Word choice that irritates me: Sell yourself
Warning: This essay is likely to be a short, somewhat rant-like
reflection. Some of you will also find it to be politically
correct [1] mumbo jumbo
. I don’t really care.
It’s the time of year that students are thinking about jobs and
internships [2]. And, as students prepare résumés and
cover letters or get ready for interviews they say things like I need
to sell myself.
I absolutely, positively, hate that phrase.
Let’s consider some reasons why.
The term sell
is normally reserved for physical objects. Using it for
human beings (even ourselves) means that we’re just treating ourselves
like merchandise. In an increasingly corporate world, in which humans
are often treated as little more than disposable cogs [3], we need to
resist any attempt to depersonalize persons.
Worse yet, our country has a shameful history that involves the sale
of people. Any phrases that harkens back to that history should be
treated as embarrassing and awful, and not as just something we say
.
For women (and for men) the term sell
potentially has other connotations.
It’s a small step from self yourself
to sell your body
and all that
implies [4,5].
Why do we use the phrase, with its acceptance of a corporate, material culture, and its echoes of slavery and prostitution? I have no clue. It’s probably just one of those things that almost no one thinks about. But that doesn’t make it okay.
So, dear reader, I ask that the next time you hear someone use the phrase
sell yourself
, please ask that person to consider just what they are
saying. You might also encourage them to consider alternative phrases:
promote yourself
(still a little market oriented), help others
discover your value
(long; value
also feels a bit market oriented),
show your strengths
, or some better phrase than I can elicit from
my befuddled brain.
Strangely enough, no particular event motivated this essay. It has just been on my list of things I want to write about, and it felt like the right thing to write tonight.
[1] politically correct. adj. slang. Understanding that words carry weight and can therefore cause harm.
[2] These days, it feels like it is always the time of year that students are thinking about jobs and internships.
[3] Unfortunately corporate world
and disposable cogs
are on my
mind right now because of how I’m seeing my institution treat some
people. I wish I knew what I could do about it.
[4] I realize that there are sex-positive theories that suggest that prostitution can be a positive choice for some people, and that we should not judge. But way too much of the sex trade is neither voluntary, nor empowering, nor sex positive.
[5] I did a quick Google search of Sell Yourself
,
and one of the firs things to come up was an article at
Forbes
that includes the sentence I’ve spent a fair amount of my career
hanging around pimps, prostitutes, and porn stars, and, boy, do they
know how to sell themselves.
Original version 2016-10-08.
Version 1.0.1 of 2017-05-28.