Boss Babes, Girl Bosses, and SheEOs Are All a Lie
Why are women resorting to this falsehood?
I’m obsessed with scam podcasts. So naturally, when I was searching for something new to listen to, Spotify, which creepily knows me too well, suggested I listen to Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson.
Of course I hit play. I love a true scam story. Even better if it’s exposing the corrupt industry of MLM (multilevel marketing) schemes.
What I didn’t expect was a deep dive into the long history of how MLMs prey on women and their vulnerabilities.
It seems shady because it is
An MLM seems harmless at first glance. An MLM is a company that sells its products through person-to-person sales. The salespeople or “consultants” are the recruits who have to buy the product then sell it directly to people themselves.
But there’s something about it that feels icky.
I remember the first time I felt like I was being recruited. I was in college, and it was some kind of supplement. I wasn’t buying it. Why would my college classmate be selling blue-green algae? Isn’t she a philosophy major?
