Day #313: I Really Hate the Term Side Hustle

I'm feeling very ranty today and for some reason of all the things in the world to rant about, this is the one that has risen to the top. Doesn't seem like solid priorities, but I think I'm just sick of ranting about everything else so it was either gonna be this or why Blogger feels the need to throw a random space at the beginning of every post, and that seemed a bridge too far.

I really need to unfollow this person on Instagram because really she's stressful...usually I am QUICK with my unfollow finger on Instagram but this one has been ever so slightly complicated...doing it anyway, though, because I do not need more stress. But she was having a conversation about fiscal choices and side hustles today and OMG I am sick to death of this term.

I think I'm having my own issues these days around being a stay at home mom...the issues are always there bubbling just a bit, have been since I first officially quit the job I had when James was born, which was in July 2014, just about 6.5 years now (but I hadn't worked the job since the end of April.) But being home ALL THE TIME and losing the job I did have hurt...but I think what is the hardest is being part of the mom world and hearing all the things they say about how hard it is to be taking care of kids and facilitating school...and working. And I know it is not meant to be dismissive or a competition, but I feel really set aside by that like my struggles are less than or don't matter. Which is an emotional reaction all about me and no one else.

So all of that is already a thing and on top of all of that there's this ongoing conversation about "side hustle"...and I HATE that term. A lot. 

First of all, it feels super sexist. I'm sure men have side hustles as well but I almost never hear them referred to that way. If a man is a Lyft driver during his off hours, he's part of the "gig economy." If he sells beer he brews in his garage he has a "home based business." His wife, if she is a photographer or has an Etsy shop, has a "side hustle." It's like her work isn't really important, it's just this thing she does.

Second, it feels very middle class and white. Working class and poor women have taken in sewing, done other people's laundry, taken on raising extra children, sold baked goods, and done whatever they needed to do to keep body and soul together for a really long time...sometimes in addition to fulltime jobs and/or large families to care for. This is not a new thing, it's just been rebranded and the history of working women, largely black and brown, has been ignored.

Third, it feels like it becomes not okay to have a creative hobby...just because you have a creative hobby. Maybe you like making macrame or dish cloths and selling them on Etsy helps you buy your own supplies. Maybe you don't want to sell them on Etsy at all. It's okay to want to learn more about photography or illustration or sewing or anything...because you want to. Not everyone has to sell their products for their time to be valuable. Not every blog is going to make money. God knows this one won't. 

People who do pick up a few extra bucks doing these sorts of things...more power to them and let's please stop dismissing them by diminishing what they do. I know lots of people who have successful home based businesses selling homemade products or running Ebay shops or whatever and it's demeaning and dumb to call it their "side hustle." Even if it's a second job...it's a job. It's a business. It's work. It's worthy of respect and being treated like anyone else's business. I'm just over it. Whether something is a hobby or a job should be up to the person doing it and is not about their bottom line or anything else. And everyone should be encouraged to let their creativity flow whether they make a dime off it or not. And while we're at it, yes, creators should be paid and people should offer reasonable amounts when they commission someone to do graphic design, etc. but this idea I think that every writer, artist, whoever, should be paid actually stifles creativity. Because not everyone is going to be good enough to make a living doing their art and THAT'S OKAY. If people can find spaces and places to have their work published and presented to the world that's a good thing and there's no way every creator is going to get that if all of it has to be paid labor. Nobody's literary journal is making any money and getting mad at them because they can't pay you a stipend for your poem isn't helping anyone's work get a wider audience or to build the literary community.

Okay, rant over. I unfollowed the Instagram account in question and will continue to seek happiness and not stress.

Me? I'm okay. I'm kind of in a rut this week...and last week...as I said before the doldrums of this time of year are real and the world we live in right now is not helping in a major way. Credible threats to attack members of Congress this weekend as well as normal January blues plus pandemic fatigue do not add up to an awesome cocktail of emotions. Yesterday I took out a couple of typewriters I haven't used in awhile and got excited but then I didn't know exactly what to write. I have been wanting to write more poetry this year but feeling very stuck...got more than a little writer's block, which is I think what drove me here, an effort to move boulders. The school schedule is out of whack this week which is leading to more tension and the weather has been awful so it's hard to get out. I'm hoping to be done with school early tomorrow and get out and do something although I'm seriously running out of ideas as to what. Might get on the ferry. We can't go upstairs on the ferry and wander around like we used to but at least it would take us to new places. We've been to so many of our local haunts a lot of times by this point.

Media consumption: lots of 30 Rock. Have probably been watching too much TV. I got Chariots of Fire which I've never seen from the library and need to watch it soon so I can return it but haven't been in the mood. And James beat me at Mario Kart. Still working my way through Barak Obama's memoir on audio. It's interesting but its looooong. I listened to Patricia McCormick's audiobook Sold yesterday for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Such a beautiful book. I'm reading Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, will probably finish that tonight and am interested in reading more Miss Marple. And still working through a 2002 poetry collection by Joy Harjo.

Today I'm grateful for video games, Tums, bedtime, mindless phone games, books, reading to my kids, survivable first grade writing assignments, my husband, and everyone who gets me through the days.