In a new video, gay equal rights activist and YouTuber Arielle Scarcella of GirlfriendsTV regarding her vid "HOW TO : ATTRACT LOVE."
In the comments section, video watcher "joe zuna" wrote, "this sounds alot like the law of attraction" to which Scarcella replied, "it is." In the HOW TO : ATTRACT LOVE" vid, Scarcella outlines, "three specific ways we can love ourselves,"
1) Don't project any negative thoughts or feelings about yourself or other people
2) Live in the moment as much as you can and realize that at its core all hate is motivated by fear
3) Exercise and eat healthy (followed by what appears to be a product placement)
Sounds good right?
Not so fast. Jeff 4 Justice (J4J) calls this video out as mental health abuse for teaching emotional repression such as "don't project any negative thoughts or feelings" which is humanly impossible. Jeff outlines how the "law of attraction / like attracts like" ideology also teaches shaming despite being presented as "positive thinking."
In the commentary, J4J shares how a Christian Pastor once told him that he was not changing from gay to heterosexual because he was not praying earnestly enough. J4J compares that to how promoters of "law of attraction / like attracts like" ideology essentially blame people for bad things happening to them when those things may be beyond a person's control. For instance, J4J cites gays in Uganda or war refugees. He asks if we should reply to the sorrows they might express by dismissively telling them, "Don't think negative. Like attracts like!"
J4J also points to video commenter Kristin Houlgate who opined, "I don't exactly agree. I put out a lot of love. I work for a charity & help disabled people for a living. I'm THE most loyal committed friend ever and yet I don't have many friends, am single and always find that I put in to relationships more than I get out. I constantly feel like the third wheel and that my friends don't care half as much about me as I do them." In reaction to the vid, GirlfriendsTV fans such as Daniel Pumarino Andrade opined, "That's because your not putting love in there. I'm sorry if it sounds harsh. But when you give love, you don't care about receiving... You just receive. Instead, you are putting insecurity into the universe, and the belief that you won't receive what you give." GirlfriendsTV did not bother replying to Houlgate despite replying to many of the comments praising the video.
J4J opines that the types of comments made by people like viewer Daniel Pumarino Andrade are examples of victim blaming and advocating for inhumane degradation by insisting that a loving person should not expect to be loved back when desiring love is a basic human need. J4J goes on to detail the many ways science and social conditioning account for the difficulties people like Kristin Houlgate face in developing healthy relationships.
Jeff 4 Justice explains that he appreciates the pro-LGBT work Scarcella does and reached out repeatedly to initiate a dialogue about "law of attraction / like attracts like" ideology but no reply was received.
Citations:
GirlfriendsTV vid
"HOW TO : ATTRACT LOVE."
http://youtu.be/...