Sex, Money and Female Liberation

I just finished watching Lady Boss. It's a documentary on the life and career of Jackie Collins, a woman who way back in 1968 disrupted the publishing industry with her first book "The World is Full of Married Men".

Yes, she was "fed up with married men coming onto her at Hollywood parties". But she also wanted to wake up women to show them there's more to life than domesticity and boring sex. A bit like me wanting to wake women up to their financial potential? 🤔

Her story exposed the secrets, lies and tactics of married men who cheat and it was super sexually graphic for the time. In fact, Jackie is credited for "changing the way women got to have sex" - women in Jackie's books got to have sex like a man, they were sexually liberated!

With no formal qualifications, she went on to write 32 books, 30 of them New York Times best sellers. She sold over 500 million copies of her books and made hundreds of millions of dollars in her own name. 

Her books' heroines were based on women living the kind of life that up until then was only available to men. Strong, capable, intelligent, confident, wealthy, independent and attractive women who knew how to follow their desires, goals and dreams.

Her sexually liberated heroines were abhorred by the powers that be (women weren't supposed to act this way!) and in the early days her books were banned in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Controversy aside, Jackie was a woman who broke the mould. After being expelled from school at 15, she followed her destiny, she lived her passion, and she made a hell of a lot of money doing it - doing what she loved.

Jackie was also good at money. She invested in property and stocks, and she produced movies and TV series long before our beloved Reese Witherspoon was doing it. I'm sure it wasn't easy for her paving this path for the rest of us to follow, but I'm glad she did. 

My favourite Jackie money move...

Her publishing contracts pre-dated the digital age so she took the opportunity to self-publish her back catalogue as eBooks! By the time she passed away in 2015, Jackie had a net worth of over $180,000,000.

What a woman. 

If there were no limits to what you could achieve, what would you do next?

If your success was assured, how would you like to make your millions? 

Jackie's motto was "girls can do anything". She believed that when girls are getting ready to leave school and step into life "they should be taught that they can do anything!" 

"My heroines do what women would - if they had the courage."

What would you do if you had the courage? I'd love to hear all about it. Send me an email or comment below and let me know!