03/11/2020
Quick time out to share something that’s important. This past January I attended the inaugural Assemblage Symposium in McMinnville, Oregon— a conference dedicated to sparking meaningful conversations about women & diverse communities in wine. I took almost NO pictures, except for this one. Instead, I sat & listened. I asked a few questions. Jotted down a few facts & made little notes about things that really resonated. And to be honest, I rolled my eyes a lot. Why? Because some of the touchy feely stuff was ALOT. And as a more aggressive, take no-bullsh*t person, I felt like I couldn’t relate to much. Frankly, I was SHOCKED when a few of the stories didn’t end with “and then I stood up & punched them in the face for being a racist/sexist/insert toxic masculine behavior here.” I even said out loud, “Hmm, I don’t know if women’s conferences are for me”. Then today happened.
Three days ago was International Women’s Day. A day dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements while calling out the inequality that still exists. I spent a solid 22 hours glued to my phone & laptop sharing stories, supporting various campaigns, & making sure my clients had a voice in the day.
Today, I had to pause an ad featuring one of those stories, edit the target audience to REMOVE men, & re-launch the ad to only be seen by women because grown-ass MEN could not stop leaving sexists remarks questioning this female winemakers talent & reducing her to just her looks. WHAT. THE. F**K. Because I’m a professional & have to observe self-control when acting as the voice of a brand, I hid most & answered others while being as non-confrontational/PC as possible. As I type this I’m questioning if my decision to shift the targeting strategy was necessary or contributes to the issue/sweeps it under the rug. But I know one thing is clear: it happens too often & it's NEVER ok. So I’m going to start calling it out more. And knowing that I couldn't REALLY say what I wanted [i.e. F**K OFF] made me regret rolling my eyes at the women who finally had a chance to speak up back in January. THAT is why things like & the Assemblage Symposium exist. And we all need to do better.