Is Jessie Lee Ward Really Being Exploited or Is the Anti-MLM Community Projecting?
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- Опубліковано 29 лют 2024
- Jessie "Boss Lee" Lee Ward was a prominent figure in the network marketing space. Unfortunately, she passed away from colon cancer. Since then, network marketers have capitalized off of Jessie's story. A few anti-MLM content creators have accused these network marketers of exploiting Jessie. But is it that simple?
From what I’ve seen of it, I think Savannah Marie’s series on the people who exploited Jessie Lee Ward is fairly nuanced and balanced. She makes it clear that not doing chemo was JLW’s choice and that JLW was vulnerable and scared of dying and people took advantage of that.
Like you said, nothing is black and white. Just by virtue of being in an MLM, especially at her level, JLW was both preyed on and preying on others. It’s interesting to examine how those dynamics continue to play out after her death.
I think it can be true that she was okay with being exploited and also people shouldn’t be exploiting her. In my opinion, it would be a little hypocritical of the anti-MLM community to not call it out when higher level MLMers are exploited even though they always call out when the bottom of the pyramid is being exploited. That would push the prolific lack of sympathy for imperfect victims which I think is really problematic in our culture. She exploited people and her death was exploited and all of it should be called out.
I don’t agree that it’s infantilizing for people to think it’s wrong that her death was marketed in the same way her life was. People accept abuse all the time but that doesn’t make it right.
Good topic for discussion!
Great points on calling out exploitation. I think the infantalizing comes in when people say she was wrong to not do chemo and/or try to make her into that perfect victim. Both take away her agency. She made her choices.
I acknowledge my bias as a chronically ill person-I’m perhaps overly sensitive when it comes to other sick people’s agency-and that she might not have seen it that way.
@@tessapal I think part of the discussion around her choosing not to do chemo also has to do with the fact that she was not informed correctly (or completely misinformed most of the time) by the people around her and the people selling her alternative treatments. It does beg the question : how much of an informed choice can you make when people are throwing misinfo at you ? JLW was definitely not perfect, she exploited others for her own gain, she probably would have exploited another MLM marketer's death if given the chance, she's not a perfect victim either, she definitely had biases that also played a big part in her final decision and it's important to point it out, but she deserved to have the freedom to choose and I kinda feel like medical misinfo does take that freedom away from people. She even regurgitated that misinfo to her followers throughtout her battle against cancer which could have negative consequences for the more gullible and impressionable ones.
At the end of the day, even without being misinformed, she could have made the same exact decision, that's a real possibility, but everybody deserves the ability to make a 100% informed decision.
@@trinketeerrine6674 yes, this! She was robbed informed consent to forgo chemo by the misinformation and false hope she was sold, plus she spread that misinformation and false hope way beyond herself.
Jessie Lee was a victim and perpetrator of MLM’s. I think her story should be seen as a cautionary tale of how corrupt and dangerous these schemes are. She was so enveloped in this hustle culture and fake health guru stuff that she let it lead her to an early death. I feel like the Anti-MLM community is slightly exploiting her death and it makes me uncomfortable. She wasn’t a good person but I do also think she was a victim of the MLM system as well.
i feel like if anti-mlm creators are serious with their claims how JLW was exploited, then they need to look in the mirror. because some people on that side of mlm debate inserted themselves where shouldn't be, like the whole 'her boyfriend is actually married' arc was so weird. JLW was taken advantage of by quacks but the way anti-mlm people would talk about how regular doctors are always right and we can't ever question what they say... i wish it was that simple. in the end JLW made a choice, didn't do chemo and passed away. which is unfortunate, but it's not like 5 hours nitpicky livestream could change her mind anyways.
This is very philosophical and I'm loving it!
This was a great video with excellent commentary. I just subscribed to your channel! 😊
You are absolutely right. She wouldn't got mad at Eric Worre or Ed Mylett, they were her friends. She was ok with being a public person and honestly think that for the most part, she was fairly ok with the criticism. And I agree with most of the criticism against her for being in network marketing because it is a scam. I used to watch anti MLM content about her, but honestly it became uncomfortable to see how certain creators were talking about her personal life and her treatment choices. At some point it became like a targeted campaign against her personally instead of being about public awareness about the dangers of MLMs (or the dangers of pseudoscience) and that's where the some antimlm creators lost me.
I never saw it that way. I agree, if the person that died was a Jessi Lee's friend, she would be doing somethin similar.
Doesn’t make it right
These anti mlm creators pretend or be above it, but a lot of them are mean girls with the same type of nasty behavior l.