Hello you wonderful beings (I want to say wonderfully delicious beings but that would be too personal and actually i'm saving that for one delicious being at a time!)
This weeks has been rather special to me. As you may or may not know, I've taken the step from part time self employed to full time Self employed. EEK & YAY!! A step i'm incredibly proud of and one I chose to document on my personal Facebook page. Little did I know that the following sentence would cause such offence to one person...
"Oh and then there's my workshop, the Jewellers Hub. A fabulous community of female jewellers I have built over the past 2 years. Lots more to happen with that as well!"
Apparently me referring to my workshop as all female is discrimination. plus they added "Is that female jewellers , so only want female customers, so will we have male jewellers making only for men"
Firstly I have to say huh?! As you can imagine, an excited, heartfelt announcement on a personal post on my personal account being met with negativing and being told is discriminatory actually broke a piece of my heart. Add to the mix this bonkers accusation or assumption that I only work for women, well again all I can say is huh?! I can’t actually put into words how important this (my business and workshop) is to me and how proud I am. To be able to say that is huge for me. Truly huge, which made this response all the more painful and somewhat baffling. I did respond but I tried to reply as calmly as possible, i'll let you decide how I did. I haven't included their replies as do not wish to have the negative vibes on my positive website. And you may question why am I writing this at all, well I think its important to share and let you know there will be people that will try and bring you down, knock you down or find an issue with what you are doing but this is more of a reflection of them then you. So long as you genuinely have been true, have not caused true offence or bring pain to others then stand your ground and stay "on brand" meaning be you, do you and in the words of my grandmother, don't let the b-ards get you down! Shes a little potty mouth (blush)
"Females don’t make just for women, I certainly don’t nor do males make just for men. More women buy jewellery then men in the UK. Also it just so happens that i’ve happen to have built a space/community of fabulous female jewellers which subsequently has become important part of my workshop for me. But no one has been excluded. We did for a year have a gent here. It feels like more women are entering the trade than men but not earning the same as their males equivalents in employed work so the fact that we 5 are taking this next step is incredible. Let me ask you, would you have made a similar comment had I been a male with a workshop full of gents?
(Enter being refereed to as discriminatory, and something referring to different generations...)
"Sadly you have missed the point of my post and failed to read my reply to you (see above) I'm sad that a group empowering themselves and each other has causes offence to you. Its a truly special place. If and when a space becomes available it will be open to all as it has always been. Each generation has something they have to deal with and face. There are things that we can all learn from the past generations, the younger generations and looking at our own generation. My post, myself, my workshop and my work is in no way discriminatory. Its sad that from something so positive you have found negativity. You do not know of my challenges in my work life, business life and in my personal life to get where I am today. So I will say it again, I am proud."
SO how did I do, were my responses ok?
Now for the cheeky part, if you enjoyed reading please Help me spread the word of my baby, my passion, my love, my jewellery business. Thank you you wonderful beings.
R X