Ballerina Farm is a Brand, Not a Person

It wants you buy meat and sweatshirts and flour (also traditional values)

I want to make this very clear. I have nothing against Hannah Neeleman. I am not bullying that sweet nice young farmer. I don’t know her. The fact that I don’t know her makes all of this so interesting. I never EVER thought I would be writing this much about this particular account, but the collective fascination with Ballerina Farm continues and so it goes.

Steph McNeal wrote a great piece in Glamour about this which inspired me to write this newsletter today. Definitely give it a read.

When we talk about the Instagram account Ballerina Farm we are talking about the brand with 8.5 million followers, the brand that wants to sell you things. It wants to sell you $50 worth of flour.

It wants to sell you $200 of meat.

It wants to sell you a $47 “chore” tote.

A $24 amaryllis bulb (come to my house…I will give you one of mine for free)

An $89 sourdough starter kit. My friends who make sourdough are most offended by this one. Also at least ten people have messaged me to tell me that it didn’t work for them. Just sayin.

Hamburgers.

More meat.

OK. So now that we have cleared up that this is a brand looking to sell you raw meat and overpriced kitchen utensils why does it matter what kinds of things it projects to the world and why do we care and why do people keep messaging me telling me I am shaming women (literally the last thing I would ever do).

Brands need eyeballs and attention so you buy their things. It is why Vuori and Farm Rio email me three times a day to buy cozy sweatpants and ridiculous dresses and I eventually cave and get those things even though they are the last thing I need. And it is why Ballerina Farm displays Hannah Neeleman’s beautiful family, her home births and her postpartum pageant content. They want your eyeballs and your attention. They don’t care if the message they are sending is that women should look and behave like a so-called pageant queen in the hours and days after giving birth. They don’t care if that message is harmful and makes their audience feel bad. Are you watching? Are you clicking out of rage? Do they get more eyeballs and more minutes of people’s time?

Yup. The brand is winning.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. Capitalism be doing capitalism. But Instagram makes it seem like it is something more elevated than please buy this animal carcass. 

Brands have been doing this forever. Think about the St. Pauli girl using blonde hair and tits to get dudes to drink subpar beer.

Let’s think about it in the same way the Kardashian klan is selling you makeup and shapewear, how so many of their Instagram posts scream look at my face (and buy this eyeliner) or check out my ass (and buy my version of Spanx). It’s business. 

But it’s easy to forget that when you start to form parasocial relationships with these folks because they live on a device in your pocket…:because they show you videos of babies coming out of their vagina. I mean……we are like friends after that right? 

But also there is a darker side to this.