The founder of Amazon tried to sell us some fake ass feminism
Are you inspired yet?
Hi friends,
I don’t know what kind of bullshit Bezos is trying to sell us, but five women taking a space holiday for 11 minutes, while the women who actually work at NASA are being fired and books about women in space are being banned, is not inspiring. It does not advance women. All it does is make me want to scream EAT THE RICH even louder. What’s next? Are they going to ask us to clap when women orchestrate a real-life Hunger Games?
The six women dubbed themselves the “Taking Up Space” crew, popping into space for a hot minute not for research and not to promote climate awareness (which, if you’re destroying the ozone layer you might want to have some talking points to back yourself out of that environmental disaster) but—at least for Katy Perry—“a personal journey to feel small again.” Girl, try running a small business in the year 2025 and you’ll get there fast.
Space tourism is not feminism. It is consumer capitalism, at its most inaccessible. Businesses have for decades tried to sell us this form of what feminist writer Andi Zeisler has called superficial “marketplace feminism.” Monday’s “historic” mission is nothing less than a show of identity politics thinly cloaking the American capitalist impulse of the “more is better” mentality. The glamour shots of the six women in their suits — looking serious but sexy, their partly unzipped suits flashing just a bit of skin — are proof of how this faux feminism mutilates real feminist politics and turns it into an aesthetic posture. ~ Marcie Bianco, author of "Breaking Free" for MSNBC
I have a tattered copy of Andi Zeisler’s book “We Were Feminists Once” on my dresser. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading and re-reading Chapter 3: Do These Underpants Make Me Look Feminist, particularly because my first business was called Pantyline Productions. Yes, I sold underwear, but with a twist: I screen printed “The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own” on the front, a political slogan I pine for today since there’s nothing that cute about authoritarianism.
In this chapter, she critiques the phenomenon of "marketplace feminism," a trend that never seems to go out of style, in which feminist rhetoric is used to sell products without any connection to deeper political and social reforms. She argues that this commercialization dilutes feminism's radical potential by repackaging it as an individual consumer choice, rather than a collective movement for structural change. And here’s the part that has informed so much of what I do with Coalition: Zeisler questions whether purchasing decisions marketed as feminism actually advance gender equality or simply provide companies with profitable new marketing angles.
Although this book was about gender, you could replace that with just about any marginalized identity and see how everyone from brands in the outdoor industry to Bezo’s Blue Origin co-opt our struggle to benefit their bottom line. And I would argue that for Bezos, this was about so much more than making money. It was intended to distract us from the very real harm he is personally responsible for—from employee abuses at his Amazon warehouses to funding the current administration that is wreaking havoc in our daily lives—all in the name of “progress.”
Until next time…
Jen Gurecki, she/her, CEO of Coalition Snow
PS: After I launched my comedy career last week, I skied naked with a bunch of my friends at for a moment, everything felt right 💗
📖 The Subtle Resistance of Dictionary.com: There’s something pretty interesting happening on Dictionary.com and its sister site, Thesaurus.com. Scroll down to the example usages of a given word and you’ll see what I mean. Among the example sentences for “democracy” at time of publication: “It seems this 248-year-old experiment we call American democracy may very well rest in the hands of our highly politicized Supreme Court.”
🚿 OnlyFans Attracts Growing Roster of Outdoor Athletes: No, that wasn’t an April Fools joke. In this Q&A, a professional trail runner and cliff diver share why OnlyFans offers them more freedom and support than many other platforms. Hot tip: the $$ is in the DMs.
🎶 Soulful Amapiano Mashups from Dope Caesar: New music! Not sure where I heard of Sarah Oboh, but she’s an afrobeat DJ out of Lagos, Nigera and crossing my fingers I can schedule some time in Nairobi next time she plays there again.
🚵♀️ May 24th, Ladies of the Loam: Yay bikes! I’ll be popping up at the very first all-women's mountain bike enduro and festival in California + offering free simple bike repairs. Get the details here.
💌 May, Full Send: If you’re dying to ditch the algorithm and need real advice on how to start or grow a newsletter, make sales without feeling crummy, and connect authentically with your audience, join me in this collaborative workspace to grow and nurture your emails and newsletters. Learn more and register here.
🚲 July, Cycling Safari in Kenya with Zawadisha: This 13-day cycling and safari trip through Kenya will have you pedaling through the Maasai Mara and making your way to the white sand beaches of Diani. Along the way, you'll meet the women of Zawadisha, glamp in safari tents, make lasting memories with new friends, and be wowed by the wildlife. If you want to learn more, respond to this message or DM me.
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Aisha Bowes statement after all of the negative media coverage.
“As an aerospace engineer, former NASA rocket scientist, and the first Bahamian to fly to space, I care deeply about science, sustainability, and what this mission actually represented.
For ya’ll who think it was short, traveling at 2,300 MPH makes you feel a way 😉 So let’s break it down:
1. Purpose of the mission:
Yes, Blue Origin’s New Shepard is suborbital—but this mission made history in more ways than one. I served as the science payload operator for the first-ever HBCU-led research project to fly aboard New Shepard, developed in partnership with Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). The mission also marked a first for BioServe Space Technologies, whose Fluid Processing Apparatus (FPA) hardware was flown to qualify it for future use in orbit.
In addition to advancing plant biology research by examining how crops like chickpeas and sweet potatoes grow in microgravity to support future food security. I also wore a BioButton as part of a NASA-funded study led by TRISH (Translational Research Institute for Space Health) to better understand how women’s bodies respond to spaceflight. This work is essential for future deep space exploration, where gender-specific data is still significantly lacking. Not tourism. Research.
2. Climate impact:
Rockets do have an environmental cost just like cargo ships, long-haul flights, and even your average data center. But this wasn’t just about one flight. The long game is reusability. New Shepard is fully reusable, and part of developing cleaner, more sustainable launch vehicles something we need if we want to monitor climate, deliver satellites, or support Earth-observation missions. And by the way, many climate-monitoring tools rely on space infrastructure.
3. The role of private people:
I left NASA to found two companies focused on education and equity. Through LINGO, we’ve brought STEM access to over 10,000 students worldwide, including in The Bahamas. The goal isn’t just to go to space it’s to bring what we learn back home.
4. Private vs. public investment:
Let’s not pretend private sector innovation doesn’t play a role in societal advancement. Commercial spaceflight delivers satellites for disaster tracking, global internet, GPS and agriculture monitoring to name a few benefits. It’s space for the benefit of Earth.
5. Marketing and representation:
Representation isn’t just about optics it’s about access. As a Black woman and first-generation Bahamian-American, I didn’t grow up thinking space was for me. This mission sent a powerful message: that science isn’t reserved for the elite few. It belongs to all of us. And if one young girl saw me and thought maybe I could study engineering, I consider that a mission success.
Yes, be critical. Always. But don’t dismiss the science, the significance, or the opportunity to inspire and inform 🙏🏽🚀💙”