Over the last few digital drops of my entries here on the B4G Blog, I have gotten the feedback that I "sure do curse a lot!" That I "make great points but do I need to drop the f-bomb so much?" And my very favorite, and I quote, "You are so pretty. Ladies like you do not swear!"
Being the salacious sinner that I am, I thought: Well, f*ck. Should I bat my lashes and shrug it off? Or should I sharpen my digital pencil and add another entry to this chapter of women thought leaders? I bet you can guess which direction I am heading.
Personally, I think there are much bigger fish to fry with the current state of the world than tending to whose potty mouth is most offensive. In fact, I would say with current events going as they are, my sailor ways of eloquence should be the least of anyone's worries.
Money, Sex and Politics
The mission of Business 4 Good, the reason I went from selling gum under a bunk bed to building a global marketplace, is to have clever conversations about money, sex and politics amongst women thought leaders and business activists so that we can better engage equally in the world around us. And on occasion, I find it helpful to use explicits when digging into these taboo subjects. I do not always take my inspiration from foul-mouthed mavens, but when I do, I channel my inner Mae West, delivering a classy, graceful and funny zest to my point. At least I think that is how it lands.
So let me get super clear on how Business 4 Good approaches these topics:
Money
Elevating women's access by identifying where we can find more resources for our individual and shared impact through business, education and community support. Community is the oldest currency in the books. We lean into that in our conversations and our activations. We talk about access to money: where and how we can get the green in more accessible ways and getting off the hamster wheel of toxic capitalism. This is political.
Sex
Collaborating with our own anatomy, finding accessible health care and even participating in safe and consensual conversations about the actual act of sex. Many women, myself included, have not been taught about our own bodies in honest and biological ways. I wrote a whole piece about un-f*cking the algorithms using your period because that is how deep this goes. Having open and informative conversations about access to sex as an educational topic, as an inherent right, may actually incline many of us to advocate for ourselves. Most large social platforms do not allow for education around sex, anatomy, reproduction and our health rights to happen without shadow banning by puritanical bots. This is political.
Politics
Inspiring women across the aisle as we learn about other perspectives, engaging in actual discourse whilst showing respect and all the while activating our political voice. In the years since 2016, many women have confided in me that their voting practices often followed that of their male partners. They also confessed they did not feel proud of this and wanted to better understand politics. This tells me that we as women are realizing more and more how important our voices are to the actual practice of a democracy. This is f*cking political.
I am also willing to bet you thought about at least one of these topics at least once today. Right? And that may well make you, dare I say, political? Oh, f*ck.
My Existence Is Political
My existence as a woman of Jewish lineage, who identifies as queer, whose Spanish ancestors both perished and persisted through the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and into this moment, is f*cking political.
For the record, I do not stand with any regime that conducts warfare using civilians, women and children as front line combatants. I do, however, stand with humanity because thankfully the medieval times are now only a place where you go for strange field trips with in-laws or to satiate your need to eat an entire rotisserie chicken with your hands in public.
So why then do we conduct warfare like we do not have indoor plumbing or, for that matter, why do we humans think war will solve anything? Divisive war values bottom-line politics. War values land grabs, the accumulation of wealth and power over the human condition. Collaborative peace values heart count over head count, humanity over profit and connectivity over individualism.
A Digital Renaissance
Beyonce is not the only one calling for another Renaissance. This time it is digital, it is inclusive and, you guessed it, it is political as f*ck.
Our shared humanism is the antidote to any robot takeover and, for that matter, colonial supremacy and authoritarian rule that subjugates any one group to be "other," "animal" or "extinguishable."
Our use of technology as a tool that bridges divides, builds inclusive solutions to age-old problems of division and prioritizes community as a powerful force of commerce is political. Our big mission through Business 4 Good to build a truly collaborative and inclusive way of doing business is aimed at co-creating a better internet for everyone's experience. I absolutely realize this is political. And since it is political, the change that this build can affect beyond its digital footprint is what keeps me writing.
Building Our Own Intelligence
The entire model of amplifying women's voices by using tech for good is to use the simple tools of technology to build better digital bridges between blogs with backlinks, pouring SEO sugar into the large language models and thereby building our own Leading Ladies LLM. Because ultimately our shared humanity, our real community, is the antidote to any robot takeover through AI.
When we build new systems as upgrades from those that are not supportive, we see change happen in concentric circles. I am speaking here about tech but as we know, tech touches many sectors and thereby lives.
Flooding large language models with articulate conversations about equity for women and other underserved groups will teach the AI and its budding models exactly how to include all of humanity in its advances. Using SEO wisely on our personal and professional websites that aim to build a better and more inclusive world with equity-driven economics will be foundational components of the next generation of the web.
Bloom Scroll, Do Not Doom Scroll
We are in the midst of a great opportunity for a system upgrade, globally. My call to action is asking that you, me and your people start bloom scrolling instead of doom scrolling. When we use #Tequity and build it with women leaders, we will see a more equitable world. The old models of top-down leadership are broken. We can do better. We are building better.
So what is more political: f-bombs or genocide?
You tell me. And while you are thinking about it, come build with us. We are building a new economic model for women in business, powered by collective intelligence and technology. Your sovereignty matters. Your knowledge has value. Your voice, sailor mouth and all, is exactly what we need.
Love,
Rose
