Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • UTS elects new Chancellor
    • Out of the Deep: The Story of a Shark Kid Who Dared to Question Fear
    • Prima Facie: Losing faith in a system you truly believed in
    • Jason Clare seeks replacement for ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop after $790,000 expense report
    • ‘If you silence someone or shush someone, you can get out’: SISTREN is an unabashed celebration of black and trans joy. Is Australia ready?
    • Mark Gowing waxes lyrical on aesthetics, time, language, and his new exhibition ‘This one is a song’
    • NTEU wins wage theft case against Monash University
    • Turning Kindness Into Strength in ‘A Different Kind of Power’
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Thursday, July 10
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»Perspective

    Paypal activism: Is there a price to being woke?

    Discourse should be free
    By Aiden MagroJune 1, 2018 Perspective 3 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    I was first introduced to PayPal activism while perusing a Facebook page called Grindr Aesthetics. Moderated by LGBTI+ Americans, the page is dedicated to sharing memes about being queer. It focuses on the trials and tribulations of using Grindr, a popular hookup app. The politics of Grindr Aesthetics are vastly different from meme groups I tend to frequent. For many, myself included, memes often start larger political conversations, especially those that centre on identity.

    In a comment thread under one meme, a fight broke out regarding the use of the term ‘queer.’ Linguistic concerns are important, as are arguments about the appropriate use of certain words, but what caught my attention was a comment stating, “Here are my PayPal account details, pay me to perform emotional labour for you.”

    In this context, emotional labour refers to the commenter putting in effort to explain a difficult concept or to sustain a political argument with someone else. As I continued exploring Grindr Aesthetics, I noticed more and more people demanding remuneration for acts of ‘emotional labour’.

    Emotional labour, an idea conceptualised by Arlie Hochschild, refers to the use of emotional rather than physical or analytical effort in exchange for wages. For example, as a waitstaff I not only have to perform physical tasks like cleaning and serving customers their food but I must also maintain a desirable standard of social interaction. I must wear a friendly smile and be empathetic to customers’ concerns, regardless of my own personal thoughts on the matter.  Regulating emotions is challenging, and it’s true that  explaining a concept, especially one tied in with your identity, requires some form of emotional labour. Indeed, many people of colour, women, and LGBTI+ people find that constant educating has become their job.

    But the problem with PayPal activism is that it replicates a system it seeks to dismantle.

    There is a strange paradox when leftists call for the end of capitalism but require payment for discourse. Politically and emotionally charged conversations are draining, but discourse is essential to any movement or revolution; it is the exchange of ideas we rely on to form a unified resistance against oppressive systems. Payment for discourse blocks certain people out of the fight; it is antithetical to our own aims. It also implies those receiving payment have nothing more to learn, that their ideas are wholly correct, or that they are in a position of authority that no one else has.

    When political concepts are introduced to the mainstream, they help us realise truths of society’s superstructures, but often at the risk of losing meaning. Removed from context, concepts such as emotional labour are appropriated to describe interactions beyond the scope of the term’s meaning. Hochschild never envisaged emotional labour to be a term applied to interpersonal interactions, even if these interactions are in political, online spaces, where a lot of ‘work’ must be done.

    I empathise with the people appropriating the term because it encompasses our feelings. But, in this case, we cannot expect a person to receive monetary compensation for a service as simple and important as engaging in discussion. Although it can be emotionally exhausting, ‘PayPal activists’ shouldn’t need an extra, financial incentive to contribute to a cause, especially when there is always the opportunity to disengage.  So no, I won’t ask you to put money into my PayPal for writing this article.

    discourse emotional labour money paypal

    Keep Reading

    The Music of Memory

    Turn Away Your Mirrors and Close the Doors

    What Was Your Name?

    Do you dream with your phone?

    Authenticating My Authenticity to Inauthentic Authenticators

    Red-Haired Phantasies: The So-Called Manic Pixie Dream Girl

    Just In

    UTS elects new Chancellor

    July 8, 2025

    Out of the Deep: The Story of a Shark Kid Who Dared to Question Fear

    July 8, 2025

    Prima Facie: Losing faith in a system you truly believed in

    July 8, 2025

    Jason Clare seeks replacement for ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop after $790,000 expense report

    July 7, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    Part One: The Tale of the Corporate University

    May 28, 2025

    “Thank you Conspiracy!” says Capitalism, as it survives another day

    May 21, 2025

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.