I am so beyond frustrated. A face yoga app made by a female creator that I use was removed from the app store. I was confused and I checked out her page, and she explained that another face yoga app registered the word "Face Yoga" as a trademark, sued her, and got her app taken down. She was crying and understandably upset about losing her app and her mounting legal fees.
I was curious about this other app and so I checked it out. It barely has any downloads and didn't seem to be attached to any specific creator. They seemed to have hired a woman to demonstrate the exercises. So I looked at the company that developed the app and, lo and behold, it was run by three crusty men. I even downloaded the app just to see what it was like and they are charging TWICE the amount that she did. And while many of her videos are available for free, this new app hides everything behind a paywall.
This is a woman who spent years growing a community and platform around something she is passionate and knowledgeable about. She is the face of her own brand and demonstrates the exercises herself. Then three mediocre business tech bros with no original ideas decide to capitalize on something popularized by and for women and force out established female creators because they know they can't compete otherwise. They hire a woman to be the face of the brand to appeal to female audiences. They pay female influencers to shill their app. They buy a bunch of followers on instagram and hire a female social media manager to post cute pink memes celebrating "International Women's Day <3" Meanwhile every dollar women spend on this app is just supporting men who use their money to bully other women.
I left their app a one-star review but my review was mysteriously deleted. If anyone wants to try this male-run app and leave them an honest review, go ahead:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/face-yoga-facial-exercises/id6443682675
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wiresalad.faceYoga
Men are the original colonizers
well, now we can all leave a review and never use their app. and tell other women to never use their app.
UPDATE: all i can see is one review, and it's one star. i tried to leave a review (one star) but it was never posted.
$30/month? naw, dawg.
"look younger and be better"
die mad, Wire Salad
This is why I only support female creators in the areas that men used to literally mock, like astrology, wellness, anything goop-y, skincare and cosmetics, pilates, ASMR, witch shit--I could go on and on. They finally realized this stuff was cool and now they don't even apologize before appropriating it and profiting off of it.