Synopsis:
She signed up for the sisterhood, free cars, and the promise of a successful business of her own. Instead, she ended up with an addiction, broken friendships, and the rubble of a toppled pyramid . . . scheme. Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing is the eye-opening, funny, and dangerous personal story of author Emily Lynn Paulson rising to the top of the pyramid in the multilevel marketing (MLM) world, only to recognize that its culture and business practices went beyond a trendy marketing scheme and into the heart of white supremacy in America. A significant polemic on how MLMs operate, Hey, Hun expertly lays out their role in the cultural epidemic of isolation and the cult-like ideologies that course through their trainings, marketing, and one-on-one interactions. Equally entertaining and smart, Paulson’s first-person accounts, acerbic wit, and biting commentary will leave you with a new perspective on those “Hey Hun” messages flooding your inbox.
Edition:
Hardcover
My Thoughts:
I find multilevel marketing/corporate cults fascinating. I find corporate feminism fascinating. Hey, Hun hits both of those marks for me. In it, author Emily Lynn Paulson talks about her time in the upper echelons of a fictionally-named Multilevel Marketing company. She talks about all of the culty ways these MLMs operate, and all the culty things they make their members take part in.
She also talks about how emotionally damaging and draining that sort of life is. How you’re constantly looking to absorb every new person you meet into your stupid god damned downline. How you’re encouraged to always be working. One hundred percent of your life. She also talks a little bit about how MLMs tend to target new recruits – how they tend toward women, especially stay at home mothers who are aching for connection and community outside the confines of their homes. How they prey on immigrants in a new country for the same reason. And how ultimately, they don’t really want their recruits to succeed at selling – they just want that endless supply of tasty fresh blood.
It’s all really sick.
And then she says stuff like this, which just sort of makes me hate her:
“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”
Like, on the one hand, I like that she sometimes comes off as very self-aware. Like, she does admit to understanding that MLMs encourage (and rely upon) the continued empowerment of The Patriarchy. That they are tied in disturbing ways to Christian Envangelism, racism and racist organizations, Conservative lobbying organizations, etc. But then she goes and says some dumb shit like, “I’m lonely and vulnerable cuz I’m so rich lol.” Or she talks about how she knew she was working for an organization that actively engages in predation of lower-income and otherwise disadvantaged workers. She knew that she was sitting back collecting tens of thousands of dollars per paycheck that most of her downline was making little to nothing. She still did it without much more than a thought. And I hate that.
I don’t know – at first I thought Hey, Hun was a super rollicking good time, but…the longer I sit with it the more I think it was a moderately interesting dive into a really fucked up world guided by the second- or third-to-last person you’d ever want guiding you. Someone who actively and willingly suckled from its dispicable teat for YEARS with never enough remorse to do anything about it. Until she did. I know nobody’s perfect. And I appreciate that Paulson seems to be actively trying to be a better person than she was in and before her addiction.
My Rating:
I don’t know, y’all. I’m conflicted. I thought this book was super interesting. But if you’re looking for just the information, and less of the “let’s all feel bad for the rich lady” business, I think it would be just as good, and maybe feel better to get your info from a different source. I suggest Iilluminaughtii’s Multi-Level Mondays on YouTube.
Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing By Emily Lynn Paulson Row House Publishing ISBN: 9781955905251 Hardcover, Ebook, Audio 384 Pages
