It's risky to try to win April Fools, but we throw our name in the hat every year.
There was the time we sold to Broman LLC, which was subsequently published in trade reports. You all cried when you realized the women's only ski resort we opened could no longer live on your bucket list. And when we launched a men's line, half the population felt seen.
This year's AF joke was simpler in form, designed as an internal email to approve nude top sheets (joke), inspired by our OnlyFans (not a joke but laughing all the way to the bank). If you missed it or were afraid to click through, you can view it here.
No one will be surprised to learn a few women sent me curt messages, either forgetting or not realizing I'm the type of person who will respond and ask you for your number to have a real conversation. Funny how they stop clickety-clacking away when they are confronted with a real human interaction.
I am well aware naked women are provocative and divisive. That's why we offered up our own bodies: to get us to think about why we feel the way we do about women owning and celebrating their sexuality.
When you take something men have done TO women for millennia and flip it into something that women do FOR themselves, you engage in radical change. You upset the patriarchy.
Men have extracted our beauty and sensuality and have made riches off objectifying women. Not in this case. We control everything, start to finish.
What we are doing with our OnlyFans transcends the male gaze and is firmly rooted in the female gaze. We are reclaiming our bodies, our narrative, and our power.
We're making our own rules. We are not beholden to outdated social norms that make us feel small. We are embracing the parts of ourselves that have been shamed into silence. We feel a certain level of lightness about the things that make others—and perhaps at one time themselves—uncomfortable, and that is freeing. We are erasing the line that society drew in the sand, the line that has done nothing but keep us behind it.
I'm not suggesting that for women to be bold and beautiful they need to start an OnlyFans or put their HAWT AF naked bods on top sheets. They do not. What, how, and why women share their bodies is a personal choice, and we all deserve to make that for ourselves.
I would, however, like for us to move beyond the trite and frankly outdated conversations about women's sexuality. If we really wanted to do something to support women, we should be talking about whose bodies are safe and acceptable and whose aren't. I know when I share nude photos of myself the worst thing that will happen is someone will think I'm a dumb slut and they won't buy a pair of my skis. Other women—trans women, fat women, women of color—risk doxing and death, simply because they don't have a body that fits into the very narrow perimeters of what's considered beautiful.
Jokes on you if you believe what we do at Coalition is flippant and foolish. You don't have to like it; we know some days it's harder than others to look in the mirror.
xxoo,
Jen Gurecki, she/her, CEO of Coalition Snow