While social media has a lot of potential for decreasing the gender gap, most of the platforms still provide a sexist, highly competitive, and at times a hateful place for many female users. Facebook was first created to ‘rank hot girls’, no matter how much Zuckerberg denies it. While women are more likely to use social media than men, men are retweeted far more than women, and women are more likely to be subject to cyber abuse on Twitter. Lastly, 23% of women polled by Amnesty International said they had experienced online abuse or harassment, and 64% believe “online abuse or harassment of women is common nowadays”. Harassment, judgment, and implicit comparison of women often lead to stress, depression, anxiety, and self-insecurities of thousands of women.
It is often thought that feminist movements such as #MeToo help to fight hatred, misogyny, and offline abuse. In reality, offline abuse extends its roots online. This proves a need for a safe and supportive environment, where women are safe to share their content, are not put against each other, and instead, are supported and nurtured.
Fashion Potluck was launched in 2016 with the original intent of it being a fashion-look-sharing website for women. Because of the growing urge to have a safe and supportive environment, as more users joined, the women participating in it and their content made it evolve into the first social media platform for women by women. Fast forward four years, now with the mission of becoming the point of reference for women generated content, Fashion Potluck’s values are authenticity, women empowerment, and freedom of expression.
Today, after 4 years of growth and evolvement, it provides a platform where women can share their content on everything that is on their minds, meet like-minded individuals, get inspired, and grow. Furthermore, it evolved into an empowering and supportive global community, where women get support, motivation, and a true community feeling. On the proactive side, Fashion Potluck donates 5% of their earnings to two women-supporting NGOs: Rise Up & Womankind.
Fashion Potluck avoids biased algorithms, offering a chronological feed, which crosses out the need to compete for visibility amongst women. The content is shared on a first-come, first-served basis. Women can use categories, the search bar, and hashtags to find specific content. Women can follow each other, bookmark content that appeals to them, and use the messenger to interact with one another. Most importantly, women have the power over the content that is being posted, as Fashion Potluck does not curate the content published. If there is a case of abuse, harassment, or inappropriate content, women can vote the content out.
In the near future, Fashion Potluck hopes to further foster a community of women and continue to create meaningful content. Also in the works is building an exclusive female club, where members will get access to a private community, private empowering & educative events, and access to the monetization program.
Here are some reviews from the community members:
“It is an amazing place to share content and a great platform for the blogging community.”
“I never imagined I would make such an impact by just being me”
“I’m so thrilled and grateful to join Fashion Potluck. Thank you so much for a warm welcome. I’m excited to create my profile & share my first article.”
“I recently joined Fashion Potluck, the blogging networking website for women. To create, share, upload, and connect with so many other amazing women all in one place.”
“If you’re looking to share your work and engage with other awesome women, I highly recommend creating an account with them.”