One of the reasons therapists are so good at helping couples & families is because we are on the outside looking in…meaning that we have a unique perspective on a system that the people involved just do not have the ability to see on their own. The trick is to figure out how to point out a dynamic without getting people to feel defensive or to trust that whatever you say has good intentions behind it.
This is exactly how I feel when I look at the cannabis industry. Being on the outside looking in with a viewpoint of the players & dynamics that make me see/realize certain things that perhaps are toxic and need to change. While there are many toxic elements to our industry that we will surely cover in later blogs/podcasts, the one that we wanted to start off with is the sexualization of women in cannabis.
When I started using IG to network with breeders and growers in the industry, I began to notice a huge difference in how female breeders/influencers in the industry marketed themselves versus how their male counterparts did. Now…I am not trying to be some conservative guy here and say I don’t enjoy the site of a beautiful woman doing bong rips, but there is something wrong about the industry when a male breeder can make a name for themselves by just knowing good people and breeding fire genetics and a female breeder has to consistently be half naked doing bong rips talking about how fire her genetics are.
Not only that…it seems the women breeders/influencers who seem to speak the most about female representation/treatment in the industry are the ones selling sex the most. Case in point, a female consultant who we met at the Legacy Cannabis Festival in Michigan was talking at length about how awesome of a grower she was, how fire her genetics are, and how she has to constantly fight for the boys to take her seriously. In fact, she relished in the fact that she is a consultant and has to consistently “set the boys straight” when they doubt her experience and advice. But interestingly enough, when you go to her IG page, its just her in bikinis doing yoga and bong rips and not one single picture anywhere of her growing, her genetics, or anything that would represent her growing gravitas.
So one has to ask…how can you be so vocal about men not taking your growing skills seriously when your IG and social media feeds are clearly aimed at sexualizing yourself and using it to market yourself? What effect does using sex as a marketing tool have on reinforcing these viewpoints of women in the industry? What role do men have in that feedback loop and what can we do as future cannabis business owners to change this dynamic? To properly dive into these questions, we interviewed several prominent females in the cannabis industry to see what their opinions were about this topic and their answers did not disappoint.
Chemma- Chemma Labs Genetics
I thought Chemma was the perfect person to interview for this article because Chemma has strong feelings about women sexualizing themselves in the cannabis industry and even goes out of her way to keep the focus of her social media on her genetics and genetics only. In fact, I had no idea Chemma was even a girl until I heard her on a podcast last year.
When asked why women are so sexualized in the cannabis industry, Chemma explained that the problem is multi-faceted and both men and women share the blame. Chemma explained that men make up the majority of people buying genetics so most of the marketing tends to be catered to men and figuring out what will get their attention/dollars. Because there is so many people out there selling genetics, it takes a lot to stand out from the competition and when the majority of your customers are men…it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that showing some skin will get a male buyers attention to your page and your genetics.
This is where it becomes a slippery slope for women in the cannabis industry because as Chemma explained it, if you show some skin you will get a ton more engagement without doing anything different so it becomes easy to increase your visibility by just showing some skin. Not only that, women in the cannabis industry typically are not taken as seriously as their male counterparts so to make a living in a male dominated industry without doing anything sexual can mean 20% less sales volume. While definitely a tough pill to swallow, Chemma refuses to give in to that type of marketing and instead chooses to blaze her own path in this industry based purely on the quality of her genetics.
Her interview really stuck with me because I thought it was powerful for a breeder who I greatly respect, who happens to be a woman, calling out the women in her own industry for basically going with the lowest common denominator because it’s low hanging fruit and it’s easy to take advantage of men who only think with their dick. At the same time…she clearly lays out that if women are going to complain about how they are viewed in the cannabis industry, then they also bare the responsibility of not doing things that reinforce those stereotypes to begin with. It also made me think about the role men play in this industry and how easily we can be influenced by a half naked girl doing bong rips on IG. Women wouldn’t feel the need to use sex to sell their products if we didn’t make decisions based on sex…so men share a great deal of the burden as well by following and supporting women who sell this way.
Sweet Peach – Pure Organic Medicinals – GI Mary Janes
Another no brainer interview for this article was from Sweet Peach, grower, hash maker, owner of Pure Organic Medicinals & founder of the female cannabis empowerment group for veterans GI Mary Janes. When asked the same question about why women are so sexualized in the cannabis industry, Sweet Peach reinforced the take from Chemma but went a step further in implicating the role corporate America is playing in perpetuating these roles. Sweet Peach gave an example of a female hash maker who has a reputation of being one of the best edibles maker in the cannabis industry negotiating a white label deal for her products. When she asked about how the products would be marketed and what role they needed her to play, the executives said that they don’t need anything from her and that they will hire a cannabis model to market the products that they will be white labeling. Now this person is left with the specter of choosing between her morals and turning down a lucrative deal that could really help her business.
What bothers me most about this revelation is that it was totally unnecessary for this person to be in this situation. This person’s reputation in the industry, especially with the heavyweights she has in her corner, would have been enough to sell these products and delineate them from the competition. But because sex sells and the corporate forces that run the industry have no care for the cannabis community beyond what money they can make from it, they choose the route that is easiest and the most short sighted.
As a brand that is planning on opening up our own vertically integrated cannabis company, it makes me think of the power that myself and my leadership team have to be agents of change in this industry. We need to make money is this industry, that is why we go into business. But we aren’t going to choose marketing practices that reinforce these awful dynamics just because we know it might make us more money. If we can’t make money growing cannabis the right way then we don’t need to be doing it at all.
Kelly – Dragonfly Earth Medicine
Kelly from Dragonfly Earth Medicine has been an outspoken leader in the cannabis industry for the empowerment of women, which makes her option on this topic extremely salient. When asked about the sexualization of women in cannabis, Kelly explains that many of the problems that we see in the cannabis industry are just emblematic of society as a whole. She goes on to explain that It is a human condition and very easy to understand the push of this vibration. No blame or shame. Just, simply we have been pushed into this kind of construct because of our conditioning to be competitive and through that push to compete with one another, women choose sex just like men choose beefs and bravado.
Mz Jill – MZ Jill Genetics
Mz Jill is perhaps the most known name on this list and some would argue has been the most recognizable female breeder in the cannabis game that has broken through the glass ceiling of being a “female” breeder and is rather just known as a great cannabis breeder. So it’s not surprising that Mz Jill has a different take on this topic.
When asked specifically about the sexualization of women in the cannabis industry, Mz Jill strongly believes that mindset is a relic of the past and would argue that there probably hasn’t been a better time for women in the cannabis industry than at the present. Where in the past women definitely had to deal with lots of bullshit from men, she doesn’t see that mindset anymore, especially for someone who has been in the industry as long as her.
When asked about women who aren’t as well known and the tendency for them to use sex as a short-cut to get people’s attention took our discussion from one about gender and brought it to more the upstream problems of the cannabis industry as a whole. More specifically, we discussed how the industry has been taken over by rich people and celebrities which has pushed the cannabis industry to clever branding and what looks good on social media. Since we are not rewarding good genetics and only what is cool and looks nice…the people who should be getting accolades for their work are getting left behind.
Mz Jill and I very much agreed that the downstream effects of this are what is really causing the problems that this article is exploring. Instead of an IG breeder getting likes and shares because of some amazing work they are doing, they are left with challenging options to get the attention that they want. We see men leaning on conspiracy theories and beefs while we see many women focus on sex.
Call To Action
So what is our call to action? What do we want to do with all of this information? For one, I think any of the men reading this article who care about this industry need to realize that follows and purchases shape the direction that this industry is going. We complain about how corporate cannabis has become, but yet how many of us follow and make purchases from half naked girls who are either being pimped out by private equity owned cannabis companies or women who feel as though the only way anyone will buy from them is if they show their boobs. We want better genetics but the women out there selling fire genetics who don’t show their chest are being put out of business by the naked canna girl who is selling inferior products. We want corporate Chad out of the cannabis game but at every step of the way we make purchases that keep them in business while the people we wish were still in the game were pushed out.
We all play a role in why this industry has become what it has through our habits, our marketing and where we place our attention…but that is also the roadmap to take the industry back from corporate Chad and his fail son trust fund baby friends. Just like Kelly from Dragonfly Earth Medicine says, the secret to all of this is changing our vibrations and lifting each other up in the right ways and for the right reasons. So if you buy anything this week, challenge yourself to think about why you are buying that brand and what got your attention. Do they represent where the industry needs to go or do they keep it where it is at? What is your marketing plan for this week? Do you have to use a half naked girl to get attention or can you try something else? What are your suggestions? Please feel free to drop us a suggestion in the comments or reach out on IG to get the dialogue going.