Wellness and Capitalism
Wellness cannot exist in a world that prioritizes profit over people. Colonial patriarchal capitalism laid the foundation for a world where the Global North thrives at the expense of the Global South.
The foundation of our world – built on colonial, patriarchal capitalism – ensures that the Global North thrives at the expense of the Global South. The wellness industry, like fashion, tech, and food, depends on cheap labor, land exploitation, and racial and gender inequality to sustain itself.
At its core, mainstream "wellness" is rooted in whiteness, wealth, and exclusion. It prioritizes individual optimization over collective well-being, often driven more by ego and consumerism than true healing and community care. Under the guise of unity and self-care, a few profit while many are exploited.
Capitalism convinces us that if we are unwell, it’s our own fault. Western ideology promotes individualism and the survival of the fittest, completely ignoring structural violence. Systemic issues – poverty, racism, gender-based violence, medical discrimination, environmental destruction, and lack of access to education – are reframed as personal failures rather than the direct result of colonial capitalist patriarchy.
Meanwhile, those in power continue to profit from suffering, while wellness is sold as a luxury rather than a humxn right. The industry offers coping mechanisms – detox teas, biohacking trends, expensive retreats – without addressing the root causes of inequality. Instead of dismantling oppressive structures, it reinforces them.
Wellness Must Be Collective and Systemic
True wellness cannot be separated from justice. It requires a decolonized, intersectional feminist, and non-capitalistic approach – one that dismantles systems of oppression rather than upholding them. Sustainable well-being means access to healthcare, affordable housing, fair wages, environmental justice, reparations, and racial and gender equality.
We cannot buy our way into well-being while ignoring the exploitation that fuels the industry. True healing begins when we reject individualism, demand systemic change, and build a world where wellness is a humxn right, not a privilege.
As fascism and nationalism rise in the West, deepening division and exclusion, prioritizing collective well-being becomes even more urgent. The systems that uphold oppression must be dismantled so that health, safety, and dignity are not reserved for the privileged few but accessible to all.
Wellness cannot exist in a world that thrives on inequality. It's time to redefine it – not as an industry, but as a fundamental right.
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With Love,
Dinah