The Myth of Girlboss Influencers: Molly-Mae says work harder!
By: Anisah Mahamoud, BA International Relations
Molly-Mae Hague of Love Island has been blasted for being insensitive after making statements on the Diary of a CEO podcast about how ‘strong’ her potential in climbing the corporate ladder was. PrettyLittleThing (PLT) appointed her as creative director in 2021, and she stated that she will go to
‘whatever length’ to succeed.
The concept of ‘everyone has the same 24 hours in a day’ is not new; it has origins in 20th-century individualism and meritocracy, as well as the conviction that the more you work, the more successful you will be.
Influencer culture revolves around this concept. It appears democratic because anyone may create a social network account. Not only do beauty standards play a big role in Instagram’s visual economy, but the amount of money and time you put into creating an aspirational environment can be the difference between relative obscurity and internet celebrity. That’s not even taking into account who gets what external
opportunities. You can spend years and thousands of pounds on perfecting your look in order to be placed on programmes like Love Island, but the bulk of candidates, including Hague, are now requested to apply.
Her job as a creative director at PrettyLittleThing pays her a wealthy sum yet the company is a well-known exploiter of its garment workers, having been chastised for paying employees as little as £3.50 an hour in Leicester to create the items she advertises.
Her job as a creative director at PrettyLittleThing pays her a wealthy sum yet the company is a well-known exploiter of its garment workers, having been chastised for paying employees as little as £3.50 an hour in Leicester to create the items she advertises. Who is Hague to tell people they aren’t ‘working hard’ enough when her money is built on the exploitation of these garment workers?
Many garment workers, including those employed by PLT, work in hazardous environments, with factories routinely failing to meet basic health and safety requirements. During the pandemic, these factories were a hotbed for Covid-19 due to overcrowding and a shortage of facemasks, hand sanitizers and sanitary toilets. It’s no surprise that garment manufacturers had a higher rate of Covid-19 mortality than other industries, with sewing machinists four times as likely to die as their counterparts in other industries. Surprisingly, women from diverse ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately represented among those working in these appalling conditions.
Hague’s beliefs are representative of a broader Thatcherite ideology that has been around for years and has been internalised by generations of individuals. The belief that people can work themselves out of poverty is a Conservative myth that ignores underlying disparities and defends political decisions like successive Conservative Governments’ lack of assistance to the working classes.
The notion that simple hard work can lift you out of poverty implies that poverty is a choice based on laziness, and it is founded on a damaging, reductionist, individualistic worldview that demonstrates stunning ignorance about inequality and privilege. Perhaps it is time to channel our indignation at Hague into a critical examination of our government, which promotes the same mindset, with hazardous policy ramifications that continue to widen the chasm in our society.
Photo Caption: Molly-Mae Hague filming the Diary of a CEO podcast. (Credit: YouTube/The Diary Of A CEO)
