Let's Celebrate the Successes of Our Peers - Gender Should NOT Play a Role
Ahhhh the internet, it can be such a great thing on one hand and on the other hand a virtual breeding ground for idiocy and ignorance. I was reading a post a couple of months back on Facebook by a very talented and well established female photographer.
Now you might be wondering what the importance of said photographer’s gender is or why I even identified it however I will get to that and actually this blog post was inspired by the issue discussed in her post.
What I read shocked me mostly because of the ignorance and audacity. The gist of her post was stating that 90% of the emails she has been receiving as of late are coming from men and they are telling her she is running her business incorrectly or doesn’t know what she is doing. First off, who the FUCK do these men think they are? Secondly, you are giving all the good and supportive men a bad name and making the good guys look like chauvinistic Neanderthals. This is not the 1920’s! I would be inclined to say jealousy has played a role here in these men for them to have behaved in such an appalling spiteful manner. Frankly, I don’t understand why some men feel the need to bestow their perceived wisdom onto women because they think women are in need of it. That men just know better just because they are men is archaic and ludicrous and could not be further from the truth.
Have any of these men seen what this woman is doing for the photography industry, let alone with her business? Do any of them know her back story and what she has been through in order to get where she is today? She is doing incredibly well with her business and is sharing her knowledge with all photographers alike. Whether they are male or female it makes no difference or has no bearing, she is all about helping out her fellow photographers. Get over it and deal with it! I would say to her naysayers perhaps you need to take a lesson or page from her book. Maybe you could actually learn a thing or two from her instead of letting your delicate ego get in the way.
Shouldn’t we be celebrating our peers’ successes and building them up instead of tearing them down? No matter what gender they are!? We are a community of professionals and when one does well and shares their knowledge and experiences, we all do well. There is enough room for all of us to share in the successes so instead of wasting your energies telling someone who is clearly doing well for herself that she is doing things wrong or she doesn’t know what she is doing, why not spend your energy working on and worrying about what YOU can do to improve your business.
In today’s day and age there is absolutely NO reason for this type of sexist behaviour to play a role in our business/industry. Off the top of my head I can think of AT LEAST a dozen incredibly successful female photographers in our industry and there are dozens and dozens more who are kicking ass and taking names in this business. Let’s keep that in mind. We could all learn a thing or two from our female counterparts in this industry.