4 things diet culture and women’s "success” culture have in common

Can you guess what they are?

A while back I wrote about taking another deep dive into healing my disordered eating and body image. I have two Health Coaching Certifications (2010 and 2012) and one of my best friends, Soshy Adelstein, is a Wellness Coach specializing in body image and food freedom, educating people about the nature of diet cult-ure. To say this is an interest of mine is an understatement.

My day job is feminist marketing and business consulting and I’ve been working in “Women’s Empowerment” and various forms of marketing for the past ten years. I’ve watched social media form and how it has changed the marketing landscape pretty much from its inception and while it’s always been something I’ve been observing and interacting with, the pandemic years have deepened my interest tremendously.

I’m telling you this because for a while now I’ve observed problems in the marketing ecosystem where diet culture and the image of “success” that’s peddled to women go hand in hand.

4 observations stand out the most

1. When you make six (or seven) figures you will have “made it” vs. when you have the perfect body you will have “made it”

This one is almost too “in yo face” to require further analysis, but I still want to offer a few reflections.

Diet culture AND “women’s success culture”, as we might call it (or more broadly, Women’s Empowerment) all sell the idea that your ultimate satisfaction and success will come after you arrive at a certain destination.

And as a woman, you should not rest, or worse – DARE to accept and love yourself as you are until you have arrived at this destination.

(Interesting note: A thin body can trump any other accomplishment as a marker of a woman who sits at a top level of societal hierarchy. Next, comes the ability to “make six or seven figures” but mind you, if you exist in a fat body, you will still not quite measure up in today’s fat-phobic culture.)

The patriarchal, heteronormative, capitalist system we live in counts hardcore on the culture’s ability to make people believe there’s an external marker that they should strive for at all costs as both the billion-dollar industries of success marketing culture and diet cultures depend on that to keep being a parasite on women’s time, money, thoughts, and sense of self-worth.

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2. White men set the standard of the systems we use

How popular diets have come to be mainstream often goes a little something like this:

1. White man has body problem.

2. White man has all the time and resources in the world to create diet protocol that solves the problem.

3. White man writes book about it.

4. White man gets praise.

5. White man sells the solution to women.

6. Women try the diet protocol and have some success (but sometimes not), then fail, then assumes she’s the problem.

7. Rinse and repeat.

The same goes for marketing. Just replace diet with making money.

The problems are obvious.

• Women are not men.

• People are diverse and either approach does not take into account bio-individuality, privilege, or starting point.

• The systems are rarely sustainable in the long term.

3. Before and After pictures vs. Rags to Riches story

Both diet culture and women’s success culture rely heavily on the idea of a finite before/after story.

Go on Instagram and search #weightloss and behold as your feed floods with side by side before and after photos.

Next, visit most ANY website for women’s money or business coaches and read the struggles of how they have gone from being homeless or whatever version of lack you can think of, to a sparkly, new version of themselves where they are living their best life, traveling, having 6-figure launches and go on fancy dates with their husband (while their spotless children are home with the nanny, eating the superfoods infused cookies she whipped up that morning.)

But I digress…

This is harmful because the truth is that nobody exists on a finite spectrum or before and after. And selling in this way only perpetuates the ILLUSION that it exists. Which often keeps women in a loop of working toward something or working to keep something, while often missing out on what is or learning how to embrace the cyclical nature of existence or the coolness of the NOW.

(Of course, there are ways of telling a transformational story that is NOT harmful.)

4. “Success” systems work for a small percentage and are sold via testimonials from that minority

As I’ve been behind the scenes of A LOT of different companies and am very well-connected since my time at Emerging Women. I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to peer behind the curtain. And just like in the Wizard of Oz, not everything is as it seems…

There are heavy hitters in the “women’s success industry” that’s made millions selling the idea that their online courses can make you rich and successful but don’t actually work very well OR that have stopped working but they still sell them. (Watch out for people who are “retiring” and selling you ALL their programs for a super cheap price).

The process often goes a little bit like this:

1. Pre-sell your idea of a course at a beta price in exchange for testimonials

2. Take the participants through your process

3. Gather testimonials from the 6 people out of 35 that were successful using your method - that you may or may not mostly plagiarized from someone else

4. Create a big bells and whistles sales page with $17k worth of bonuses

5. Sell at a screaming low price for a “limited time” - this may or may not be a lie

6. Create a highly manipulative marketing funnel to sell your course

7. Don’t worry about the people who aren’t successful (that’s their own fault)

The same goes for diets. 96% or more fail in the long term.

Both systems rely heavily on the idea of a before and after scenario for credibility and to sell their systems or courses.

@rachaelkayalbers

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We have to ask ourselves “at what cost?”

These four illustrations are only a few of the similarities.

I believe it’s time we step off the carousel and really look at how we are participating in harmful manipulative practices.

We have to ask ourselves, what is the COST of perpetuating these ideas and behaviors?

To me, the cost is far too high as eight-year-olds begin their first diet and women get into massive credit card debt to try and emulate a version of success that is illusory and harmful to our psyches and lives.

I’m so happy to see the ripples of body-positive women who advocate for a dismantling of patriarchy aka diet culture and the feminist business leaders like Kelly Diels, Jennifer Armbrust, and Denise Shanté Brown asking a stand against the grotesque success illusion.

We don’t have to play along with these harmful practices anymore, because they never worked and they never will.

I’m so excited to be innovating in the field of feminist business and marketing as I know firsthand that there’s a whole other world on the other side that’s just, liberating, joyful, on purpose, and good for the earth.

This is my 31st(!) article in as many weeks and it’s safe to say that writing to you has truly opened a doorway to joy and self-expression that I hadn’t known before. Thank you for being on the journey with me.

I’ve come to realize that next on my writing journey is penning a book that is simply loooonging to be born through me! Since my time is limited, I’ve decided to go from writing you once a week to writing an article every other week. This might even be a welcome change since my musings tend to take up quite a bit of inbox room. 😆

From now on, I will write an article one week and then work on the book the other week. I’m so very excited about this and can’t wait to share it with you as soon as she’s ready to come out and play.

I’m so very grateful for your support and as always, I appreciate your time and attention. I know those are valuable resources.

Share your thoughts on this article with me in the comments! (When you share, like, and comment you signal to other readers that the content is valuable. That helps me a lot! Thank you in advance.)

Much love,

Karna 💜

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Resources:

There’s an epic Substack I subscribe to called Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith I recommend it if you’re interested in learning more about diet culture and its impact.