brief thoughts on soft life/alpha content
// About the online content of health and wellness, self help, Pinterest aesthetic, stay-at-home-girlfriends and tradwives, soft life, protecting your peace, alpha male morning routine etc etc - if that doesn’t tell you anything you’re lucky and should skip this one //
I understand the draw of this type of content and it used to appeal to me too, but the older I get, the more I see the holes in it.
I keep in mind they had to position the camera, stage the scene, retake it a couple times. Get ready and pretty before filming. Maybe there’s someone else like a nanny, cleaner, private cook behind the scenes, the home is an AirBnB, the car rented for the shot. The time they display as text over the video is not the time that’s visible on their wrist watches, because 6am sounds cooler than 10am. It’s filled with sponsors.
And it’s all just so… empty? I didn’t use to detect that. I just accepted what I was shown. For everyone else stressed with work, studies, home and/or kids, of course it seems appealing. No drama, just quiet luxury, rest, selfcare. To someone who gets zero minutes of selfcare, a 20 minute skincare routine understandably seems like heaven. It’s all about “You deserve it! Spoil yourself!”
But think about living that life seriously. Look at these videos and remember you’d do it every day, for weeks, months, years. Either genuinely (what they’re trying to influence you to think and do, and pretend they do too) or having to pretend that online every day. There are usually no other people in it, nothing fun, nothing spontaneous. Just rigorous routine, being at home, smearing stuff in your face, lying around, consuming drinks and food, staged “meetings”, doing palatable household chores like making the bed (but not scrubbing the toilet in pajamas) and doing a tiny bit of exercise, then a lil walk maybe (I saw someone label them walking their dog as “intentional movement” and had to laugh. Like yeah, you have to, otherwise he will tear your home apart and shit in it!). They spend the entire day “getting ready” and then the evening routine starts. You are not “productive” if between 5am and 9am all you did is eat, drink and wash yourself - that’s peak procrastination, baby!
Sometimes in between, the women serve their extremely dumb boyfriends by bringing them drinks and food on command like a dog. Sometimes they journal. Or at least pretend to. Imagine what’s in it with such a life if it’s mostly true? Every day, the same little task list? My journal is uneventful at times too (as you can see in my notebook tag), but theirs must take the cake. Opening the blinds is a whole task on their list in that daily journal. It’s like watching a bird in a golden cage, no matter if real or faked for views.
If you could push a button and have it, would you truly want this life? A trophy, decor, displayed to be consumed. Flexing for the sake of future flexing. If they’re feeling bad, they do what the internet says should be done if you’re sad and it’s turned into content. Not once do you get the impression that they ask themselves what they want right this second and do it. The women are quiet and look pretty, with a similar vibe as some oppressed housewife in the 50s but now it’s self-chosen, aesthetically pleasing, romanticized and labeled “empowering” because you’re “too pretty and feminine for work/think of finances” and you’re “protecting your peace”. It’s not a lonely life and hanging at home doing nothing “like a loser” if you’re well off, brand it “mindfulness” and “meditation” or “alpha male” and if your house is large and the interior is white.
I guess it fits to the rest of that life many of them lead. You’re the arm candy that’s not there to speak, your boyfriend or husband does. You don’t travel alone or for yourself, you travel with him and where he goes. You’re not sharing interesting art or thought-provoking writing or standing up for something, you post model content and are trying to be as marketable as possible. You’re here to boost him and give him status in front of his friends. You’re a pretty clean slate that won’t embarrass your partner or sponsor. And he is a grifter faking it until he makes it, trying to advertise crypto rugpulls with posing in front of Lamborghinis at the dealership.
More power to you, but deconstructing it like that, I don’t want that. Now that it seems so pathetic and either genuinely unattainable or undesirable, it’s easy to not pay attention to products that act like buying them will give you that lifestyle. Ew!
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Published 24 Mar, 2025