My bullshit meter has been sitting in the red all day, and I need to bring it back to normal or I’m going to blow up, or something.
I went on a little rant on Twitter this morning, but the character limit didn’t allow me to fully get at my pet peeve.
My pet peeve is this: woo-woo rhetoric in the context of business advice for women.
It seems like everywhere I look, someone is selling an ebook, course or seminar on some or another topic that involves the words goddess, soulfulness, or spirituality. Or some variation or combination of words like that.
(Men, do you encounter this? I know the products I’m talking about here are aimed specifically at women because of the design they’re couched in and the gendered language, like goddess. I don’t think I’ve seen anything remotely flaky like this aimed at solo male creatives, but please school me if I’m wrong.)
Now, I’m unconcerned with anyone’s individual experience. It’s specifically the proliferation of teaching and advice materials that connect this woo-woo bullshit with running a successful business that gets me.
Why? Because business is not church, people. And in case you have this but forming, business is not yoga either.
Know what I’d like to see? Reality. A whole lot more reality. An embracing of reality. That we are a varied and diverse group of people that is motivated by any number of factors to blaze our own trails in making a living. That it can be hard and it can be beautiful, sometimes at the same time. But let’s not assume that because we’re women, we need to get all touchy feely and woo-woo about everything.
I want to see rhetoric that sells materials and services to creative businesspeople without elevating business to the divine. Because business is not divine. Business is business. Life is life. Reality is reality.
As human beings, we will seek and find greater meaning in an infinite variety of ways, and we’ll do that in our businesses regardless of what other people tell us, because our businesses are a huge part of our lives. So enough telling us. Enough subtly hinting that we need to get in touch with some inner whatever in order to thrive and shine and float above… what? real life?
Because seriously. Reality is just great, folks. It’s a good place to be. We all live here. Sometimes it sucks and sometimes it’s amazing and all the time it’s what we have, and it’s alright.
I want to feel capable and successful, don’t you? Do we need to be sold the snake oil of achieving goddess status to feel we’re worthy of all our basic desires?
I want to pursue work I find fulfilling and fun and that allows me to connect to other human beings. Why does someone have to imply that that’s somehow related to my soul?
I want to see words like satisfaction and profitable and meaningful.
In short, I’d like not to feel like I’m surrounded by flaky bullshit all the time.
There, I said it.
My usual place in the crafty/creative business landscape is on the fringes. I’m comfortable with that. I get that the sort of thing I’m complaining about here proliferates because it sells. People want it. And that’s fine.
But some of us don’t want it, and there’s very little else out there for us. And I’d like to know why.
So tell me, if you know. Please tell me. I need to let this go and get back to my everyday normal stuff. Which everyday normal, mortal, un-divine stuff forms the substance of my challenging, engaging, and utterly satisfying business life.
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