false feminism in the rochester community
Rochester, NY. Heart of the 585 and my hometown. Love it, hate it, say what you want about it, but Rochester has a place deep in my heart.
That being said, it's come to my attention recently that there's been a surge in the phenomenon of being a "girl boss." Stemming from the term coined by Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal and author of #Girlboss, it's gained some popularity along with her lifestyle brand and Netflix show of the same name. The Rochester community in particular has especially taken a liking to similar phrases like "girl gang" and "girl boss."
Aside from the fact that gender based nouns completely defeat the purpose of their original intent, phrases like these are bothersome and quite frankly annoying in that it proposes that in order to be any kind of boss, it needs to be hashtag girl boss in order to be considered successful. The notion that liberal feminism has preached this and nothing but rhetoric like this recently is uninspiring and discouraging. We are holding ourselves back as a society if we continue to ignore the actual problems faced by women today in the workplace such as tremendous wage inequality (which isn't 70 cents on the dollar if you're a woman of color, it's even worse), sexual harassment and assault, paid family leave, and continue to promote archaic ideas that should have been old news a long time ago like "Girls can be bosses too!" without working on the real problems to back it up. It seems that the "girl boss trend" is simply nothing more than that. A trend. One which will eventually die out if it isn't immediately transformed into something actually meaningful and productive. Having a perfect instagram feed isn't the pressing issue of our time that REAL girl bosses and bosses alike are thinking about. The emphasis on social responsibility within the girl boss crowd is extremely lacking and diminutive.
I've followed Roc Girl Gang on instagram for several months now. Every so often, I notice that they sometimes do events at cool local places like the Arbor Loft. These events, otherwise known as keyword "Becoming Boss" generally involve a group of local female business owners discussing different aspects of their working lives on a panel. In theory, it sounds like a positive idea and outlet for the Rochester community. I missed the first two, but I wanted to attend the upcoming event. It seemed interesting to me because as a fashion student with future career prospects beyond the Rochester community, I thought it would be a good idea to try and network with several local business owners and build connections. In the past their events have been $20 for admission and they usually run a few hours, given that their schedule works out accordingly. Their most recent event was just yesterday, June 24th, at Good Luck Restaurant as a three hour event. But now, this being their third event, something had changed. Their tickets were now $40 each, double the price of the original ticket. Confused, I commented on their instagram post to find out why they increased their price by so much.
No, I didn't think this was a great deal at all. By making the event exclusive to only those who could attend the brunch & mimosas before the panel, you are thereby excluding an entire group of people out of your demographic. What about underage college students who aren't 21 yet and don't feel like paying double the price for something they can't even enjoy? What about people who are tight on funds and don't necessarily want to pay $20 for even just the brunch with a group of strangers? There's no reason that they couldn't have had separate tickets set up to include everyone, or just made the brunch and mimosas an optional additional purchase to the attendees once they arrived. Logistically, it wouldn't be hard to organize at all. Brunch & mimosas is never an ultimatum choice when it comes to decision making in event planning.
Liberal feminism, white feminism, whatever name you want to attach to it, this is what this looks like in my community. Instead of expanding upon the attendees by advertising to local colleges like MCC, RIT, the University of Rochester or St. John Fisher, Roc Girl Gang decided to keep it exclusive and make sure that the only people coming to this event were the same people, or same TYPE or people, who came to the previous two. Instead of reaching out to local community groups that help benefit women, perhaps the ladies over at Coffee Connection, they decided to stick with the same group of primarily white 30-something year olds who are already successful and prominent in the Rochester community and can afford to spend $40 on a three hour brunch and discussion event.
Incentive wise, this event needs to expand and offer more to those in the community who could actually benefit from attending a networking event like this with local female business owners. What about the RCSD teenager who wants to start her own hair salon? Or the Greece high schooler who wants to become a professional makeup artist? I'm frankly underwhelmed by the amount of (or lack thereof) community involvement and responsiveness to issues that females in the Rochester community face when it comes to hindrances in entrepreneurship and in the workplace in general that Roc Girl Gang fails to demonstrate. Frankly, I'm disappointed in the leadership within my own community for failing to be more inclusive and opportunistic for a larger group of people.
I write this with good intentions, hoping that someone will listen to me and perhaps make some changes. Some possible positive solutions to fix Roc Girl Gang (which has a LOT of potential to be much more than it is) could be to expand to a wider demographic of people. Go to local high schools and colleges with the prospects of running a similar event/workshop regarding entrepreneurship. Be MENTORS. Expand what you offer. Your line of thinking shouldn't be limited to the same group of people for each event. Promote yourself and your brand to become a community-based girl gang, not a "already successful, now let's drink and chat about it" girl gang. Because really, I would LOVE to support my local girl gang.
