Toxic Wellness
There’s a trend (ok, two shows in a row about spoiled people at expensive resorts) and as I watch television, and pretend to not take it so seriously, but in my mind I do, think about who these shows are for. They are, for the privileged people to reflect back and think Oh I’m not like THAT. (I include myself in this). But what are we really condemning- the ridiculous need to pay exorbitant amounts for pleasure, serenity, and relaxation? In The White Lotus, wealthy people use their wealth to move to another fabricated simulation to try to escape their regular wealth. In 9 Perfect Strangers, they pay a woman to be reborn, and be slightly better than they are.
What’s wrong with that? It equates money and materiality with betterment. That’s there’s something external that makes them better. Taking the onus off them. To be fixed is the ultimate privilege. People are awful because their circumstances have been evil. To be like Nicole Mossbercher, her’s devil’s bargain is that to be rich and support her family, she has to commodify her personality. For being beautiful, Rachel needs to give up any hope of being a writer. There’s no right choice, and even though we wish to be these people we’re still told that it is not enough.
These two shows are a nice pairing with the book I’m reading by John Glatt: Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan. The news made this out to be some spoiled elite who got mad at his father for cutting his weekly allowance by $200. This is false; he suffered from severe mental illness for more than half his life including schizoaffective disorder, paranoid psychosis. Everyone in his life, including his parents had so many chances to jump in and help, to show some care- his parents were not unfeeling, they just were hesitant to admit to themselves that something was wrong. Because he had the genetic luck to be incredibly good looking, his mental health was not taken seriously. Should we still be sympathetic to the rich, beautiful and wealthy? Absolutely, everyone, including Tommy Glatt, deserved the basic compassion to be cared for. When mental health is dismissed because of privilege, we all lose. Part of normalizing mental health treatment is recognizing that material and superficial aspects do not make it less of an impact.
I also must add that Francine Pascal’s ghostwriter was way ahead of the game when it came do dangerous wellness. In Murder in Paradise, a cult like figure had a mysterious health retreat with compliant staff, who orchestrated who came to her secluded paradise. Lianne Moriarty probably was inspired to create the Masha character. Turns out, the spa owner invited Alice Wakefield to steal her face. Literally. The whole Wakefield family is too beautiful that people get violent. It’s all full circle. Only hot people survive the spoils of wellness retreats.