While reading Sarah Ahmed’s introduction to A Willfulness Archive, I realized that my own understanding of the notion of will was quite elementary since I was inclined to think that will, willfulness and willpower were synonymousThe introduction to Sarah Ahmed’s A Willfulness Archive enabled me to have a deeper reflection on will and related concepts by clearly explaining how will, willfulness and willpower are interlinked notions with some common features, but not in fact identical notions.

I was particularly interested in her analysis of the contemporary usage of these words. Indeed, she suggests that in contemporary culture “will is transformed into willpower,” that is into something that a responsible and moral subject must develop and strengthen.. By shedding light on the transformation of the notion of will into that of willpower, Sarah Ahmed shows that on top of having simplified the complex philosophical understanding of the concept, contemporary culture has shaped a more naive approach to it. We now commonly consider will to be an equivalent of mental strength, something within one’s control, which one has to cultivate so as to achieve one’s goals.

I believe this conception of will as an extendable capacity that empowers, that enables one to go beyond one’s own limits has been greatly fueled by advertising. For instance, the sports brand Asics clearly exploits this notion of will in its ads, portraying it as a mental strength that allows one to accomplish ever more. Significantly, the main slogan of its last winter collection was “I want it more”. In the background of the ad, we can see the blurred face of a woman: her eyes are wide open and she is looking straight ahead, which suggests an unflinching determination. The woman extends her arms towards the camera, thereby foregrounding her wounded hands, which are covered with dirt and band-aids. This depicts her relentless drive to train, in spite of the physical pain it causes her. Her gesture also makes her appear to be “pushing forward” and the ad correspondingly reads “WANT IT MORE” in big, white capital letters. The image and the motto thus suggest that the woman’s will is limitless and that will is not so tied to reason or judgment (it’s not exactly rational or reasonable to injure one’s body to supposedly improve its capacities!), but chiefly to the desire to surpass oneself and reach excellence. The ad uses this understanding of will in order to sell a product: in particular, it suggests that thanks to Asics’ items, people can step up their training efforts and, by doing so, achieve ever-greater performances.

However optimistic these sorts of “empowering” ads might appear, their implications should be questioned, as they seem to be socially and politically suspect. First, I am personally inclined to think that even if mental volition can play a great part in one’s achievements, we do have physical and psychological limits that we cannot, and perhaps should not, exceed if we wish to preserve our physical and/or mental health. After all, why should we tire or hurt ourselves to always do more, better, faster? For instance, why should we work more to earn some extra money that we don’t necessarily need? Why should we take the risk to injure ourselves to run a few extra kilometers? Why should we put our health or happiness at risk to lose a few more pounds? What are the possible repercussions of this culture of “wanting more”? What is the cost of this culture of performance we live in and the constant glorification of effort or even pain the media convey? Isn’t it time to rehabilitate the values and, paradoxically, the productivity of idleness and leisure time (in terms of what it gives room to: love, friendship, thinking, etc.)? When we work harder or exercise more to become better (than others?), do we still have time to think, to love, to be social? Isn’t this fostering a culture not of surpassing oneself, but of surpassing others, of distinguishing oneself, that brings about a competitive society in which it is then harder to see others as anything other than potential rivals? It seems to me that this “capitalistic understanding” of will worsens individualism and competition instead of social bonds and solidarity.

Work Cited

Ahmed Sara, A Willfulness Archive Willful Subjects  first ed.