Not only is Bola impacted financially but she cannot ascend the career ladder like her male counterparts would due to the burden of care.
To further unpack this, we have to recognize that we live in a society where patriarchy thrives on its ability to domesticate women. As Professor Tamale argued, ‘the way patriarchy defines women is such that their full and wholesome existence depends on getting married, producing children and caring for their family.’ She explained how patriarchy determines what is regarded as public and private. With this, one person is regarded as the ‘breadwinner’ and the other person as the ‘homemaker’ whose work does not get recognized or paid for. Of course, the public realm is where activities that are deemed productive take place. Professor Tamale’s works have largely examined how the private/public delineation has been enforced by colonialism in Africa and how capitalism needs women to continue to perform gender roles so that the dominant workforce is underpaid.
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RECLAIMING SELF-CARE
Self-care involves a continuous, conscious commitment to yourself that goes beyond spa days or retail therapy. Self-care is not rooted in consumer-capitalism but is a call for collective liberation. Historically, the West was built on the backs of slavery, brutal genocides and colonialism against Africans. Not only were these grievous offences committed against Africans, the West is also constantly sustained by these elements. In the mid-nineteenth century, experimental surgeries were performed on Black women without anaesthesia under the racist notion that Black people do not feel pain. When Ruby Bridges, the first African-American to be integrated into an all-white school, started school, there were heavy protests, and she received threats against her life. In the face of systems like these, self-care beckons on us to reflect on structures that have historically exploited and marginalized us. It offers us meaningful ways of reconnecting to the things that bring us joy and happiness in a world that tells us otherwise.
To reclaim self-care, we must understand and acknowledge self-care as a form of resistance and defiance against systemic structures of oppression and discrimination. Self-care practices must be grounded in authenticity and social justice. This idea is very important to us as feminists. This is because, for centuries, the autonomy to make our decisions has been taken from us. During wars, rape and sexual torture were used as weapons of violence against women and girls. Our very acts of resistance are met with state-sanctioned brutality, as evident in the manner in which the Kenyan police kept arresting peaceful protesters and firing tear gas at them during the #EndFemicideKE protests, a nationwide movement protesting against the alarming rates of femicide in Kenya. Our rights as Black African people have been subdued, and we constantly find ourselves navigating intersectional oppression along the lines of race, sex, sexuality and gender.
Hence, we must practise self-care authentically without isolating it from the broader struggles for change. In a society where what we do, such as reproductive labour, care work, spiritual practices, emotional labour, to mention a few are regarded as not productive, we owe it to ourselves to take care of ourselves. We live in a society that collectively agrees that ‘Caesarean section is not a major surgery’ (a conversation on Nigerian X), a society that legislates over our bodies. We must, therefore, make conscious efforts to ensure that our self-care practices are inclusive and impactful, devoid of commercialization. Being able to do this means making our own choices and fighting against the very systems designed to tell us otherwise.
We must create spaces for other marginalized communities to explore self-care and healing, prioritizing the collective over the individual. This is because when we emphasize individual self-care, we isolate ourselves from the root causes of our harm, making it harder for us to heal or experience true self-care⎈
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