Ella Gilbert
Molly-Mae Hague, an influencer, previous Love Island contestant and current creative director of PrettyLittleThing, sparked controversy last week over comments made in a podcast. Hague, 21, appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast with host Steven Bartlett where she explained her mindset behind her success. Some of the comments have been criticised for failing to recognise her privileged circumstances, and have led to floods of online hate and calls for her resignation. But were public responses amplified by misogyny and societal expectations of women?
Who is Molly-Mae?
Molly-Mae Hague was a small influencer prior to her appearance on Love Island in 2019 and has been divided those on social media ever since she shot to fame. She was criticised repeatedly during her time in the villa, nicknamed Money-Mae, for supposedly faking her relationship for the coveted £50,000 cash prize. Although she may not have won the top prize, Molly-Mae has been incredibly successful in her various business and fashion ventures since the show.
After leaving the villa, the influencer signed a deal with PrettyLittleThing to become one of their brand ambassadors and release several clothing collections with them. In 2021, she went on to sign with the online fashion brand as their creative director. Despite being only 22, she is undoubtedly one of the most financially successful ex-Islanders, but her life in the spotlight has led to possibly more than her fair share of abuse on social media.
The Molly-Mae slamming is relentless jesus. Never learn do we 🤐 Same folk that will tweet “#bekind” next week 🥱
— Lauren Duncan (@laurenduncan_x) January 7, 2022
What did she say?
In December 2021, Molly-Mae was interviewed by Steven Bartlett for the Diary of a CEO podcast. Over the last few week, comments made by the influencer have blown up on social media resulting in a lot of backlash towards Hague. In discussion about how she became so successful in such a short space of time, the 22-year-old referred to a quote: “We all have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyoncé”.
This conversation caused uproar on social media about privilege and opportunities, arguing that, while we may have the same amount of time in the day, not everyone is able to spend those same 24 hours in the way she can. Molly-Mae’s comments were not thought-through and failed to address many issues of accessibility, white feminism, and her financial advantages. But it seems to me that she has poorly phrased her motivations rather than suggesting everyone is able to create a career like she has.
How are the reactions misogynistic?
When asked about their journey to success, many entrepreneurs and CEOs often just claim to have worked hard and nobody seems to bat an eyelid. Women are constantly criticised and nit-picked in discussions about success and their journey to it. Successful women who speak openly about their career are shamed for being proud, their achievements are belittled and they are usually attacked for not addressing bigger issues. When women finally break the glass ceiling, they are left constantly having to defend themselves.
People hold women to higher standards and criticise more intensely when they say things out of turn. If it had been a man who said that, would it be the same? Bartlett, the podcast’s host, tweeted that his male guests say things like that all the time without a second thought. Why has it become acceptable in society to hold women to an entirely different standard of accountability than that of which we hold to men? We seem to jump on any opportunity to ‘cancel’ women, rather than explaining and educating in a more civilised manner.
I’ve become very aware of the double standard that successful women face.
If I Interview a man, he can brag about money, take full credit for his success and talk about his cars?
If I interview a successful women, she’s got to tip toe around her success and watch her words?
— Steven Bartlett (@SteveBartlettSC) January 7, 2022
Social Media and Cancel Culture
There are issues with Molly-Mae’s comments. It is not an even playing field, success is not as simple as using your time right – and Molly-Mae should have addressed these things. That being said, her comments did not stem from malice. The attitudes on social media trying to cancel Molly-Mae and accuse her of being ‘Thatcherite’ are just as damaging as the initial somewhat ignorant comments made by the influencer. It becomes normalised to slate women you do not know on the internet for any, and every tiny, mistake.
there’s a HUGE difference between critically engaging with molly-mae’s comments and straight-up bullying and belittling a young woman. it’s like we’ve learned nothing from caroline flack, mike thalassitis, sophie gradon…
— carissa (@filmbycarissa) January 8, 2022
Individuals making their success on Love Island has always been controversial, so much so that the sight of a ‘cancelled’ Islander is not uncommon. Cancel culture is damaging. People should be held accountable, but the current attitudes on social media just encourage them to become defensive. To me, it is that clear Hague was talking about her own motivations in a badly worded way. We should be educating influencers to use their platform to promote accessibility and help break barriers to success, rather than accusing them of ignoring these factors entirely.
Molly-Mae’s comments fail to address the many barriers that prevent people from success and does not necessarily acknowledge the privileged position she finds herself in. However, there is no denying she works hard. Just as hard as any man in a powerful position. These men speak out of turn all the time; if we are going to scrutinise and cancel one successful person for that, we should at least be consistent with it.
Image courtesy of Lucas Hoang on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license can be found here.
Ella Gilbert
Ella is History and Spanish student at the University of Sheffield. She is the social media manager for Empoword and a keen writer for various publications. When not writing or studying (which is far more often than she'd like to admit), you can find her exploring the outdoors, going out for drinks with friends, or in bed with Netflix and TikTok.