Marketing in the New World and Karen Tate’s New Book on Normalizing Abuse by Caryn MacGrandle

Marketing was my thing in college.  And my first professional job out of college was in Marketing at the Regional Headquarters of Canon in Dallas.  And then my life took me out into the weeds: a marriage to an Airforce pilot following him to the snow filled tundra of North Dakota, the swamps of Mississippi, two divorces, four children, twists and turns and ups and downs all landing smack dab to where I sit in front of my computer at the moment outside of Huntsville, Alabama at 53 finally feeling like I’ve got somewhat of a handle on this crazy ride called Life or at least a better idea of how to buckle in and enjoy the ups and get through the downs.

I’m in the midst of adding a store to my computer app that lists Sacred Circles all over the world so that I can showcase some really incredible books, tarot and oracle decks, statues and other products that my friends and colleagues have created.  And as I research and learn Shopify, my stomach turns as it mainly is video after video on how you ‘take’ people.  How you jump ahead of the competition selling the same stuff but get people to buy your stuff while getting them to feel as if they have gotten the deal of the century.  Free product but you make your money on the shipping and handling.  Free shipping but you make your money on the product.  Compare at prices. Apps to continually remind potential customers to buy.  Get in front of your customers faces. Get them to open their wallet. Again.  Again.  Again.

So you can take that cruise.

At the same time, as a regular contributor to Feminism and Religion, I receive an email looking for volunteers to read Karen Tate’s new book Normalizing Abuse:  A Commentary on the Culture of Pervasive Abuse. 

I have been familiar with Karen Tate and her long running Voices of the Sacred Feminine radio show that ran over a decade.  I am in deep appreciation of all the women who paved the way for the work so many of us are doing now.

I say yes.  And read the book.

It is not an easy read. Paragraph after paragraph and example after example of the abuse inherent in our civilization.  Some of it I rebuke, ‘no, that is not true.’ But this little voice inside me keeps nudging ‘what if?’ ‘What if’ even if just some of what she says is true: that these abusive, traumatic, oppressive ‘norms’ have been built into and integral to the business, police, media and foundation that we grew up thinking were the land of the free and the land of opportunity? Because let’s face it, everywhere you look, people are sliding backwards, hurting, stressed and falling through the cracks while the ‘haves’ desperately hold even tighter to their so called ‘security’.

It brings me down.  It is nowhere near as fun as ordering the Lofbaz pants off of Amazon so that I can wear them to my belly dancing classes.

But I know that it is essential.

Karen’s book has a thought provoking several page long intro by Matthew Fox, American priest, theologian and author of 35 books on spirituality and contemporary culture who writes:

Carl Jung predicted that our times, the times of the Aquarian Age, would be a time when evil would no longer be under the table but on top of the table for all to see. But he anguished over whether we would have the courage and the will to address it. We address evil by 1) seeing and acknowledging what is going on and 2) by way of action. Jung asked: Would we have the will to respond and to act?

Will we have the will to respond and act?

Karen mentions my divine feminine app on her newly returned now called podcast instead of radio show.  I have a woman who hears this, becomes a member on my app and wants to participate more fully.  I am speaking with her tomorrow. 

I do the review for Karen and offer to write a post for her about her book on FAR. 

My home is filled with books by friends and peers because I consider it a deep honor to spend the $10-20 supporting their creative processes that have birthed these books.  These books open new pathways, help us see other perspectives, know we are not alone and otherwise shift and change our current paradigm.

As I am pondering on this post, I check out the podcasts on Karen’s newly returned show.  One jumps out at me on Restoring Sisterhood by Beth Bartlett.  I like what Beth has to say on Sisterhood:

“Sisterhood is not about unity, about women coming together and agreeing about everything.  It’s about women acting in solidarity with each other, listening and responding, acting and advocating, showing up to do the work.  Sisterhood is about honoring and acting on the obligation we have to each other. “

I put everything aside to simmer in my brain overnight, and this morning I wake up to a FAR post by Beth Bartlett speaking of her transplanted heart. 

I post about these things on the app and think to myself that this is what marketing should truly be:  communication, authenticity and collaboration.

Not how do you sell the most crap to the most people to make the most money.

Normalizing Abuse:  A Commentary on the Culture of Pervasive Abuse by Karen Tate.  Karen’s book made me think about how I grew up privileged in a predominantly white, high middle class neighborhood with superb schools.  My mother was the first in her family to go to college.  My father came from Irish immigrants who were put on boats and worked as chauffeurs when they got here.  My path of trajectory was to work hard, get a college degree and go farther than them.

In a historical perspective, I have not.

I don’t have a fancy car, a large house nor take lavish vacations. 

But what I do have is so much more valuable.

I understand now when I look back the privilege and blinders that I wore throughout the first half of my life inherent with who I am class, gender and race.  I have put that into a herstorical context.  I looked around and saw that just because you worked harder did not mean that you would go farther and that there are all sorts of challenges in our current culture that cause people to slip through the cracks. 

What follows Karen’s observations and examples of abuse inherent in the current systems is the possibility of what if we could build a world where everyone’s basic needs were covered and where everyone is respected for what they do bring to the table? What if we started to think of all of us together not just an individual mad dash to the finish line?

Doing this work these past nine years, I see this incredible web we are weaving: these connections we form and the way we lift each other up, how one of us falls and the other gives a gentle prod, a shoulder to lean on and just how invaluable and priceless these connections are. 

These are incredible transitionary times we are living in.  Sometimes having the will to respond and act is as simple as buying the book, supporting the person, reading and listening to new and even sometimes opposing perspectives with open hearts and minds.

In my mind, I see this beautiful web that Grandmother Spider has woven in my life filled with incredible people such as Karen Tate and how we are all holding and supporting each other and encouraging each other to go farther, do more. Change the world. That is the only marketing I wish to be a part of.
I’m not saying don’t buy the Lofbaz pants.  I’m just saying buy the book first.

To buy Karen’s books click here