{"id":15009,"date":"2022-03-24T09:51:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T14:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=15009"},"modified":"2022-03-24T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T20:26:08","slug":"women-empowering-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/women-empowering-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"Your women empowerment phrases are not authentic, get it together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pinkwashing. Noun. The practice of cynically plopping of a pastel shade, a string of lace, or a little glitter on absolute Grade-C bull$#!+, and using it to pry open the wallets of women.<\/p>\n

Now I know what you\u2019re all thinking. I\u2019m too Deep \u2122 to enjoy a little fun flashiness or high-femme shenanigans, so I\u2019m invested in raining on your parade, but I assure you this next truth bomb is coming from my heart, not my massive superiority complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirl Boss, Fempire, Boss Babe\u201d and more are all empty ass phrases designed to separate us she-beasts from our money, our time, and our sanity as business owners.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not against a bumper sticker or enamel pin here and there, don\u2019t get me wrong. If you think for a second I wouldn\u2019t own a shirt that says \u2018Boss Bat\u2019, and wear it to literally every business-type meetup under a blazer, you\u2019re just mistaken.<\/p>\n

BUT, I\u2019m not here to rant about trinkets and tees this time. That\u2019s the icing.<\/p>\n

The moldy, thumbtack-filled cake we\u2019re slicing up here is about the deeper issue of a toxic \u2018hustle culture\u2019<\/a> being marketed to women, and how insidious it can be for those of us who have to push back not just against the competition, but the idiotic stereotypes about our gender.<\/p>\n

As difficult as it can be for even the straightest, whitest of men to start a business without also being rich, the fact that women still need to prove ourselves in a man\u2019s world is an added hardship.<\/p>\n

And now that people have realized there\u2019s money to be made exploiting the railing against that hardship, the same dangerous crap being marketed to business owners has now taken on the mask of feminine solidarity.<\/p>\n

\u2018Babes, it\u2019s SUPPOSED to be this hard, stay up the extra 48 hrs and slap on a sheet mask, you\u2019re building your fempire\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hey, chica, you can\u2019t let the boys see you slip! Get that mani-pedi while you reschedule your pap smear around your conference calls for the 15th time!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Sis, the only source of light you\u2019ve seen in the last month being your computer screen reduced your fine lines and wrinkles! You GLOW girl!\u2019<\/p>\n

This is a gaping, gangrenous wound, and a cute lil hashtag-bandaid isn\u2019t going to help matters.<\/p>\n

We are literally breaking, bankrupting and KILLING OURSELVES for this ideal.<\/p>\n

Know why selling Scentsy is so difficult? It\u2019s not because you\u2019re on your \u2018lady-grind\u2019, it\u2019s because it\u2019s a damn pyramid scheme<\/a>, and you\u2019re not supposed to do well at it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s girl power to study by the lights in your car so you can pay for that \u201cempowering (prerecorded) womens\u2019 webinar\u2019 in the first place right? Dude…no.<\/p>\n

Now look.<\/p>\n

I recognize that it\u2019s important to make a big deal out of hardworking, successful women, because we\u2019re still, some-crazy-how, not expected to be successes in the first place. It\u2019s not just tempting to stand tall with your feet on the bloody backs of whatever you\u2019ve conquered and scream \u2018The best revenge is my paper and your DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM\u2019, it\u2019s necessary.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve not only got the onus on us to make it happen against the odds as A: An entrepreneur, B: A woman, and C: Any other marginalization \u201cpoints\u201d you might have, there\u2019s the added responsibility of not being allowed to be quiet about how well we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Dangit, someone has to pass the torch. Someone has to be the name little girls pick when they\u2019re asked to name a recent example of a \u201csmall-brained femoid\u201d kicking entrepreneurial ass. Someone has to support other gals on their come-up, and take the publication photos, and give the Big Sisters – Little Sisters benefit banquet keynote speech, right?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all very true! The spotlight can\u2019t be abdicated frivolously, though I maintain that we\u2019re ALL due for a vacation.<\/p>\n

But we women have to also recognize the difference between being catered to and being sold to.<\/p>\n

Having the same fast-fashion, peely-print t-shirt as a whole half the planet sucks anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(EDITORIAL) Who\u2019s the Girl Boss? If you have to ask, it isn\u2019t you…and if you have to answer, it\u2019s not you either. False empowerment for women hurts too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337716,"featured_media":15010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[253,1234,1109],"class_list":["post-15009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-editorial","tag-real-estate-news","tag-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/01\/woman-wearing-white-t-shirt-and-blue-denim-bottoms-1564149-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18536,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions\/18536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}