Our Audiences Aren’t Stupid. Let’s Take Them Seriously.

I have never written for a cowardly or passive or stupid reader — Andrea Dworkin in her book, Intercourse

This from Andrea Dworkin — although it has NOTHING to do with marketing –is why I dislike the “meet them where they’re at” marketing advice.

It feels like contempt for the audience.

Let’s assume our customers and readers are smart and brave and will apply effort to things that are important to them.

As Cindy Gallop says, often, “There’s a shit-ton of money to be made from taking women seriously”.

(And yes I totally appreciate the paradox and tension of using quotes from both Andrea Dworkin, who is anti-sex work and porn, and Cindy Gallop, the founder of Make Love Not Porn, to make this point.)

I also suspect that ‘meet them where they’re at’ is actually a projection. WE are scared about our own work and ideas and feel like we have to water them down in order to be acceptable

Let’s not. Let’s be brave. Let’s ask our culture to meet us instead of always, always, always accommodating it

Let’s remember that we are the culture makers.

#WeAreTheCultureMakers #FeministMarketing

originally published on Instagram. If you’d like to join me there, I’m @kelly.diels