In recent years, the language of empowerment has become a powerful currency. Across social media platforms, influencers, celebrities, and brands strategically deploy feminist language like “self-love”, “confidence”, “body acceptance”, and “inclusivity” to cultivate loyal audiences and sell products. This phenomenon, often described as “marketplace feminism” or “empowerment for sale,” raises critical questions about what modern empowerment looks like, who benefits from it, and whether it ultimately supports or dilutes feminist ideals.
The Rise of “Marketplace Feminism”
The term “marketplace feminism” describes a mainstream, easily digestible version of feminism that is welcoming to consumers and advertisers. Rather than focusing on structural change, this form of feminism emphasizes individual confidence, personal choice, self-care, and aesthetic empowerment, all of which neatly align with consumer capitalism.
On platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, empowerment often becomes a slogan, a brand identity, a mood, a lifestyle, or a product. The underlying question becomes: Is empowerment still empowerment when it depends on consumption? Here are some examples we can pick apart that we see in our society today.
Empowerment or Commodity?
1. Emma Watson and the HeForShe Campaign
Emma Watson’s 2014 United Nations speech and subsequent HeForShe campaign represent a more traditional, structural vision of empowerment. Rather than focusing on personal transformation, HeForShe aims to mobilize men as partners in dismantling gender inequality.
Watson’s activism feels more grounded in concepts like collective liberation rather than individual uplift, institutional critique, emphasis on gender socialization and patriarchy, intersectional awareness, even if imperfectly implemented.
While Watson still benefits from celebrity branding, her message does not revolve around selling products or aesthetics. Instead, she uses her platform to legitimize feminist discourse in mainstream spaces.
In the context of “empowerment for sale”, Watson represents the less commercialized side of empowerment, demonstrating that public figures can promote feminist values without directly monetizing them.
2. Beyoncé’s “Flawless” and Pop-Feminist Branding
Beyoncé’s global hit “Flawless”, featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk “We Should All Be Feminists,” helped define the era of pop feminism. Her music and visual albums champion female pleasure, women’s independence, survival under patriarchal systems, Black womanhood, and creativity. Yet Beyoncé also operates within a commercialized, highly stylized pop empire. Her feminism is often branded, aesthetic, and tied to her global image.
In the context of “empowerment for sale”, there is some tension. Beyoncé’s work uses real feminist ideas, especially around Black feminism, but it also merges these ideas with luxury imagery, beauty standards, and massive merchandise campaigns. Some critics argue that her feminism is heavily mediated by capitalist consumption patterns. Still, Beyoncé’s contributions undeniably expanded mainstream feminist visibility, especially for Black women, which traditional feminism often neglected.
3. Spencer Barbosa and Everyday, Consumable Empowerment
Spencer Barbosa, a Gen Z influencer known for body positivity and self-love videos, offers a distinctly modern form of empowerment. Her content appeals to viewers who crave relatability, comfort, daily emotional support, and affirmations.
Barbosa’s messages—“you are enough,” “love your body,” “you deserve more”—are empowering to many young women navigating insecurity. However, her platform is also integrated with brand deals, self-love merchandise, and sponsorships tied to her empowerment messaging.
Her brand is built on being authentic, yet that authenticity is constantly curated within a commercial ecosystem. Barbosa is central to “empowerment for sale”. She embodies a soft, consumable feminism that revolves around emotional empowerment—one that both helps followers and generates profit.
4. The Wizard Liz and the Discipline of Self-Empowerment
The Wizard Liz, a lifestyle and self-improvement influencer, represents a different angle: empowerment through self-discipline, self-worth, and personal boundaries. Her advice encourages women to: reject male validation, stop settling, prioritize themselves, and build self-esteem. Her aesthetic is aspirational, almost cinematic, which leads to both admiration and critique. Her empowerment model aligns with postfeminism because it focuses on individual transformation, personal responsibility, emotional self-regulation, and independence from men. However, her influence often intersects with beauty standards, luxury lifestyles, and high-performance femininity. She also profits from the aspirational image she encourages others to chase.
5. Quenlin Blackwell: Influencer Authenticity Meets High Fashion
Quenlin “Quen” Blackwell represents the transition from digital empowerment to mainstream visibility. Her journey—from Vine comedian to TikTok star to Victoria’s Secret runway model—embodies the cultural shift toward recognizing influencers as legitimate cultural forces. Her empowerment narrative emphasizes self-belief, manifestation, breaking industry norms, and confidence as a form of resistance. As a Black, queer creator, she also broadens representation in the fashion world, challenging traditional beauty standards and model archetypes. Quenlin illustrates how empowerment and commodification can exist simultaneously. Yet her VS debut also raises important questions: Was she chosen for empowerment or for brand relevance? Is VS diversifying meaningfully or simply rebranding? How does influencer authenticity function when absorbed into corporate branding?
Across these examples, several patterns emerge:
1. Empowerment Has Become a Brand
Influencers sell empowerment as a vibe, an aesthetic, a product, and a lifestyle shift. Empowerment is no longer just political; it’s marketable.
2. Authenticity Itself Is a Commodity
Platforms reward content that feels real, even when highly curated. Influencers package their vulnerability, self-love journeys, and empowerment talk into profit-generating content.
3. Empowerment Has Shifted From Collective to Individual
Modern empowerment avoids systemic critique, focuses on personal improvement, and aligns with self-optimization. Instead of addressing structural oppression, it often tells women to “fix” their mindset.
4. Representation Is Expanding but Still Commercialized
Influencers like Blackwell demonstrate progress in representation, but their visibility can often benefit brands more than communities.
Is Empowerment Still Empowering?
“Empowerment for sale” doesn’t necessarily mean empowerment is fake; it means empowerment has been woven into capitalism. Influencers genuinely help their audiences, but they also operate within an economic system that monetizes emotions, identity, and social issues. The tension is not between true and false empowerment. It is between empowerment as liberation and empowerment as a product.