The "Feminism" Blue Origin Sold Us

Let’s talk about the all-women flight to space…

Whether you heard about it on the news, saw clips on TikTok, or scrolled past it on Instagram, chances are you didn’t miss Blue Origin’s all-female spaceflight.

On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin made history with its NS-31 mission. It launched its first all-female crew into space. Jeff Bezos’ (Founder and CEO of Amazon) aerospace company, Blue Origin, operated the suborbital flight, which lasted approximately 11 minutes and flew the crew more than 60 miles above Earth past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

On board the crew was…

• Katy Perry, global pop icon

• Lauren Sanchez, a helicopter pilot and fiancée of Jeff Bezos

• Gayle King, journalist and television host

• Amanda Nguyen, civil rights activist and bioastronautics researcher

• Aisha Bowe, former NASA rocket scientist

• Kerianne Flynn, film producer

While this expedition was labeled and produced as a remarkable moment for women’s history, it would be naive not to recognize this project as a co-optation of feminism. Brands and companies love to slap on this label of “feminism”.

This mission was entirely the opposite of feminist principles. This was not an act of liberation. It was a spectacle dressed in the language of progress, co-opting feminist ideals for corporate gain.

Feminism is not sending millionaires and billionaires to space. Feminism is not dressing in fashion designed space suits, wearing full makeup glam, with perfectly quaffed hair to represent a gender-conforming version of women. Feminism does not support the decision of Jeff Bezos Amazon to eliminate DEI policies.

As bell hooks says, feminism is not about individual success or access to elite spaces. It is a movement grounded in the dismantling of systemic oppression. hooks was especially critical of the way mainstream media and capitalism dilute feminist thought and warned against the commodification of feminist politics. She called out the dangers of equating visibility and power within capitalist frameworks with genuine liberation and argued that feminism rooted in capitalism is not feminism at all.

*** Fun fact: bell hooks does not capitalize her first or last name to de-center herself and allow others to focus on her work and ideas rather than her identity. **

Capitalism and feminism are fundamentally at odds. Capitalism thrives on inequality, exploitation, dominance, and hierarchy, especially along lines of race, class, and gender. In contrast, feminism seeks to challenge these very systems through the lens of intersectionality. To send millionaires into space while communities on Earth fight for healthcare, housing, and justice is not progress. It’s a distraction.

It’s also notable to remember the timing of this expedition. Around the world, people are protesting authoritarianism, fighting to preserve healthcare, and facing economic instability. While attention is being redirected toward space exploration, questions remain about political agendas and misplaced resources. Blue Origin was recently awarded two billion dollars by the Trump administration. Jeff Bezos’ personal and professional relationship with political power deserves scrutiny.

Essentially, this was a performative publicity stunt to promote space tourism. The women onboard were curated to sell a story that aligns more with consumerism than with the principles of feminism.

So, now the women on the crew... Yes, they chose some highly accomplished and diverse women, but they are all extremely wealthy.

Even if this mission weren’t a performative co-optation of feminism, it still raises critical issues of class and elitism that went unaddressed. Were these women truly meant to represent all women in the United States? For Blue Origin to equate this to a feminist objective, delivers a message of meritocracy. Representation in this context becomes hollow when it excludes the vast majority of women. The selection and presentation of these women reinforces the myth of meritocracy. It promotes the dangerous idea that if you work hard enough, you too can access elite spaces, even something as inaccessible as space travel. This narrative ignores the structural barriers that prevent most women from entering these spaces.

With gratitude,

Olivia