To be perfectly clear, your body is your own and you can do with it whatever you will, sans judgment.
You can show it all, hide it all, post solely pictures of your face making the same expression, whatever makes you happy. Just so long as you feel like you're posting something because you want to and not because you feel pressured to.
That being said, the cannabis industry is riddled with girls posting pictures of themselves on social media in all states of undress, holding a plethora of paraphernalia, using their wiles to lure male followers to their accounts.
Weed is a boy's club, and females are still trying to elbow their way in to get jobs, roles and recognition; everyone knows Snoop Dogg but do you know Dr. Dina 420, his dealer, a well-known cannabis advocate and the “real life Nancy Botwin” from Weeds? Probably not.
This is Dr. Dina:
Sometimes women struggle to dominate in the marijuana industry; so they use the parts of themselves that they know men pay attention to: Their bodies.
Account after account on Instagram and Tumblr are filled with girls displaying their greatest physical features to push products, strains, and clothing for their favorite companies (or their own!).
My personal favorite is Coral Reefer, who ropes in the boys with a “bong on her boobs” pic every now and then and follows that up by blasting education and female power throughout her YouTube videos, Facebook posts and Instagram pictures.
She is the literal representation of the female plight in cannabis today: Attractive, willing to show her body to her own comfort level, and filled with knowledge to keep her followers, well, following.
With a few exceptions, pot shops are bursting with beautiful girls who are knowledgeable about cannabis but are constantly pressured to wear crop tops and booty shorts to push product on the sales floor.
The men are in the back doing the bulk buying and business operations. Again, I said there are exceptions—some shops are almost fully female-run.
Lots of shops let women dress and speak how they want regardless of the pressures from other businesses to “sex it up.” The last thing I want to do is lump all cannabis professionals into one category.
But, it's undeniable that women are struggling to be taken seriously.
A quick glance at YouTube comments on accounts like Coral Reefer and Silenced Hippie reveals that the vast majority of commenters are supporters, but many, many of them argue against the credibility of these women solely based on the lame assumption that a woman cannot have authority in this industry.
As a female budtender, I have been passive aggressively asked to step aside so a patient can deal with a male budtender. I've listened to a patient ask to speak to a manager only to hear a female tell him, “I'm the manager.”
Whether you're into the cannabis scene as a businessperson or not, you can see that the more a girl is willing to show in a picture, the more likes and followers she accumulates and the more recognition as a cannabis pro.
These pictures are a way for us to slither into the boy's club and start earning a place at the table; so keep it up if it's capturing persistent followers who are listening to your message.
Personally, I'd love to see some more-creative pictures of where we can put our bongs, wouldn't you?
Here is what a great quantity of Instagram pictures are—bongs literally right up on boobs:
Where can you put your bong instead?
Maybe be ironic like Lil Debbie and wear a D.A.R.E. shirt while smoking a bong. After all, most of us don't even consider marijuana a drug at this point. It's medicine:
My favorite right now is the “Crouching in a forest with her bong” by Simmone Martland:
I'll like your pictures regardless of what they look like as long as you seem like you're trying to help the plight of the cannabis industry.
Don't take it so seriously that haters can affect you. And if you are a woman in the cannabis industry, and you are being treated unfairly, make some noise! The only way we will have an even playing field is if everyone acknowledges that the field is currently skewed.
If you feel empowered selling pot in a crop top and booty shorts, more power to ya.
If you want to pursue cannabis as a long-time career and fear for your job once you no longer feel comfortable in those clothes, then get creative with those pictures.
Show the world what this amazing plant can do.
This post was originally written by Adrienne Airhart for The Kind.
Citations: Women In Weed: You Don't Have To Put A Bong On Your Boobs (The Kind)
