I don't find therapy all that useful.

This is true. Some people tend to dump everything on anyone who will listen, and it becomes exhausting for invested listeners.

👏

probably refers to the elimination of 'third places' a place besides home and work where people gather to socialize. About the only place left we can go without the expectation of spending money is a public library, and libraries are amazing but they're not always the best socializing spot. A major tenet of our capitalist system is separating us from things that are free and natural. If we isolate everyone in their own homes, or pods or what have you, then people can be charged for the services they use to connect to one another. Of course one may rebut that these services are usually free, to which I'd respond with the old adage "If it's free, you're the product and not the customer."

I don't mean it in a literal sense, it's just the best terminology I have so far to describe this constant expectation that an exchange of money has to occur for every interaction, and that the payee is expected to cater emotionally to the payer, often even to the extent of being abused, as is often seen in customer service.

Its expanded so far beyond costumer service though, to the extent that its even starting to invade sectors where safety should be the primary focus, like Healthcare and transit. Yeah they should be comfortable, but the bulk of the resources should really be going towards safety (a lot of safer things are more comfortable anyway, your body being abused isn't fun).

And now, like I said, it's even starting to invade people's personal lives, and people are starting to essentially pay to be emotionally validated, whether it's by a therapist or an onlyfans girl. I don't want to sound like a doomer but they're not gonna stop, its gotten too easy for everybody from restaurant franchises to betterhelp to take a monetary cut out of the dopamine you get from having a pleasant interaction with another human and as someone specializing in mental health I cannot describe to you how much that terrifies me.

Actually that's one of my top tips for choosing the best therapist when you do need one! It should feel a little like going to the gym; you should feel a little emotionally tired afterward for the most part. A good therapist will also be able to sense if you need to scale back for a week or two to recuperate though, but so would a good personal trainer, so the metaphor holds at least that far.

The difference between a therapist and a stripper as far as giving you their emotional support, is that if a therapist fucks up and you harm yourself, the therapist can lose their job. If the stripper fucks up and you harm yourself, the stripper can still strip.

Strippers don't have the accountability factors that therapists do.

The dialectal behavior therapy trained therapists I've had have walked that particular tightrope much more skilfully than others, fwiw. That's why I jumped on even just the weekend crash course I took.

Who tells you that?

I have not noticed this to be gendered. They skipped straight to telling me as a woman not to trauma dump, no one ever wanted to hear about my emotions to begin with.

As a kid who had no understanding or awareness of anything that challenged gender norms, I was confused about the mixed pronouns. Then I forgot about that song. Some twenty years later, this mystery was addressed. Thank you for the information.

Interesting, I never pictured the character in Android as a trans person, honestly what I had in mind was more of a mentally unwell, possibly unhoused, person that perhaps had no other choice but to wear woman's shies. Given, all of that in today's lens is very problematic, but the song is 33 years old after all and I didn't really have an understanding of trans people when I first heard it more than 20 years ago. Though I did pretty clearly understand the meaning of the line in basketcase.

Idk, maybe it's because I grew up with them and Billie Joe was a queer idol for me growing up, but king for a day never struck me as demeaning towards people who cross dress or people who are trans either. Just a (probably autobiographical) song about breaking gender norms.

I am almost as old as Android and probably my views are getting outdated so feel free to ignore my ramblings. Just interesting to see how the world has changed even from when I was little confused kid. (Now I'm a big confused kid)

It could also be that the prostitute is male and telling the singer to quit whining because their life is so boring that it's probably even bringing down their therapist.

I always thought the sung lyrics were "I went to a whore who said my life's a bore"

It all keeps adding up

Grasping to control, so you better hold on

No.