My Soap Box : A Call for Feminist Reform of Affiliate Marketing
We have all heard the stories of the so-called “typical” female Affiliate Manager’s that use their young, outgoing personalities to charm the “typical” publisher, who is male, American, and most likely living in their mothers basement. While one will do anything for money, the other will do anything for affection. So… there are how many female Affiliate Manager’s, working at how many networks around the world? The bigger the publisher, the bigger the opportunity… if you catch my drift. What if I told you, most of these young women didn’t sign up for that role? That they’re educated, hardworking and trying to do their best, to make the best possible name for themselves. Sorry to burst the bubble… but running an offer or promising to run traffic to one, will get someone talking to you, but it is not a free ticket into their pants. Asking these women to live up to your expectations, because of a business transaction or promise of one, is sexual harassment. Now, there are stories [and I’m sure many of them are true] about young women who fall victim to the promise of copious amounts of never-ending traffic: there are also stories of women that use sexual exploits to advance their career successfully. It is hard to sit back and judge either as the Madonna or the whore as their stories can only fully be understood by the individuals who partook in them. Unfortunately, it has set a precedent among certain males that they are in the right to leverage their business for sexual gratification. This is why women in Affiliate Marketing need to connect and discuss: it is important to empower, through solidarity, the women of Affiliate Marketing to not fear losing business for telling someone they are being inappropriate or that you feel uncomfortable and you would like the topic of conversation to stay on business. We can begin to change the perception of women in the industry, if we do not permit this behavior to continue.