The Downfall of the "GIRL BOSS"...

do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth i do i'm excited to tell you about my new book girlbox girl boss welcome to the girlboss community you can go into engineering you can go into science success isn't just up and to the right what is it about me that made you think i want to be relatable where girls come just to be girls and feel good about that girl power gaslight gate keep girl boss the girl boss otherwise known as the boss babe has become a term that has seemingly spiraled out of control you can find the term girl boss plastered all over billboards magazines and t-shirts the term girl boss is proudly used by ceos and mlm reps alike but what does it mean in this video we're diving into the rise and fall of the girl boss and how it may have influenced pop culture in a pretty negative way but first before we get into that if you like this type of content don't forget to subscribe and give this video a thumbs up and let's get into it [Music] the term girlboss was first brought into the public eye in 2014. the term was used in popular books written by women ceos like hashtag girlboss by sophia omorusso founder of nastygal and lean in by cheryl sandberg ceo of facebook cheryl sandberg argued in her book lean in that more women gaining power in the workplace and becoming executives would help create more equality and thus the girl boss was born after the success of hashtag girl boss amoruso went on to launch a girl boss media company with networking conferences branded merchandise and a netflix series geez that's a lot of stuff going on i wonder what happened to her original company nastygal [Music] oh oh [Music] oh oh the problem is women executives can be just as exploitative as male executives surprise surprise equality we all aren't that different after all we all are equally terrible and the reality is girl boss is just hustle culture repackaged and resold to women hustle culture is yet another primarily millennial toxic ideology that if you relentlessly work or grind and also relentlessly post on social media about your hashtag hustle grind that you are indeed the superior millennial i personally think there's many flavors of hustle culture from my favorite and that which i have the most experience with there's the startup hustle culture that features eccentric startup founders bragging about how much they work and encouraging their employees to work 12 plus hours a day if you go into any wework you'll see plenty of hustle culture memorabilia there's also the frat bro or stockbro hustle culture that emphasizes obtaining material goods is a little too inspired by wolf of wall street and random rise and grind instagram accounts and from personal experience i found most of these dudes post about hustling more than they actually hustle in fact i don't think they've had to actually hustle a day in their life but maybe that's just me then there's the girl boss culture which is like any other capitalist girl thing all about materialism surrounding yourself with books and podcasts and buying from girl boss companies and monetarily supporting all girl boss things but more on that later much of the narrative surrounding girl boss is to work hard and hustle and make something of yourself and build a career be the girl boss do the work but we've also seen over time examples of girl boss being used in a very toxic way like within mlms who use the term to justify reps pouring thousands and thousands into products and not making much of a profit yeah you may be losing money but you're a girl boss right you're making something of yourself you're building a company you're building something of value here be a girl boss empower yourself the whole term girl boss is basically telling women that your value is based off of how successful of a career you can have be a girl boss don't just be a girl also the original girl boss narrative that was created this idea that if more women were in power there would be more equality which would lead to workers being treated better and more workers being treated with more equality that whole narrative turned out to not be true at all because believe it or not surprisingly women are people and just like anyone who is a human being women can be influenced by power by greed and other privileges and incentives of being in power and wanting to hold on to that power which can lead anyone down a path of being exploitative [Music] so let's talk about the many influential women who have collectively made up the concept of girl boss first on the list sophia amoruso amoruso founded nastygal a women's fashion retailer that went on to be named one of the fastest growing companies by ink magazine in 2012. sophia in just a few years you've created nasty out and it's something of a phenomenon you guys have got 128 million in revenue this year more or less and a hugely profitable company how did this all start so i started an ebay store in late 2006. so you started this company started nasty gals and ebay store 10 years ago years ago 10 in november it's been 10. that's incredible growth in 10 years it's a lot but like you know you start when you're 22 you can only hope you grow a whole lot between 22 and 32. when i started nasty gal i was 22 years old i started an ebay store i didn't have an education i didn't have alumni of any kind i had no idea i was even starting a business and then i wound up with the title ceo and it exploded in 2016 sophia was named one of the richest self-made women in the world by forbes sophia published a book titled hashtag girlboss which really coined the phrase girlboss and the book was so successful that netflix ended up adapting the book into a series which was cancelled after one season critics saying it was a call to millennial narcissists but the rise and success of sophia emma russo did not last very long on january 12th of 2015 amoruso stepped down as ceo of nastygal due to leadership problems and in november of 2016 the company filed chapter 11 bankruptcy with amoruso resigning as executive chairwoman by early 2016 sophia earned a spot as one of forbes richest self-made women then just a few months later her company collapsed after one too many mistakes the reason for the bankruptcy is seemingly leadership changes a toxic work culture and poor communication much of amaruso's fortune left along with the bankruptcy of nasty gal in december of 2017 amoruso went on to found girl boss media a company aimed at creating girl boss content videos and podcasts sophia also created girl boss rallies which were week and long instructional events for young entrepreneurs that ranged from 500 to 1400 girl boss started with the book five years ago girl boss today is creating a platform for women to do just that where even if they're not entrepreneurs they're entrepreneurial and they can share not just what they do but who they are in a world we're not linked in monday through friday and instagram saturday and sunday we're so much more than right exactly then in october of 2020 emma russo also stepped down once again as ceo this time from girl boss media company citing the pandemic and declining revenue as the reason she stepped away the many failures of amoruso proves a maybe sophia wasn't the best ceo even though she coined the term girl boss she may have not been the best boss but the many failures of sophia amoruso also makes me sad because i was rooting for you we were all rooting for you another prominent girl boss figure is cheryl sandberg the ceo of facebook she joined facebook at a time that facebook was trying to become profitable and she was largely successful at her job and became well known and respected for her accomplishments at facebook this led to the release of her first book lean in women work and the will to lead published on march 11th of 2013. the book concerns business leadership and development issues with the lack of women in government and business leadership positions and feminism women are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world the numbers tell the story quite clearly 190 heads of state nine are women of all the people in parliaments in the world 13 are women in the corporate sector women at the top c-level jobs board seats tops out at 15 16 the numbers have not moved since 2002 and are going in the wrong direction i came out of college over 20 years ago and i thought that you know look all of my peers were men and women all the people above me were all men but that would change because your generation had done such an amazing job fighting for equality equality was now ours for the taking and it wasn't because year after year i was one of fewer and fewer and now often the only woman in a room lenin is intended for professional women to help them achieve their career goals and for men who want to contribute to a more equitable society the ultimate goal is to encourage women to lean into positions of leadership because she believes that by having more female voices in positions of power there will be more equitable opportunities created for everyone how do we change these numbers at the top how do we make this different i want to start out by saying i talk about this about keeping women in the workforce because i really think that's the answer in the high income part of our workforce and the people who end up at the top fortune 500 ceo jobs or the equivalent in other industries the problem i am convinced is that women are dropping out criticisms of the book include claims that sandberg is too elitist and another that she is tone deaf to the struggles faced by the average woman in the workplace for example the book has been criticized for overlooking the struggles of mothers who may not be able to lean in sandberg was also largely behind the movement to ban the word bossy in march of 2014 sandberg and lean inn sponsored the ban bossy campaign a television and social media campaign designed to discourage the word bossy from general use due to its perceived harmful effect on young girls there was also a website providing school training material leadership tips and an online pledge form to which visitors can promise not to use the word but samberg did get some criticism the new york times published a report in 2018 detailing sandberg's role in handling facebook's public relations after revelations of russian interference there are implications that facebook operated almost like a mob um one of the lawsuits says that mark zuckerberg had the philosophy of it is better to buy than compete facebook.whatsapp and instagram and the power grab is that the philosophy there did he say it it's better to buy than compete well let me start just quickly by saying thank you tamron for having me on the show we have talked about this for a long time and i've been a fan for a long time i've loved the success of your show and i love that you have a female team behind you not just you thank you but your executive producer it really matters to me um so these are serious lawsuits and i understand that there is real concern about the size and the power of the tech companies but i think it's really hard to make the argument that we don't compete and compete hard for your time and attention according to the wall street journal during a meeting mark zuckerberg blamed sandberg personally for the outcome of the cambridge analytica scandal and the way that cheryl sandberg handled the whole cambridge analytica scandal was kind of shying away not leaning in or being upfront and forthcoming about what was going on next on the girlboss list is elizabeth holmes elizabeth holmes was the founder and ceo of theranos a now defunct health technology company elizabeth and the company claimed to have revolutionized blood testing technology by developing testing methods that could use surprisingly small volumes of blood like a finger prick this ceo is out for blood company is valued at over nine billion dollars you've got over 500 employees i think um 700 700 now okay can you tell us who you are and what you do what your company does sure yeah over the last 11 years we've reinvented the traditional laboratory infrastructure by 2015 forbes had named holmes as the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in america on the basis of a 9 billion valuation of her company but soon after the company was exposed for being a total fraud and lying about the technology they claimed to have defrauding people and putting people in extreme danger by claiming to have accurate blood testing results when their technology was not accurate holmes has been arrested and charged with massive fraud lately one of the most exciting privately held companies in silicon valley has come under fire i'm talking about thorough notes just this morning the wall street journal ran a pretty scathing article about the company alleging that the company's proprietary testing devices may be inaccurate and basically accusing theranose of deceptive practices thank you elizabeth i have to tell you in all my years i can't recall a private company that i have to candidly many have never heard of getting this kind of attention and scrutiny what do you think is going on here this is what happens when you work to change things and first they think you're crazy then they fight you and then all of a sudden you change the world elizabeth holmes once silicon valley's fastest rising star is now under the harsh glare of a very different kind of spotlight as well as please raise your right hand she's finally forced to answer to the securities and exchange commission as she's investigated for an alleged elaborate years-long fraud do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do elizabeth holmes was lifted up by so many influential people as a woman to be admired in the tech industry i believe people want to stand on their own two feet i think they want to be empowered and um and that's one of the reasons i've been so impressed by your dog determination not only to cut the cost and increase the quality of leftists but to give people who give the blood the result of their test absolutely you can go into engineering you can go into science and you can be successful and you can build a family and we should be doing this so having women involved with this company and building this company and leading this company because of who they are especially in the engineering and science space i mean i was the only woman in chemical engineering at stanford and in the electrical engineering program that i was at at stanford and that must change but her entire career was founded on a complete lie elizabeth holmes might be facing up to 20 years in prison but she sure looks happy prancing around san francisco hi elizabeth i'm lisa guerrero with inside edition we'd like to know if you had an opportunity to watch the documentary about you elizabeth a lot of young women looked up to you especially in tech what would you have to say to those young women next girl boss leandra medine i knew that i wanted to build a brand that would both outlive me and carry a title that allowed people to feel like they were members of this like sort of indie sisterhood leandra medin cohen is an american author blogger and humor writer best known for man repeller an independent fashion and lifestyle website so i launched man repeller in 2011 when i was a junior in college and it started as a site about trends that women love and men hate was supposed to be a call to action for us as women to celebrate what we want to wear the blog man repeller became widely successful and leandra was lifted up as a girl boss of sorts and a voice for the millennial girl boss as i've continued working on the site the sort of ideology has become very fine-tuned and finessed and i've been saying that it's a humorous website about serious fashion i said about trends that women love and men hate but i also very much want it to be this sort of discussion border community where girls come just to be girls and feel good about that and that's it that's valuable i'm just kidding i'm just kidding even launched mr by man repeller a line of loafers flats metallic booties and heels and it seemed that man repeller really became an overall brand that is until medine announced in june of 2020 that she would step back her involvement in man repeller after allegations emerged that she had failed former staffers of color in september 2020 the site was rebranded to repeller and medin is still listed as the founder on the contributor page but on october 22nd cohen confirmed that rappeller would be shutting down due to financial constraints and last girl boss that i'll talk about today is danielle bernstein danielle bernstein is an american fashion designer and the founder of the fashion blog and brand we wear what my name is danielle bernstein and i'm the founder of we wore white blogging as a whole has completely disrupted traditional media and advertising itself we have given brands a completely new outlet to reach a very specific audience that they maybe wouldn't have reached otherwise sitting front row in your fashion race and self-disruptive she has collaborated with numerous fashion brands and has launched her own fashion lines at the age of 24 danielle was placed on the forbes 30 under 30 list danielle bernstein has nearly 1.8 million instagram followers at 25 years old she's already made forbes 30 under 30 list her brand we wore what includes a blog a podcast a youtube channel brand collaborations and her own clothing line earning her upward of seven figures a year in march of 2020 bernstein also launched a namesake brand exclusively at macy's called danielle bernstein in may of 2020 bernstein published an autobiography called this is not a fashion story taking chances breaking rules and being a boss in the big city very gaslight gatekeep girl boss the book appeared on the new york times best sellers list and was featured on the business list however the new york times has since placed a dagger symbol alongside the book indicating its listing includes suspicious bulk purchases but then danielle bernstein was exposed for copying other designers designs in 2018 bernstein received attention for copying the designs of various jewelry brands when she launched a series of products with nordstrom berdstein subsequently apologized in a tear-filled instagram post and withdrew the copied pieces from the collection hi guys i hope you read my last slide everything i said in it was sincere and real and everything i do is of my followers best interest in mine and that won't change happy sunday i just want to let everyone know and remind you guys of the inspiration behind this entire collection is this my grandfather was poppy lockett and passed away a year ago and then i created this so that you guys could hold your loved ones close to your heart and i hope that you guys will support this collaboration in 2020 bernstein announced a design for a cloth face mask with a chain fashion watchdog group diet prada an instagram account dedicated to highlighting instances of design copying observed the mask was nearly identical to a patent-pending model created by a latino brand called second wing bernstein had earlier requested free samples from the company bernstein denied that she had copied the design from second wind days later bernstein posted an instagram photo of herself wearing what she claimed were a vintage pair of gym shorts writing the caption that she would be remaking the shorts to sell the shorts were actually from an etsy shop run by an australian brand art garments after the etsy seller published a receipt showing bernstein had purchased the shorts from their store bernstein edited the caption to read correction these are from etsy and i totally thought they were vintage but they are made to order someone on my team ordered them for me a while back and i will not be making them so blaming the team in august of 2020 a brooklyn lingerie store alleged that bernstein had copied their signature design which they used on tissue packaging and used it on swimwear as print wallpaper bernstein has also been known to supposedly bully a poshmark seller who was selling swimwear that ended up being an unpublished collection from bernstein's collaboration with onia and overall she's kind of been exposed as a shady person in the fashion industry who paraded and uplifted herself as a girl boss when in reality she was copying so many other people and their designs and basically putting smaller companies down and smaller sellers and businesses the blaming the team part of danielle bernstein also reminds me a lot of rachel hollis another supposed girl boss and motivational speaker that i did a whole dedicated video on so i won't go too much into her career but lately she's received a lot of flack for basically being like i'm a girl boss who's unrelatable and i want to be privileged and unrelatable i mentioned that there's a sweet woman who comes to my house twice a week and cleans she's my my house cleaner she cleans the toilets someone commented and said you are privileged af and i was like you're right i'm super freaking privileged but also i worked my ass off to have the money to have someone come twice a week and clean my toilets and i told her that and then she said well you're unrelatable what is it about me that made you think i want to be relatable so so many of these prominent women who had branded themselves as girl bosses making major changes in major industries ended up falling right into the status quo exploiting people not creating safe and equal workplaces and even going to the point of lying stealing and ripping people off but alas the term girl boss picked up traction initially but this revolutionary idea that more women should be in power or hold executive positions in the workplace because you know men in the workplace are always referred to as boy bosses so it just makes sense but very soon after this phrase began to gain traction using the term girl boss became a strategic way to promote your business buy from my company because i'm a cool millennial and chic girl boss support a girl boss company because a girl boss company will probably treat workers better girl boss branding all of a sudden became synonymous with a more ethical company or a more empowered company which is just interesting in itself and a lot of companies strategically branded themselves as the girl boss clothing company the girl boss media company to tap into the millennial women niche and grow their business off of that demographic not only were you empowering girl bosses through buying from their company but you felt more empowered as a customer too because if they could do it why couldn't you and it was that inspirational message that so many women resonated with and why so many people chose to buy from a girl boss company statistics show that millennials are far more interested in ethical businesses and buying ethically than their predecessors we've seen companies rise up that are way more focused on ethics or that are focused on supporting small businesses like etsy rise to the forefront with the millennial purchase millennials care much more than other generations about their dollar counting towards something meaningful that could possibly help society but unfortunately that has been exploited that entire value has been exploited by companies who parade themselves as being ethical who practice greenwashing or even practice pseudoscience in pretending to be the more natural healthier options in order to get the millennial dollar the girl boss rhetoric was used in a similar way to get purchasing power from millennials by convincing millennials that this girl boss company would somehow be a more ethical company and um yeah that worked out the more you look into the girl boss phrase and who has historically used the term girl boss it becomes glaringly obvious that girl boss was never a very inclusive phrase and seemed to be reserved solely for cis white women all of the girl bosses are white women marketing the girl boss concept to more white women for example two former employees of refinery29 told cnn businesses carrie flynn that girlboss barbridge of refinery29 would reject photos of black or plus-sized models deeming them off-brand and this is something barbridge basically admitted to cnn telling cnn that the brand's shortcomings came at the detriment of black women and women of color in particular okay then fix it maybe if you're already aware of this shortcoming another girl boss founder of the company man repeller issued an instagram apology on the lack of diversity in her company so this whole inclusion girl boss empowerment thing how's that working out another girl boss ceo of band doe was investigated by buzzfeed to foster a racist mean girls environment in the company so wow surprise surprise the inclusion of one woman at the top of a company does not mean the inclusion for all the wing you guessed it another girl boss company was exposed by the new york times for their low pay poor treatment and racism at the company [Music] the wing is part co-working part social club park community space exclusively designed for women this is the wing part pseudo sorority part co-working space part instagram fever dream articles recounting stories of racism low wages and the failed promise of a feminist workplace began popping up left and right at the start of this year one particular instagram account at flew the coop is gathering stories of former space staff who were mistreated and underpaid during their employment at the wing with a non-disclosure agreement in place this account gives former employees a platform to speak about their experiences with anonymity these employees were sold on the same feminist utopia as the one you saw me enjoying earlier but instead of the opportunities they were promised they were just taken advantage of even reformation a brand i used to love but could never afford basically the cool girl clothing brand was exposed by former employees for a racist culture that pushed out black employees what the heck it blows my mind that these ceos who are basically like were girl bosses were helping to get more women in power can basically push aside everyone else who doesn't fit their very specific mold of what a girl boss is and be like we're gonna empower you guys but not you though not you and it just goes to show that this entire concept of the girl boss is a fake facade meant for people to parade around and hashtag in a performative way but not for any real systemic change to be made besides a few women ceos these company practices got so bad that by mid-2020 eight female founders had to step down from companies they were leading because of these issues literally what the fuck but as this corporate girl boss facade was beginning to show cracks the phrase was simultaneously taking off and soon after more and more brands got a hold of it and realized the potential it yields and the term girlboss was even further commodified by influencers and instagram brands that all wanted to sell you the idea of women empowerment not the real thing just the idea of it it was like this trickle-down effect like a pyramid of sorts where at the top you had women ceos who kind of coined the phrase girl boss and used it to sell books and build media companies then you had companies built by women parading the term girl boss as a way to brand themselves then after that you had influencers using the term girl boss and instagram brands and then at the very bottom bottom of this pyramid you had pyramid schemes using the term girl boss and that's when things really hit rock bottom if you will mlms and mlm reps have notoriously adopted the term hashtag girlboss as a way to brand their mlm companies as for women because women are targeted by a lot of mlm companies for recruitment even though we know most people and mlms lose money by adopting the hashtag girlboss or hashtag bossbabe these companies could basically convince mlm reps you are indeed a boss babe you are indeed empowering yourself through purchasing our starter kit and cold messaging people on social media i personally feel like the girl boss rhetoric has helped the mlm industry exponentially because it has basically allowed mlms to convince their reps that they are empowering themselves through involving themselves in a network marketing company their whole team or upline or downline is filled with mostly women so we're all a girl team we're all boss babes empowering one another they're told to target and recruit more women depending on what a mlm it is but a lot of mlm companies like unique doterra monet all target majority women so by using the term boss babe you feel like you're empowering other women too through recruiting them at this point boss babe was not only commodified but turned into an exploitative phrase as a way to exploit women's desires to feel empowered and successful for the benefit of the companies that they're buying into but additionally this rock bottom began a new wave of what i would probably call girl boss cringe which even the phrase cringe itself i feel like is silly to use because who am i to say what's cringey and what's not cringy if you're doing something in your life that's making you happy go for it post about it all that but why i would call this era of girl boss the mlm rep era of girl boss girl boss cringe is because so many mlm reps begin posting on social media using the hashtag girlboss or boss babe basically taking the phrase and not actually attributing any further or deeper meaning to it besides look at this flashy life that i'm living look at this girl boss life look at my girl boss team look at my girl boss trips look at my girl boss car and all of a sudden girlboss became completely intertwined with materialism so here are some posts of what i would personally call girl boss cringe better together what do flight attendants chiropractors financial analysts bloggers career women influencers virtual assistants stay-at-home moms and hair stylists have in common they're all working this business with me this community is unreal with its support and encouragement if you're thinking your current friends are talking about you as soon as you leave the table well then girlfriend it's time for a new table and you can sit with us today's forecast 100 chance of winning as i close out my sixth month in this business i've looked back at where i started and i'm amazed at what this business has given me in such a short time i've gained more confidence in myself i'm better at time management and prioritizing than i've ever been i've built so many new relationships and found the most supportive and inspiring group of women yes we sell shampoo but we also help people regain confidence in themselves and impact people's lives i know it's hard to understand or believe in something you've never tried so you just have to trust me we are in the business of gratitude and i'm filled with that every day because of this opportunity hi beautiful souls let me tell you a little bit about my story yada yada yada blah blah blah i'm a boss babe mo money mo money with having a side business i don't feel guilty taking those random shopping days i get paid every friday on the 15th i get a bonus check that's five times i'm getting paid a month on a job that i enjoy and have fun doing it do you need extra cash do you need a community of women behind you ask me how to join my team i'm here to answer questions you may have ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow on friday i found out our team is currently ranked number 52 out of 450 000 other teams in our company if you've been on the fence considering joining our team and starting your own online coaching business i'd love to help you get started click the link in my bio interested in coaching and fill out the form this could be the thing that completely changes your life for the better like it has for me and so many other incredible people it's social media posts that basically overly play into the girl boss persona and the repercussion of this is that girl boss pretty soon after although it was already on its way out just lost all meaning now the term girl boss is basically meaningless and an internet meme and a joke now people make fun of women who call themselves girl bosses even if the movement started out from a positive intention at this point it's been so overly commodified and it's been made into this materialistic and performative hashtag there's a train in the background sorry if you can hear it so soon after the wave of girl boss cringe the hashtag girlbosstrend began to die down so what is the girl boss movement really the girl boss movement is woke capitalism there was nothing more meaningful and deeper about the movement there was no true focus on change it was all kind of just performative feminism about taking an individualistic approach to achieving some sort of monetary success and i also have to point out the term girl boss girl boss was used for ceos isn't that a little demeaning are we not like a little sketched out by that same thing with boss babe i don't think it's that much better how many men call themselves boss bros in fact i would love to see that actually the boss bro so the end of girl bosses is actually a pretty good thing and let's hope in the future women can be bosses without having to put the label girl in front of it and that's all i have to say on the evolution of the girl boss and the rise and fall of the boss babe trend if you enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and give this video a like and if you made it this far in the video comment gaslight gatekeep girl boss to confuse a lot of people who haven't made it this far and i will catch you in the next video bye [Music] [Music] foreign you

Channel: Cruel World Happy Mind

Views: 792,052

Keywords: antimlm, anti mlm, multi level marketing, boss babe, girl boss, girlboss, bossbabe, cringe, deep dive, analysis, video essay, network marketing, pyramid scheme, scam, hustle culture, r/antimlm, sophia amoruso, nasty gal, feminism, women supporting women, the wing, girl boss feminism, elizabeth holmes, theranos, rachel hollis, danielle bernstein, we wore what, refinery29, man repeller, reformation, exposed, tea, cruel world happy mind, madison harnish

Id: lqUvKXTc_tc

Length: 36min 49sec (2209 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021