Who doesn’t want to be a princess? I mean come on it’s a total steal, elegant dresses, elaborate living facilities, a handsome prince to love and take care of you…
Princess stories fill the minds of young girls with romance, fantasy, and an idea of what high society looks like. But what does our modern-day version of royalty look like? What values have we placed on wealth and power? And most importantly, where do women fit in all of it?
There is a lot to unpack when it comes to wealth, power, and femininity. I wanted to look at these topics in light of Anna Bey’s methods for women to obtain the high-life of both wealth and power.
(Photo Courtesy of Instagram)
Anna Bey, pictured above, is the founder and author of Jetsetbabe.com. Since 2012, Anna Bey has used her blog to teach women how to enter the elite class and date billionaires. Bey’s platforms have expanded from her blog to her YouTube channel, and even a school where women can take classes on high society, etiquette, and beauty.
Her whole initiative centers around showing women how to function in high society and gain security in wealth and power through affluent men. Her target audience is women who seek a life of financial security with the ability to indulge a luxurious lifestyle.
(Photo Courtesy of YouTube)
In her blogs she calls for women to play into the male ego by giving compliments and refraining from asking about money on the first date. She tells women they need to fit certain beauty standards. She advises that women always wear nail polish and makeup but not too much makeup or else the man will get the wrong idea. She goes as far to explain how she, herself, got cheekbone implants and lip injections to make herself more appealing to men.
Male dependency is not the answer women should be looking for in order to obtain wealth and power. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting support from a male counterpart. Each woman should have the ability to realize the choice to do so. However, from Anna Bey I am not seeing a promotion of choice, but rather an optionless call for conformity.
This whole idea is startling. While Anna Bey promotes women obtaining an education and being self-sufficient I consider her advice far from empowering to women.
It is not empowering to advise women to change themselves in order to play into and promote the flourishing of the male gaze. I feel that Bey is promoting a social structure that not only is oppressive and wrong, but one that is changing. While there is some merit to an egotistical wealth that can be found among affluent people, this is not to say that the upcoming affluent man will fall under an appetite for luxurious goods. Times are changing, and wealth is shifting, and to assume otherwise is not helpful in the strides made towards social equality.
The idea of being supported is not one that I want to squash. I, myself, love to get whisked away in a whimsical tale every now and then. I cherish the idea of living an elaborate lifestyle, but I would like to earn it on my own terms. Prince Charming or no Prince Charming, welcoming all forms for empowerment is important, but recognizing those most applicable to defining yourself worth is even more important.