Women in Cages
"If women become sexually free, they are completely free. They're completely uncaged."
There’s a constant balancing act for career-driven women: “Be professional” vs. “Be a woman,” to be both and maintain respect is not an easy feat.
Am I allowed to be assertive? Or will I be called a b*tch?
Am I allowed to wear this dress? Or will I be called a slut?
Pick your poison. I call this the B*tch-Slut Paradigm and the double standard is impossible to ignore.
Powerful men are often celebrated for aggression and hyper-sexuality, while women are easily condemned for sharing “too much” - whether it be their opinions or their bodies.
The characterization of sexual women as evil and sinful has been carried throughout historical and contemporary media. It's no coincidence that religious texts uphold the chaste, bless the virgin Mary, and condemn seductive lustful whores.
Today, we still label the the sexually liberated woman a "slut" to protect our own feelings of powerlessness, to subdue our own subconscious desires to have the unrestricted freedom she embodies.
While we cannot change the past, what we can do is work to recognize and call out our deeply rooted beliefs.
This week on the Enoughness Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing a woman I used to watch on the popular TV Show, Boy Meets World. Maitland Ward played Rachel on the beloved sitcom. In her early 30s, Maitland started feeling Hollywood’s pressure to suppress her sexuality. Instead of accepting the unsavory roles forced on her, she made the decision to reclaim her sexual power and dive into the adult film industry.
This is a truly fascinating episode, and one I believe many would benefit from because it takes A LOT OF CONFIDENCE to throw your middle finger up to the mainstream machine and follow your passion and your intuition.
Female sexuality is one of the last frontiers for women to conquer.
So long as we to suppress it, women will continue to be kept in cages. Once we decide to love our bodies and recognize how powerful they are, the power will finally shift.
Everybody watches it, but then they want to demean it and shut it down and dehumanize and shame the women making it. They say, “How could one possibly want to sexually perform or be sexual in any way, she must be on drugs. She must be crazy. She must've had a terrible family life.” - Maitland Ward, Ep: 29 Disney Star turned Porn Star, Enoughness Podcast
✨The GLOW Leadership Program is officially open for fall enrollment to new members.
The GLOW is a leadership coaching program for women to build unapologetic confidence and power to succeed in their careers. Ready to level up? Here’s what’s inside:
2 Hours of Monthly LIVE group career coaching
Monthly goal setting challenges to keep you motivated
Gain support & accountability in group check-ins
Expert-led leadership workshops to level up your business, career, and life
Access a library of 3 months of coaching sessions
✨Upcoming GLOW Member Events
*Not a GLOW member? Apply today to get your first two weeks of membership free.
This Thursday 9/24 @ 2pm EST: GLOW Group Coaching with Lisa Carmen Wang
Learn how to own your voice and command respect as a female leader
Partake in October’s Group Goal Setting Challenge
Create accountability to execute on your career milestones through year-end
✨Thursday 10/1 @ 1pm EST: How To Create Balance & Find Your Purpose Workshop with Shalini Sarena Bahad
How to nourish yourself to move into a grounded & empowered state
How to detach from external validation & feel full
How to release your ego & discover your true purpose
As always, I’m here for you, and appreciate you.
~ @LisaCarmenWang, Founder, The GLOW, Leadership Training for Powerful Women
"It's a fear of certain men, certain people in society, that if women become sexually free, they are completely free. They're completely uncaged. Because as long as we keep women as the sexual property of a man or within a sexual cage of society, we can keep them there." - Maitland Ward, Ep: 29 Disney Star turned Porn Star, Enoughness Podcast