Clementine Ford currently has 1044 patrons on her 6-tier Patreon account. Let’s think about that for a moment. Say, hypothetically, if all of her patrons are paying one of the tiers in the lower bracket (e.g. $10 p/m), that’s over $10K per month, minus the % Patreon takes…

If say, hypothetically, Ford’s patrons were all paying the next tier up (in the upper-mid bracket of the 6-tiers), that amount jumps up to over $26Kper month minus the % Patreon takes. Why is this problematic? A number of reasons…

The lines between neoliberal self-interest and the evolution of struggle and liberation are grossly blurred here. Ford has been subject to some very intelligent critique from numerous First Nations people (including myself) and POC, however…

…rather than address the issues we have raised around continually foregrounding herself, taking up far too much space, and YES ripping off the work of far less privileged writers, Ford has instead simply tapped into a new segment with her ‘feminism’.

I suspect a lot – though not all – of Ford’s followers are white women and/or women who have fairly recently come into their feminism or awakening and thus are soaking up her approach.

Some of Ford’s fans have begun to call her in and are often either ignored or met with defensiveness, and then subject to snarky comments in follow-up posts such as this:

“These bitches need to get over their petty bullshit. I’m very very very sorry if I’ve “disappointed” them in some way, but they don’t own me. No one owns me, not even feminists” -Clementine Ford, August, 2020.

Instead of taking a huge step back into self-reflection, Ford has merely shifted her target audience and is currently cashing in big time.

It is in my opinion that she is profiting from discourse surrounding violence against women in a way that needs to be respectfully antagonised.

A recent example of this is Ford’s intertwining of the tragic death of Daisy Coleman with her latest content campaign she calls ‘lewkdown’, whereby Ford posted a photograph of herself in a glittery outfit, bizarrely merging it with Daisy’s legacy.

A couple of other things to note: Ford’s Patreon has grown significantly from 800+ since the beginning of Covid-19 when she began to really push her Patreon again. This is in spite of her recent public statement that Coronavirus “isn’t killing men fast enough”.

Previously, Ford’s top tier whereby some Patrons pay her $100 per month, allowed fans to have a weekly 30 min phone chat with her. If you scroll through her Patreon page, you will see that she was unable to fulfil this and had to change it.

While Ford has stated she doesn’t get paid for brand-related posts, we know that public figures with big followings get sent a heap of free stuff. Ford regularly tags brands into her posts, often thanking them for sending her stuff.

And to be clear, I don’t care if writers and content creators have a Patreon. I think it’s a great model for those genuinely contributing and those receptive to listening and growing and recognising when it’s their time to sit back and be quiet.

My issue is when mainstream/tabloid/hyper-consumerised feminism is promoted as radicalism in contrast and/or in gross feats of overshadowing those on the margins doing the real and tough work.