Susie Bright on Suze Orman: The Lesbian Approach to Getting Rich
Last summer, I met Susie Bright at a blogging conference where she was snarky, vocal, and loved the fact that we had a site dedicated to queer money. After participating in our Ten Money Questions series, we had an email thread that lingered on the topic of Suze Orman’s sexuality. Susie Bright is known as the sexpert and one of the first writers/activists referred to as a sex-positive feminist’¦ who better to opine on Suze’s financial advice for women. Here’s Susie on Suze. These are her words’¦
Suze Orman is the most famous personal finance adviser in the world’” and she’s as queer as a three dollar bill. To be fair, I’m sure Suze would prefer to be characterized in Euros or gold coins.
Orman came out of the closet this year, after years of professional fame, in a “casual chat” with Deborah Solomon at the New York Times. It appeared as if she’d made an impulsive decision on the eve of her new book’s debut: Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny.
Here’s the turning point in her interview:
Are you married?
I’m in a relationship with life. My life is just out there. I’m on the road every day. I love my life.
That’s the standard “closet” answer’”the reply showbiz people are trained to repeat so they don’t go down in flames for being a bulldagger.
But Deborah pressed on, sensing the beard.
Meaning what? Do you live with anyone?
K.T. is my life partner. K.T. stands for Kathy Travis. We’re going on seven years. I have never been with a man in my whole life. I’m still a 55-year-old virgin.
She’s as rich as Cleopatra, so there’s no further point in obfuscating. Someone must have died recently in her family, who was the last stumbling block. That’s usually the celebrity sore spot. For whatever reason, Orman no longer needs to shelter someone’s tender homophobia.
Last, we got a taste of Suze’s righteousness, who can make a point that Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres might’ve neglected:
Would you like to get married to K.T.?
Yes. Absolutely. Both of us have millions of dollars in our name. It’s killing me that upon my death, K.T. is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa.
Many people shrugged their shoulders at Suze’s confession. “She had short hair,” they said, ‘œI knew it. She wore golf shorts and visors that would make a straight girl cry.”
But I had a different reaction; I was curious to look at Orman’s advice and see if there was something dyed-in-the-wool dykey about it. I believe there is.
Money and sex get confused with virtue, and virtue is a feminine trait. There is a great deal of belief among women that if they are “good” ‘” that is to say, modest and self-deferential in their needs, be they orgasmic or financial’” they’ ll be rewarded with the status of respected wife and mother.
In Suze’s new book she asks: “Why is it that women, who are so competent in all other areas of their lives, cannot find the same competence when it comes to matters of money?”
When Suze says “money,” read: “men.”
She promises to “investigate the complicated, dysfunctional relationship women have with money [ i.e., men] in this groundbreaking new book.”
Yeah, tell it, sister.
She calls on women to “save themselves.”
When men get popular financial advice, there’s a complete change of language. They don’t get “saving” advice, they’re told how to “invest.” Most of them don’t have to “save” themselves from financial dependency on women.
What Orman is saying, a tiny bit more openly, in her new book, is that she knows most women’s money lives are defined by their dependence on men, be they husbands, lovers, or fathers. She is urging women, rhetorically, to cut it off.
I know the word “virtue” sounds old -fashioned’” but so is the urge to “find a man,” and “have a baby” with said man. Those goals are more pressing than ever, as feminist philosophy becomes a novelty item.
In lesbian culture, there’s no currency in being sexually virtuous. No one cares if you have slept with “X” number of women before you sleep with them’” not because they’re so open-minded, but because there’s no economic basis. There’s no ‘œfinding out whose baby this is.’
Lesbian sexuality is not designed to answer any notion of virtue; it doesn’t answer a patriarch’s need. This is why Suze Orman is incredulous that straight women keep getting taken to the cleaners financially’” she is oblivious to the “call of virtue,” not matter how many New Age platitudes she espouses.
Traditionally-brought up women think that if they try, try, try, to take care of everyone and deny themselves fulfillment beyond retail-trivia, that they will get their BIG REWARD. You know, the push present.
Orman would sooner push the ‘œpush present’ out the window. Her advice to women is “no one is coming to rescue you, Prince Charming is deader than God, and you have got to wake the fuck up and DIY.” Her book sounds like a pep talk to women in a domestic abuse group.
Suze isn’t the only financial adviser to speak this way. But as a “life-long virgin,” she has a little leg up on the self-sufficiency tip. She doesn’t yearn for men’s romantic love, and so that particular tango will never be hers to treasure or regret! She’s a conservative investor, she doesn’t live anything resembling a bohemian lifestyle, and she scolds out advice like more of a jeweled and tanned misanthropic femme, than a man-hater. She thinks everyone is pretty clueless, and like most rich people, she considers herself entirely self-made.
But in one respect, Suze is radical: she has not been “a good girl.” She never gave a shit what men thought, because she never fell in love with one.
Don’t lesbians have quarrels over who makes the most money, don’t they break up over class differences? Or course. Same-sex couples are as big a case of romantic foolery as anyone.
But like gay couples, dykes don’t have to struggle with the gender guilts that one party “ought” to make more dough, or be more savvy, because of a “Y” chromosome.” Neither is there the assumption that one of you would be better at calming a child’s tantrum, or washing out a filthy sink. You can fight it out, in your own quirky little queer way! “Virtue” just doesn’t come into it.
If Suze is as set for life as she claims, and her family loves and supports her, I dare her to show the balls it would take to offer some sophisticated and politically savvy financial advice.
Go on, Suze, dare to offend someone other than a consumer debt-holder! Question the dominant paradigm, girlfriend! I don’t need any warm fuzzies about ‘œbalance, courage, serenity.’ I need a ‘œbad girl,’ with a big, thick portfolio, who tells it like it is.
More about Susie Bright
Susie Bright (also known as Susie Sexpert) is a writer, speaker, teacher, audio show host, performer, all on the subject of sexuality. She is one of the first writers/activists referred to as a sex-positive feminist.
She has a weekly program entitled ‘œIn Bed with Susie Bright‘ where she discusses a variety of social, freedom of speech and sex-related topics. She blogs at Susie Bright’s Journal.
I’m looking forward to this book. I was fortunately raised to be quite independent when it concerned money. My parents told me that I shouldn’t count on getting married and certainly not on getting married right away. They married at 37 and my mom was pretty financially successful beforehand. As it was, I did get married but I’m the one who manages our money. It’s good they gave me that training because while prince charming is a great and supportive, loving partner, he’s also not comfortable with money.
(and I chose my pseudonym on my honeymoon while twitterpated… 😛 😉 )
I already read the book and like the fact that she focused more on the qualities of a successful and wealthy woman than any one strategy. In my experience as a coach our relationships with money have far more to do with our ability to live a wealthy life than any one “how to” strategy.
That being said, I would LOVE to see Suze really take it up a notch and write a Queer money book that addresses the unique nature of our relationships both from a couple standpoint and the legal/financial quirks (inequities) that come from being queer.
I think this is so interesting! Are lesbians at a financial advantage because they don’t think Prince Charming is going to take care of them… or at a disadvantage because, as little girls, they were still taught to wait for Prince Charming? If part of the problem is that women don’t get financial education and aren’t taught to take ownership over their finances, are they more likely to have to hit a crisis to figure it out?
Suze is something of a post-feminist: that is, she is looking at how things are for women and advising them based on what she sees, instead of diving into why they are that way. That probably makes her books a lot more accessible, but it definitely leaves a lot of wide open space.
Realizing, of course, that my comments may or may not be considered off-point, I’m going to make them.
“In lesbian culture, there’s no currency in being sexually virtuous. No one cares if you have slept with ‘X’ number of women before you sleep with them— not because they’re so open-minded, but because there’s no economic basis. There’s no ‘finding out whose baby this is.'”
On what planet, gay, straight or bi, do women not care about how many people you’ve slept with. I’ve met women who’ve slept with 20 women and I’ve met women who’ve slept with over 100. I’ll give you one guess which I think is gross. Of course, I can’t say that everyone in the world feels that way, but neither can you say it’s some patriarchal hoo-hah that only applies to traditional heterosexual relationships. It may not have to do with virtue or lack of it, but I think most people, if pressed, have a number that beyond which they would think is nasty.
And then, what the heck from Suze Orman?:
“I’m still a 55-year-old virgin.”
I certainly hope she was joking. Maybe 100 years ago, virgin meant never having a penis in your vagina, but how can a lesbian say that in 2007? The slippery slope: I haven’t had sex with a man. > I’m a virgin. > Lesbians don’t have sex/intercourse.
How are we ever going to gain full acceptance if we don’t ourselves accept who we are and what we do? I’m a lesbian, and I’m sure as hell not a virgin (although, it’s been a modest number, I assure you!)! Plus, for people who aren’t exposed (at least knowingly) to gays and lesbians, that’s just confusing. Now they have to accept us and understand that a lesbian is a virgin? Again, I hope she was joking, but it sounds more like she’s got issues.
Oh Nina! Really neat article. I love both Suze and Susie, of course! I sat in a Berkeley Apartment in June watching a Suze infomercial, taking notes and thinking “I love how this totally queer woman is giving money advice to straight married women. That’s who should be giving them advice.” Because her queerness gives her such a different perspective on financial stability and smarts. Glad to know my gay-dar is working.
Part of this week’s Carnival of the Insanities.
Eme: I agree with Susie that men have different ideas about women’s sexuality then lesbians do. The one time I tried to date a guy, it was like the most bizzare role play ever . Which isn’t to say that lesbians don’t have standards (or are all of one mind). I just think they are (generally) more realistic standards.
This was a really interesting article. I would like to see Suze do a book for queer folk.
“straight women keep getting taken to the cleaners financially”
Huh? I just thought this was something ironic to say right after I read about about losing 50% to estate taxes for not being married. How do they get taken to the cleaners? I don’t think that my wife would agree.
I am a small business owner who has gone through a financially and emotionally ugly divorce. My daughter and I watch Suze every week to discuss her advice, as part of my teaching her to not rely on anyone else (including me) to handle her financial life. I think Suze’s advice is just good sense for ALL women, no matter what their sexual orientation. Maybe it’s because I’m not gay, but I don’t see how her love life makes her more or less of a strong, intelligent, determined woman.
I don’t think she is 55. I knew her years ago when I was dating a close friend of hers. I was 25; my girlfriend “W” was 34, and Suze was older than W by at least 2 or 3 years. I am now 46, almost 47, which would make W 55, almost 56, which makes Suze, well, older than 55. Whether she is 55 or closer to 60, she looks great.
Since when are estate taxes 50%? They haven’t been for years, though they should be higher.