Hey, Hun Quotes

“And it feels very similar to rushing a sorority; the planned conversation with the more important sorority sisters, always pretty, usually white, who've already gone through a list of photos and have their favorites pegged and the answers to their questions preloaded. "Oh, no way! You were a cheerleader, too?! So was I! You'll fit in so well in our house!" Meanwhile, we, of source, knew she was a cheerleader because we spent days studying the rushee's photos and applications, and we already knew which ones we'd be attacking. And here I am, in my mid-thirties, re-creating the same behavior to sell a similar promise of a different sisterhood.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“They preach unwavering faith with a clear absence of critical thinking,”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“must be discredited and ignored. This is the T in the BITE Model: thought control. And thought control forbids critical questions about the leader, doctrine, or policy.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“At this point, I have experienced firsthand how racism and MLMs go hand-in-hand, but what I didn't know was that even the Ku Klux Klan was structured as a pyramid scheme for a period of time.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“This extends beyond MLMs, of course, to the white women wellness space. Take a gander at Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness brand. Celebrities have a knack for convincing women that they can afford the designer lifestyle and all the products that go with it, and it will make their lives better. Goop has made headlines for selling vagina crystals and co-opting controversial doctors (ones who argue that HIV doesn't cause AIDS, for example). Many find that the health benefits of their products don't quite match up to what they sell, and why would they? Goop's goal isn't health - the goal is to make Gwyneth Paltrow richer.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“If people blame themselves, they turn away from the real flaws in the system.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“A few years later, I will watch a Trump rally and realize why there are so many die-hard fans. Because when you are routinely forgotten and ignored, all it takes is one person with power to legitimize your existence. This is the heart of the MLM structure. The upline legitimizes the downline through attention, keeping people hooked even when the commissions aren’t coming in, even when they have spent five years of their life, money, and time to still be a Station Zero. It’s easy to ignore this when the bill of goods you’re being sold is a sisterhood you’ve never really had before. Leaving and being lonely is worse than losing money.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“right now” marketing scheme? I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but when you’re in the business of telling other women that they need to lose weight; have better skin, longer hair, and more money; or spend more time with their kids, you really don’t have their best interests at heart.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“Leaning into fear applies when you are performing a concerto and need to put in extra hours on the difficult passages to meet a goal. It does not mean denying your own inner knowing that something is indeed not okay and telling yourself your intuition is wrong.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“Because when you are routinely forgotten and ignored, all it takes is one person with power to legitimize your existence.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“This is your assignment from the Lord!”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“white women aren’t actually being empowered with this ladyboss rhetoric, which convinces them that they are the hunter, when actually, they are the prey.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“Ten dollars per consultant, please!” Wait, what? We have to pay for this? I don’t remember seeing that on the promo, but I was a little more fixated on how my photo looked, not the content. “But I’m presenting,” I mention. “Yeah, consultants always pay; guests are free, but if you’re a consultant, it’s ten bucks,”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“you are supposed to attempt to dispel their worries, and if you can’t, you need to distance yourself from them, block them on social media, and toe the company line.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“Sociology generally defines community as a social unit that shares something in common, such as customs, characteristics, values, beliefs, or norms; no financial strings are attached. Because there is a financial hierarchy in an MLM, with women making money off one another’s sales, this recruiting tool can never create true community.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“When it was published, it exposed the mysterious terminology, mass meetings, focus on recruitment, toxic positivity, and complete and unquestioning dedication to the company”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“aren’t about women succeeding; they are about using the appearance of female success to help the company succeed.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“According to research, fathers with children under eighteen spend about three more hours per week on leisure time than mothers. And while leisure activities for men generally include playing sports, exercising, or watching TV or other media, mothers' activities are often expected to be normal day-to-day activities chalked up to self-care. "Go take a bath! Go take a nap! Go to bed early!" Gee, thanks, society. When we aren't momming, we are expected to be working; and when we aren't working we are expected to be momming! Maybe this is why mothers feel more exhausted and stressed during their leisure time than fathers do, and why co-opting a business trip for some R&R is the best excuse there is to do business.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“MLMs tend to be value-agnostic in this way, using any opportunity to spin someone's sob story to their advantage, even if the MLM's culture is directly related to dopamine hits and addictive behavior. I've heard keynote speeches from women who had lost children or spouses, dealt with cancer, gone through painful divorces, become paralyzed, or survived domestic-abuse situations, all spun in a way that would lead you to believe the MLM unlocked their ability to process this trauma. Indoctrination through other women's pain. And now, I am the new inspirational tale. I actually feel honored.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“As Savannah Worley explains in her viral Medium article, "Dear White Women: Here's Why It's Hard to Be Friends with You," white women, myself included (knowingly or unknowingly), maintain the patriarchy by relying on white supremacy. Internalized misogyny and racism (subconscious or not) teach us that we should not climb over anyone to get to the top of the white-male hierarchy. Because white men will always be at the top. The feminized patriarchal image we've been raised with will make us cling to our own white supremacy and internalized misogyny.”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

“According to a study from Yale University, women like us (traditional marriage roles, upper middle class, privileged) experience a higher degree of isolation, as we have smaller meaningful social groups than women in lower socioeconomic levels. This has to do with the fact that more-advantaged women are less likely to know other women from their same socioeconomic group than less-advantaged women are. And as I had experienced, though I had a large network, a lot of it was superficial. I only had a handful of friends I'd consider close. Since social connections are fundamental to well-being, if you're a person-of-privilege who doesn't have a community but needs one because you're also still a living, breathing human being with feelings, why not just buy your community”
― Emily Lynn Paulson, Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing