who run the world?

girls, this headline fucked me up

Jesus Christ.

I texted my mom about it.

She’s right— it isn’t news. Perhaps this version of it is news, but the reality behind it isn’t. In so many countries, women still don't have the basic right to choose what they wear, what they learn, what they say, or what they do.

They do not have permission to exist in public, let alone participate, let alone shine

And it’s BEEN this way. This isn’t new. But somehow, this photo shook me in a way that I wasn’t prepared for. Maybe it was the proverbial straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back, or maybe it’s just my sensitivity growing as the surface area of my mind expands with age.

Why can I look this good in my own apartment and post for literally the entire world to see, and another woman can’t?

Why can I go on a walk often times with a JOINT in my hand and a little bra and shorts and sneakers singing along to Cleo Sol blasting in my airpods, basking in the sunshine and the glory of god on my skin,

and they can’t?

Because of where I was born - something completely out of my control?

This has been a rough week.

I was thinking about the girls who are sold into marriage at the age of 8 years old - parents justifying it because they cannot afford to live - I felt like I had bones in my heart and that they were shattered

I have cried so much these last few days and it was freaking me out because I know how important my vibration is to my reality creation…

While hiking in Griffith Park this week, a guy stopped me and asked why I didn’t walk all the way up the mountain. I took out one of my AirPods and told him I just didn’t feel like it that day. Next thing you know, I’m crying my eyes out to this complete stranger about the state of women and their oppression. The poor guy was not ready for that lmfao

I mean how could I just accept this is the reality of the world?

How can I and how have I ever been able to celebrate anything while so many are suffering a life I find unimaginable? On such a mass scale?

I felt such a huge weight of guilt

I was thinking about how I built a platform and all the ways I could leverage it and am not

I was thinking about how I should be doing so much more

The other day I was on a music video shoot full of gorgeous women serving at unprecedented levels and we were all hyping each other up and we kept looking at each other and telling each other how good it felt to be in a space like this - it really did feel like euphoria — just girls shining together

Why does it feel so naturally good to shine and to be beautiful and to be free?

We love to see it in nature

The concepts of captivity and control are significantly less moving

It’s one thing to put something in a cage while its vulnerable, but if living things want to be free and are able to be free and willing to assume the risk that comes with freedom, it becomes unethical to decide their fate for them

And why would anyone want to fight nature?

Some argue that it is natural for men to want to act on their sexual urges and it is natural to see a woman’s body and want to have sex with it, so women must cover themselves to avoid triggering this “natural” response to maintain order

But the kicker is that a man “naturally” feels sexual urges when he see’s a woman’s body is because we have created a society that sexualizes women’s bodies and raised men in it.

In an effort to understand why people who are in groups like the Taliban and the GOP (the venn diagrams dangerously overlap when it comes to controlling women’s bodies) think the way they do, I asked ChatGPT to pretend it did not support women’s rights and to have a debate with me about how women should live.

After an extensive back and forth, I came to find that they genuinely think society functions best when men “do what they do best” and when women “do what they do best.” And right now, they essentially believe that providing is what men do best and nurturing is what women do best.

So for those of us who value the freedom to choose, who understand the importance of providing the freedom to choose, it is our job to help those with a traditionalist mindset understand that providing and promoting a freedom to choose your own destiny is the safer option— for the individual and for society.

Why do tyrants behave the way they behave? Why would someone want to subjugate another?

It’s fear— every time. It’s the belief that if they don’t, the other person will. It is a belief that freedom is fought for and protected, and not a birthright. It is a lack of belief in themselves.

People who oppose progression fundamentally believe that a predictable world is safer than an unpredictable one. And they’re not wrong. But safer doesn’t always mean better. And safety comes at a cost.

You cover up the woman, you prevent her from entering spaces that she is “unfit” for. But you also prevent her from innovating, from creating, from discovering, from the possibility to get an education and come up with the cure for your disease, leading to global safety in a different way.

I don’t think it is a hard sell to those in power that offering everyone autonomy and mobility is in everyone’s best interest.

If we let everyone be themselves, everything is going to be ok.

If we celebrate everyone being themselves, everything is going to be great.

Convincing this group of people who fight against the liberation of all that a better world is possible will take time, love, consistency, courage, and mass participation.

But here’s the other question:

Why is the taliban's oppression of women not given importance in the media?

Peep these reddit comments:

If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s important to watch this video.

If you’ve seen it, you will understand what’s at stake.

My grandmother and my mother watched their country (Iran) go

from this:

Pahlavi dynasty 1925 - 1979

• Women acquired the right to vote and run for parliament.

• Mothers and their newborn babies received free food from the government.

• Women were provided with financial support to study abroad.

• Women were elected to the Iranian parliament.

• A woman became Iran’s minister of education. (Executed by the Islamic Republic after 1979 for un-Islamic behaviour).

• Five female judges were appointed, including future Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

• Women were elected to town, city and country councils.

• Women entered the diplomatic corps, the judiciary and police force and the revolutionary service corps (education, health and development).

• Women were granted equal rights in marriage and divorce.

• Abortion were legalised.

• Women were allowed to dress as they liked.

• Women were allowed to dance, sing and consume alcoholic beverages.

• Women were encouraged to run for political office.

• Women were paid equal as men for equal work.

• 333 women were elected to local councils, 22 women were elected to parliament, and 2 served in the Senate. There were one cabinet minister (for women’s affairs), 3 sub-cabinet under-secretaries, one governor, an ambassador, and five women mayors.

• Iran established itself as playing a leading role for women’s rights among developing countries, introducing ideas and funds for the UN Regional Center for Research and Development for Asia and the Pacific, and the International Center for Research on Women.

to this:

Islamic Republic 1979 - Present

• Hijab became mandatory and were enforced upon women and girls as young as 6 years old.

• Khomeini announced that girls as young as 9 years old could be married to adult men.

• Women who violated the Islamic dress codes were flogged and stoned to death.

• Women’s testimony in court were half of a man’s.

• Women were not allowed to travel internationally without their husband’s permission.

• Men could legally stop their wives from working if they thought their job is damaging their dignity and Islamic beliefs.

• Men could divorce their wives by simple declaration, men also gained exclusive custody of their children.

• Women were barred from becoming judges.

• Women were banned from entering men’s sport stadiums.

• Women were not allowed to sing or dance.

• Women were encouraged to not work and be housewives instead.

• Many women who protested against the regime were tortured, raped and executed.

IMAGINE GOING FROM FREEDOM TO DOMINATION.

I CANNOT.

I CAN NOT.

It happened to them; couldn’t it happen to us?

The reason why I don’t believe it could is because I believe technology is on our side. The advancement of technology will always coexist with the proliferation of information. I believe fascism can only thrive in an environment where information isn’t accessible.. although it is kinda fucking freaky that we will lose tik tok in a matter of months. But together, with the assistance of machine learning, we the people will figure out a way educate the world, and certainly in a better and equitable way than the school system we were brought up in did.

But the point is a huge amount of the world has fallen prey to this exploitative way of thinking. Including half of this country that wants to vote for Trump. They believe that order and predictability is what is SAFE for everyone. And people all around the world are suffering right now because of it. Needlessly.

So by Wednesday, I thought— I want to do everything I can to live in a world that operates on fear and not on love.

I’ve been wanting that— I just felt a huge wave of responsibility and it felt very, very overwhelming.

I got ready for bed, and did what I always do when I feel overwhelmed. I put on the first Abraham Hicks video I could find.

God I love this woman. Everything clicked.

My most important work must arise out of of gratitude and love, not guilt and fear.

If I want to change the world, I have to embody the frequency of what I want in the world, I cannot be consumed with what I do not want in this world.

So that starts with CELEBRATING MY ABILITY TO EXPRESS MYSELF WHEN SO MANY CAN’T WITHOUT BEING PUNISHED.

WHY WOULD I PUNISH MYSELF BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE HAS THE CHANCE TO PUNISH ME???????????? WHY WOULD I LET FEAR OF JUDGMENT HOLD ME BACK WHEN OTHERS HAVE TO FEAR FOR THEIR LIFE? THE ONLY THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY BE EMBARRASSING IS NOT USING A PRIVILEGE THAT OTHERS WOULD GIVE UP SO MUCH FOR.

Beyond that, I must continue to leverage my platform as best as I can. I am still figuring this all out. I will do the work and make more videos sharing information the world needs to hear, in a way that people want to listen to. I will express myself as long as I am able to.

I was raised in a world that hoped for my cooperation and my lack of expression in order for those in power to maintain their power. I have resisted those efforts my whole life, but I was also shaped by them. I had to play by a lot of the rules before I could break them. Every day I must do the work to untangle those influences from my identity. Not because I seek power. I don’t. I seek freedom for myself and for the world. I seek joy for myself and for the world. I seek safety for myself and for the world. I seek love for myself and for the world.

I don’t know how I am going to do it, but I am going to do my best. I will not let guilt win the fight against gratitude.

This weekend, I will be on a brand trip. One of my good friends who got me one of my first brand deals does marketing for a celebrity brand and asked me to join as talent.

The only thing is… the trip is in Vegas. I could write a whole chapter on the heebie jeebies Vegas club spaces give me. When I was in my early 20s, I didn’t know any better and accepted club culture as “the way things were.” Incentivize attractive women to enter a space with music, drinks, and glamour— charge men to get to witness it. Look the other way when those girls get exploited.

I do feel like club culture is changing as women are becoming more financially independent.

More independence = less opportunity for exploitation. In every arena.

I am looking forward to going with an anthropologic lens and seeing the state of Vegas club culture now. Some of my best friends will be there. I am excited to feel the gratitude of wearing a little dress, singing loudly, dancing, dancing in public, drinking, drinking in public, celebrating life with people I love, all without fear of punishment. Getting paid to do it is a whole other blessing.

So as this week draws to a close, I’m reminded that the struggle for freedom and equality is ongoing, and that our roles in it, no matter how small they might seem, matter profoundly. I’ve felt the weight of the world’s injustices and the guilt of my own privilege, but I’ve also rediscovered the importance of leading with love, gratitude, and authenticity.

It’s easy to be consumed by the darkness, but that’s precisely when we need to celebrate our light—our ability to express, to create, to choose. In a world where so many are silenced, the act of using our voices becomes an act of resistance. And while I still don’t have all the answers, I know that living fully and fearlessly is a vital part of the fight. This weekend, I’ll embody that freedom—because the more we intentionally celebrate what we have, the closer we bring the possibility of a world where everyone can do the same.

I’ll leave you with this:

Helpful Activities

1. Have a debate with ChatGPT. Insert the following prompt. “I want to prepare for a debate against someone who disagrees that ________. Pretend that you are someone that believes _________. Let’s have a respectful debate about __________.” This will give you a better idea about why the people you disagree with think the way they do without human tendencies to get emotional or defensive. Think of it as debating on training wheels. Or rather, lifting weights in the gym to be stronger outside of the gym.

2. Go on a moderate to difficult walk. Be intentional about each step you take and think to yourself “This is the best step I could be taking, this is the best step I could be taking…” with every step you take, even just for a few minutes. This will help you develop self-trust.

3. Make an easy promise to yourself. The easier the better. (A 1 minute stretch is a good example. 30 seconds, even.) But KEEP IT for 7 days. Notice the difference. Make a new one. This will strengthen self-trust.

4. Walk into a store as if it’s a museum. It kind of is. You can just buy stuff in addition to looking at and touching it. Definitely try to do this in a store you feel like you shouldn’t walk into, for whatever dumb reason you came up with. This will strengthen self-esteem.

5. Ask people how they are before beginning a transaction with them. Don’t treat humans like robots.

6. Dance somewhere private. In heels. (If you want. But try first.)

7. Take a new path in a familiar place. This one is GOOD. One because I notice a lot of miracles when I do this, but two because it strengthens my ability to break patterns while still feeling safe. Interrupting compulsive patterns is very important skill.

8. Taking 1-2 minutes to clean every hour will do sooooo much for your mental clarity

9. “Take your time” is one of the sexiest thing anyone can say, in my opinion. Say it to yourself.'

10. BE HONEST!!!!!!!!!!!! As much as you possibly can!

Additional reading:

Experts Say the ‘New Normal’ in 2025 Will Be Far More Tech-Driven, Presenting More Big Challenges

“Gender Apartheid”: Taliban Approves Law in Afghanistan Requiring Women Remain Silent in Public

What drives female objectification? An investigation of appearance-based interpersonal perceptions and the objectification of women

Ideology and Iran’s Revolution: How 1979 Changed the World