Photographic Evidence. Los Angeles.

I've been updating less, on the phone less, taking fewer appointments. I have spent most of the winter in Boston where I have a core of loyalists and business to attend to. 

However. I did get to the west coast briefly where I met an old friend and talented photographer, Eric A. Reid. We spent a lazy afternoon shooting before heading out in Hollywood for the evening. 

We have collaborated in the past and 2015 will bring more developments from this artistic partnership. 

A voyeuristic sliver of the day...

A reminder of your general unworthiness...and everything that I am. 

xo, Bardot.

Brave Enough to Change the Worlds of Business & Sex

 I was recently A guest poster for MAKE LOVE NOT PORN.

headed by Cindy Gallop and curated by her Madam Curator, Sarah Beall. 

I chose to focus on the business of the sex industry and how my work here intersects with the financial, technological, and social issues at play.  

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An excerpt: 

I am an analyst turned hustler, and a…Mistress. My work presides at the intersection of financial technology, psychology, behavioral economics…and, the dark pool of the adult industry. I am the proprietress of BardotSmith.com and Mistres.se, a think tank and advisory firm for the intersection of adult industry and financial technology.

At the beginning of operating this enterprise, I chose to embody the ideals of feminine power at all levels of my existence, up to and including my business model. In effect, reversing the concepts of supply and demand in the adult industry to challenge the notion that women who work in any type of “adult” context are only able to operate as a result of male desire, and therefore subject to male power hierarchies, even within the industry.

From the outset, I adopted a unique strategy.

To read the rest of my thoughts on #SEXTECH and the business of KINK, FETISH, and FINANCE, read the full article on their blog. 

If you're not familiar with the MLNP project, it is worthy of the investment of time. Female-powered and innovative, challenging old world views of power, sex, and capital...Just how I like it. 

xo, Bardot. 

Silicon Valley's Cult of Male Ego

I've written an essay on sexual aggression in silicon valley tech and venture capital as a function of the fragility of male ego for Model View Culture. 

The systemic issues affecting the tech and venture capital industries are so deeply internalized that they remain unacknowledged. The effects of this willful ignorance are carried disproportionately by women. While it’s been discussed countless times, most efforts to address the issue in action -- no matter how well-intentioned -- fall flat beyond bandaging its symptoms. The irony of political correctness keeps us from getting to the heart of the issue, which is, naturally, not very polite:

The tech industry serves The Cult of Male Ego. And masculinity defined via the external is notoriously fragile around sexuality.

Read the full article HERE.