Episode 136 - Betsy Prioleau on Seductresses, Satisfaction & How To Be Human Catnip
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Mary
Host
00:02
Hello, beautiful beings, and welcome to Come to your Senses. Okay, let's break out the smelling salts for today's episode, because you are going to want to fluff the fainting couch. It is highly swoonable.
01:01
Today we are sitting down in the parlor with one of my great muses, teachers, inspirations, someone that my work would not exist without, and that is the myth, the legend, the goddess Betsy Prioleau. Betsy is the author of Seductress Women who Ravish the World and their Lost Art of Love, and the reason that Betsy has been such an influential figure in my life and in my work is because she passes through the static of misinformation, misinterpretation and the general smear campaign around seduction and seductress legends, and she brings to the surface the true essence of a magnetic, dynamic being, which is erotic aliveness and holistic happiness, one of the things I just so appreciate about reading Betsy's work and also hearing her speak today, is the way she talks about seductresses, who learned some of the things that we practice here at Come to your Senses, such as embodiment, slowing down, sensual satisfaction, devotion to beauty, mastery of one's own magnetism, and they would set up schools that pass these secrets down to other women. And these women have so deeply inspired my work and it's been one of my intentions since the first day I opened my company, more than 10 years ago, to be a pollinator of these secrets of feminine power and life force. And right now we have just opened the queen of my offerings, which is called the Come to your Senses Coterie. It is my signature six month mastermind in reigniting your radiance through artful, embodied living. Right now, there is a thousand dollar savings off of the investment of the Co-Turi, and so, as you listen to today's episode, knowing that these seductresses are a template for the kind of sizzle and sparkle and fizz which is a word that you'll hear today and general joie de vivre that we cultivate in the Co-Turi. So, if you are ready to make 2024 the year you release, striving and embrace your senses, your body, your beauty and your being as the source of your own mighty magnetism.
Come join us at alifewellsavoredcom or click the link below this episode and, without further ado, nestle thine self onto the chaise long and enjoy today's episode with the marvelous Betsy Prioleau.
Thank you so much for being here. I feel like I am interviewing my personal Jimi Hendrix right now. I'm so, so grateful for your work and I remember when I first read your book, I used to bring it into the candlelit bathtub and I would just pray. I would like read about these legends and read about the very unique linking that you create between eroticism and an authentic, embodied sense of feminine power. So thank you so much for being here so excited to Thank you for inviting me.
Betsy
Guest
05:36
This is such a pleasure. You're also very, very favorite people. Oh, a living example of everything I wanted to communicate in seductress and even in the last book I wrote.
Mary
Host
05:53
Oh, that is so warms my heart. Thank you so much. Worms all my cells. So you know one of the places I wanted to start. I know a little bit about the origins of seductress and how you came to this work of chronicling the history of powerful feminine beings who were not just powerful in their achievements but in the way in which they maintained their sense of erotic wholeness, and I wonder if you might start by just sharing how you know how you found yourself on that path.
Betsy
Guest
06:34
Right. Well, at the time I was teaching at Manhattan College and I was teaching a course on the seductress in literature. But you know, after class I was swarmed by young women who said they just felt completely disempowered. They were humped, dumped and didn't feel empowered. And I thought, wait, feminism is not supposed to have brought about a condition like this. We want full empowerment, not just in our professional lives, but fully.
07:09
And so at that point my daughter was headed off to college and she had not had a very active romantic life at that point and I got really alarmed. I thought she needs preparation, she needs to know that they're very strong role models out there, fantastic women, feisty, sensuous, who were brilliant but in control of their love lives, when so many women had lost the plot and lost the sense of being in charge of their erotic destiny. And to me this was very powerful, and so that was the trigger that started my investigation of this topic, and it led to an investigation of all of these women throughout history who had this amazing ability to achieve across the board, not only in their professional and vocational lives, but were able to get and keep the best men, men who were good for them. So I thought, wow, this is incredible, and they blew all the stereotypes out of the water, which was so exciting to me.
Mary
Host
08:31
Men, women, all all kinds. You know, I think about. One of my favorite seductress inspirations is Natalie Barnet and her epic legends of seduction. And, and you know, this word erotic holds so many different meanings and I wonder what does that word mean to you? Thank you.
Betsy
Guest
08:55
Yeah, erotic to me is having full knowledge of your sensuous and sensual capacity and being able to access it. At the same time, erotic to me means bringing all of your senses alive, and throughout the centuries, women have been so incredibly suppressed, and there's a terrific fear, of course, across patriarchy for the beginning of history, of women's superior sexuality. We are super sexed, so my idea about eroticism is for it's being in touch with your own unique sensuality and being able to appreciate it, enjoy it and have that same empowerment cross into every aspect of your life and fuel it.
Mary
Host
10:02
I love that word fuel. You know, like you're someone who I mean just your, as I'm seeing you on the screen right now your red glasses, I mean. Since I was a little kid I wanted to be a woman who wore red glasses. You know Because, and I remember I would go to church as a little one and there was this one elderly couple who owned a bed and breakfast and occasionally their daughters would come in from New York City and they would just be dressed so expressively and a lot like.
10:38
You know, one of the things my favorite part of your book is the archetypal origins of these seductresses and tying them back to the original goddesses. And you know it was like in their adornment, in the way that they walked. I would just see this very uncommon aliveness. So I completely agree in terms of that. You know, just that universal connection to life force that eroticism brings, that the modern understanding of eroticism is so limited in it, and for good reason. I mean before the episode. You know we're talking about pornography and social media and just the suppression of the true nature of the erotic, and I wonder if you might like to talk a little bit about that and just your viewpoint on all that.
Betsy
Guest
11:35
Yeah, the thing that's fascinating about the reason I studied the goddesses and the mythic women of deep history is because there you see female sexuality unmediated by civilization. You see female hypersexuality without any patriarchal suppression. You see it the way it was and is in every woman To recover. That is the project of today, especially. And women today have unprecedented gains. They've, of course, achieved all kinds of positions of power and influence that would never have been possible 50 or 100 years ago. At the same time, these same gains don't seem to be being made to the same extent in their romantic and erotic lives, and that's where we have to do our work today to fulfill the promise of feminism and to channel these early goddesses and the original nature of women's eroticism, which is uncurbed, which is powerful and incredibly intense.
Mary
Host
13:04
Yes, a line that I love in your book is that seductresses are a threshold role model who can reinstate feminine sexual sovereignty and holistic happiness and remap the future. And it's so interesting to me. What do you feel like is the missing sauce? This is the whole nature of the work that I do is pulling back the curtain on this quality of aliveness, succulents, juiciness that is so scarce in the lives of women especially. And what do you feel like? Like is that missing quality?
Betsy
Guest
13:55
I think the most important thing today is women's lack of self-esteem. I think this is huge. I think they're being impacted by social media, porn and other social influences outside of that. Even so, I think women have to work hard now to punch up their egos, to feel big about themselves, to understand that their uniqueness is their strength, not conformity. And we're a conformity-driven society now, a beauty-driven society, when in fact those are just propaganda tools to keep us submissive, suppressed and disempowered.
14:51
So I think you have to first tell women step out of the culture, because that's the beginning of adulthood anyway, and to tap into your strengths, because everybody has unique strengths and quirks and the things that make them charismatic. But they're afraid to do it because they're bombarded with images, images of the ideal body, images of the perfect seductress, which in fact are just media-generated Hollywood PR fluff. We don't know who those people really are and yet when you're young and impressionable, the temptation is to buy into that, to worry about fitting in. So I think the most important thing is breaking that suction, which is so terrible. Now I feel very strongly about that, that women, if they don't measure up, if they don't belong to the right crowd or whatever, they don't have the courage to say look, I'm a queen, I'm the best, I'm me, me, me. I'm this unique, fabulous individual and ramp it up, floor it.
Mary
Host
16:18
Yes.
Betsy
Guest
16:19
I think that's the first step I mean learning to be someone who's charismatic and magnetic to men or women is a whole nother kettle of fish. It's pretty simple to cop that knowledge. Really, it's just a matter of again a deep programming, detoxing from what you've heard and I think the most important thing, the core thing, is yourself feeling good about yourself and you're an expert in that in pulling back to their senses, back to the sources of pleasure which are unique for each individual. So it's uniqueness, individuality, that we want to punch up here. I think, ah, yes, I love that.
Mary
Host
17:16
I love that it reminds me of when my life really transformed. The first time I ever walked into a burlesque club the Slipper Room in New York and you spoke about images and this trance of conformity. And when I went into a burlesque club for the first time it was like, I mean, just my mind, like everything I had ever thought was true about sexuality and sensuality and belonging and power just completely reorganized in my mind, because here was the image of a woman owning her body, her curves, her dimpled thighs, her nipples that graze her abdomen, and adorning them just like we might adorn an altar in a church.
Betsy
Guest
18:16
This is beautiful. You're exactly right, and the remarkable thing about Seductris and even the last book I wrote about Miriam Leslie, is that these women were not conventionally pretty at all. I would say 90% of them only a very few, like Martha Gellhorn were classic beauties. She was sort of a brick girl, but the majority were either flat chested, overweight, distorted features. It's incredible, but we're absolutely irresistible catnip to men. One of them, you have to. One of my favorites is Violet Gordon Woodhouse. She was considered the greatest pianist of her time, this incredible musician, and she had dark circles under her eyes, this very pinched face, and no bust at all. And yet she was so mesmerizing that she was able to live in a menage ascent this is with four men under one roof who catered to her every need.
Mary
Host
19:33
Yes, she did.
Betsy
Guest
19:35
Among them a lawyer, an officer in the cavalry and this other lovely aristocrat. And then her husband, who facilitated all this. It was just extraordinary that somebody who you would not pick out in a lineup at all of being a great Seductris was hands down one of the top Right. All the inner magic that she projected, Her incredible standout from the crowd drama. She wore earrings that were fish bowls little fish in them. She wore these incredible turbans with feathers, Her own unique designs, so that when she walked in a room, bam, you know, people stopped and thought, wow, who is this woman with this huge sense of self, the pizzazz to walk in like that with her shoulders back, who really loves herself so much? What she got, I want some of that.
Mary
Host
20:46
I was telling the story this weekend. I was icing some cupcakes with for my goddess daughter's birthday and I we had all this icing leftover and I said to my friend well, you know, I could pipe the bikini on you, you know, and her husband was there and I think it was Cora Pearl who served herself as dessert.
Betsy
Guest
21:07
Yeah, you're right.
Mary
Host
21:08
Yeah, and it reminded me of a time where I went to a birthday party where a friend of mine had had known that story and actually we did that. We piped fishnet stockings on to her and she put berries on each of her fingertips and was carried out on a silver platter to her birthday party by six firemen. She was a bikini designer and and it was just like when we talk about, like I love that, that language of a sense of self, you know, and that the erotic like that, the sexual, is one very important dimension of that, and yet it is only one dimension of one's erotic wholeness.
Betsy
Guest
21:58
That's right, exactly. And erotic empowerment powers every other aspect of your life, especially creativity, and especially the energy charge which spills out everywhere, and that itself is intensely attractive. I mean festivity, joie de vivre. The French women are specialists in this. It's extremely attractive. You get a buzz from somebody who is so excited about life, who's just bursting with the enjoyment and and fizz. It's incredibly seductive. It really is Now to mention what it does for you as a person, because it's going to make you, it's going to up your game everywhere, no matter what you do.
Mary
Host
22:55
Mm, hmm, fizz, oh, I love that word. One of my favorite things about you is your double D vocabulary. I mean reading your book. I just could you know sentence by sentence. I just I take it like their little petty force, like your use of words is so layered, and I love it so much.
Betsy
Guest
23:18
I'm giving you a proposal now about the American women in the Gilded Age who went to Paris and Natalie Bonnet, as you say, is one of the women that I'm using and here you have a person who just kicked over the traces a convention be damned. She said I don't care what people think of me, you know the hell with them. She basically said, and had a whole academy of her own just for women, and the whole point was to explore your body's sensuality without borders, in a free environment, and she's, as you say, a very remarkable example of that.
Mary
Host
23:59
Oh, I will be front row at that. That book reveal that sounds no, it's readable on the proposal stages.
Betsy
Guest
24:09
So, but those women who went to Paris, all were able to access power and energy that they weren't able to access in America then, which was the Bureau of Comstockie and Prudery, and really a war, a patriarchal war on women. So it's instructive for today as well, because we also have a war on women that's unacknowledged and not talked about enough, seems to me.
Mary
Host
24:43
You know it's funny. When you were speaking, one of the questions that surfaced in my mind was you know, in American culture, especially with the emphasis on perfectionism and production, one of the things that I seek to provide in my work is an access point and in road, that is very easy to step onto through the simplicity of a breath or the simplicity of slowing down how you speak, for those who feel a sense of hopelessness around this, I'm curious if there's any pixie dust that you might wish to throw their way, or pep talk.
Betsy
Guest
25:23
Now you look at role models of young women today, and I think if there were a paradigm shift there for example, let's assume that Taylor now has a happy love experience, maybe for the first time that would be very cool. She would feel empowered erotically. We wouldn't have any more of this long list of heartbreak songs. People identify with her because they too have been shattered. They too have been mistreated. They don't know where they're going or what they're doing. Let's assume that she recovers some sense of erotic empowerment. I'm just using her as an example, but that would be one root. It's to find megastars who are real examples of erotic empowerment.
26:20
I'm not talking just about media stories that are spun out. I'm talking about the entertainment industry. We have no idea whether those are true or not, but real stories of women who are out there. Even shares new boyfriend who I think is 40 years younger. That's cool, right.
26:45
More and more of that kind of swank, and I don't care what people say. We need a little more women like that for young women to emulate. We need people like you too out there in schools. Support the mothers need to be educated so that they know how to tell their daughters about erotic empowerment. I mean, I embarrass my daughter to death. I said I don't care how you do it, but I want you to learn to be easily orgasmic. You can imagine In 2016,. She looked at me like she was going to die and I said this is a source of your power, that's an important part of your life. So I thought I think mothers could do that, schools could do that, churches could do that. That would be a long shot, but you know what I mean. It begins very young.
27:45
I think I was really lucky with a mother like that, who broke all of the taboos and told me things like that. She said really important that you are a sexually satisfied person. It's part of your identity, it's going to fuel your life, it's going to make you a happier person and a fuller person and a more self-confident person, and I think that my mother did me a service. I don't know whether my daughter would agree, but I think she would. Actually, I think she really would, as she told me she's never been rejected by a man in her life and they've all left her saying she's the most incredible woman they've ever met and so on, but she's not conventionally beautiful, and so that to me was another challenge which I hope I hope I met. But anyway, I'm just saying mothers, people like you, coaches, what young women need, as you say, we have to try to make an effort and I think you're spearheading something really incredible and we'll have to raise our voices, I think.
Mary
Host
29:00
Yeah.
29:01
I do know, something I really appreciate about your response is I feel that, especially in the coaching and self-help kind of industry, there's so much emphasis on the individual and things that one can do to improve one's life or create some of these shifts, but what I really hear you saying is that those things are pennies in the jar of change and that it really has to become more of a global phenomenon, which I do feel I'm seeing like. There's this one person on Instagram. Her name is Nelly London and her whole account is dedicated to just showing her body as it is and showing her body being loved and her belly rolls being held by her husband, and it's like imagery is just everything when it comes to seeing ourselves in this light of being lovable, powerful.
30:08
Yeah, I appreciate that emphasis on the collective, not just the individual.
Betsy
Guest
30:14
Right. I think another problem is that so many women have internalized a lot of the male propaganda the patriarchal propaganda, I should say and I think a detox, deprogramming is really in order, and it's replicated, I'm afraid, by a lot of the love coaches that you see on social media, who advise you on how to become more beautiful and where to get the best Botox and how to seduce a man by looking in his eyes. There's so much dumb advice out there. I think it used to be overwritten by something sensible and intelligent that's based on facts and data, instead of crazy impressions that are picked up from self-helps that are really useless In fact, they're counterproductive, I think, for helping women On that topic, one of the things that's interesting is the extent to which feminism still resists sexual empowerment of women, and one example is the woman I wrote my book on.
31:29
This is Diamonds and Deadlines about this extraordinary woman, miriam Leslie, who not only ran the largest publishing company in America for 20 years, on all male turf, she was also half black, the daughter of a slave. In addition to that, she had an off-the-chart sex life. She had four husbands, three divorces, dozens of lovers, but at the end she left all of her money to women's suffrage, no strings attached. The largest amount has ever been given, which guaranteed passage of the 19th Amendment. But she is still not in any of the halls of fame which include everybody.
32:10
And so you have a feminine, a women's own internalization of some very bad vibes where they reject women who are too powerful sexually. I think they see them as a threat, they see it as something wrong. They may be internalized in Madonna whore business and they think, oh well, she was just a courtesan and a prostitute, or she was, that's how she started her life. But at the same time I think that's a problem that needs to be addressed as well, to make women aware of the extent to which they're replicating and really colluding with patriarchal oppression. I think that's so important.
Mary
Host
32:54
I appreciate the way that you describe it as a satisfying sex life and sexual experience, because I know in my own journey around being able to hold my erotic dynamism in my own hands, I went through, as one does, a period of really stretching the limits and having really wild experiences and really quantity over quality kind of experiences, right, and feeling empowered in the sense that I was living on the fringes of what I thought was possible for my life. But I wouldn't say that I was satisfied. And that brings me to another question, which is that I'm curious about this term holistic happiness, and how that relates to our access to vulnerability as women today, because I imagine I mean it's like a paradox where, in the cases of many of these seductresses, I see high access to vulnerability, sense of self, and yet, as you described in the book, many of them were tough nuts and traumatized and experienced mental illness. And that's one of the things that I appreciate about the coaching and therapy industry today is this emphasis towards vulnerability, and I just wondered if you might speak about that.
Betsy
Guest
34:44
Yeah, I think one of the hallmarks of a sexually powerful woman or the seductresses that I profiled is their ability to pick the best men, men who are good for them.
34:57
They have to have sort of a second sense sensors out to pick men who will allow them to be vulnerable. That's really important because if a woman doesn't have the power of choice, she can wind up with a man who is not good for her, allows herself to be vulnerable, opens up heart, mind, soul to this person. But if she hasn't chosen well, that person could be extremely abusive and hurt her deeply. So I think vulnerability comes with a qualifier that yes, of course, you're not going to have an intimate, total romantic relationship unless you're able to be vulnerable, to open up. And yet you have to pick very carefully because and as soon as you find out that and you should be the one to make that call as soon as you find out, once you've become vulnerable to someone, that that person is disrespectful or hurting you or cheating or whatever he's doing, the woman should walk first and should know that in order to maintain her dignity and save her vulnerability for the person who really respects and honors it.
Mary
Host
36:20
I love that. I love that that I feel is so inherent. Once you start to open up to your own erotic wholeness and expression, it's like your standards really elevate as your sense of self grows Right. And the last question I have for our time together today is what do you feel that the seductresses would be proud of us for in our current time? I'm curious if there's anywhere that you feel like they might see their lineage being continued. Or yeah, just like I notice in myself, it's like I tend to only see the problems in culture and the growth of misogyny and suppression of the feminine, and I sometimes miss all the freedom that I do have and that we do have, and I'm curious if that sparks anything for you.
Betsy
Guest
37:37
I think there's an underground movement that's growing. If you think about it, seductress was written 20 years ago and it's still selling big time and I still get incredible letters about it and these people say thank you, I'm rediscovering my erotic life. I think before that, I think it was extremely difficult for women. I think there's a groundswell, as I said, of these women who are recovering their sensuality, sexual power, and I think the other thing that the seductresses would be very proud of is the fact that we're moving beyond all the gender rigidity that existed before, because many of these women and I mentioned Violet Gordon Woodhouse, one of her lovers, not part of the Menager of Sankt, but was a woman, so her sexuality was free, it was emboldened, and yet she faced a time of incredible repression in England at the time. So I think she'd be very happy to see women owning their sexuality today.
38:50
I think more and more women are doing that and more and more women, I think, are sassing the establishment actually. I mean, I say that so many young women have been brainwashed by social media and porn and so forth, but I think there's an awareness of it and I think more and more women, young women are pretty swanky actually, and even Taylor Swift. She's muscling it up out there. She's saying look, I'm an achiever, I'm as good as a guy. She's maybe filling out that promise now in her erotic life, but I think a lot of these seductresses would be very pleased with that. I don't know if I'm not seeing more and more women my age. I'm thinking of two friends in particular who are older and who are just knocking it out of the park. I mean, they're having fun. One of them just got married to this dream guy and I think we're seeing a cutting edge there. I really do.
40:10
I think they'd be very proud of many of the gains that women have made, particularly vocationally and professionally, and they'd be proud of you, by the way. Many of them were also, and you know, delancló and a host of others formed schools to instruct women and the arts of love and how to get and keep enchanted any man forever.
Mary
Host
40:45
They would be proud of us. Yes, they would be proud of you, my dear. Well, actually, before we close, there's one more question that emerged, which is something I've been learning a lot about lately. Is this topic of polarity and masculine and feminine dynamics, and this is something that we've discussed at length in this episode. Is this emphasis on overmasculinization of the feminine? And in your research, are there any stories that stand out? I mean, violet Gordon Woodhouse is certainly one of them. But of these women's relationship to receiving, you know, when I think of the great seductresses, it's like they were very accomplished, strong sense of self, but, like you said, they also did not shy away from vulnerability and the claiming of their desires and their absolute, undoubted worthiness of receiving of them, which I feel like that aspect of receiving has been eclipsed by achieving for women and just any stories icons. Your personal reflections on that idea?
Betsy
Guest
42:06
One of my favorite people is Martha Gellhorn, who was very long long ignored and distrally by the feminists. But this was a woman who was very open to receiving love and appreciation from men.
42:25
She was a self styled kind of sexual maverick. She rejected respectability, went to Paris and she used to smoke a cigarette in quote gesture of the brawl and she used to have an affair with Colette's stepson who left his wife for her. And then she fell in love with Ernest Hemingway and that's a story because she and Hemingway were a number for nine years. But the way she reacted to his abuse and misogynism was kind of beautiful. I mean, she gave him back everything that he gave her. In other words, when he got drunk and insulted her, she smashed his car into a tree and the only woman to have ever walked out on him and she trumped him journalistically and got the big scoop that he didn't get on D-Day. But then after that, the way that she had real love affairs, opening herself up to dozens of these really exceptional human beings. One of them was James Gavin, who was a war hero. The other was Dr David Gorowicz, who was considered a thinking man's. Casanova.
43:58
Helen of Roosevelt was madly in love with him. She was enriched and enriched by these men always, and even if she parted from them, her experiences were deep and relational and both mutual appreciation and pleasure. Her last one was an editor at Time and things didn't work out, but at the same time she was willing to take a chance and jump into these relationships. She had the strength of character, the sense of swank, and she always identified with Napoleon to extract herself when she saw things weren't going well and to be happy alone. At the same time, the richness of her relationships with these various exceptional men is really to be admired and the fact that she said at the end of her life she led the happiest life imaginable. And I think that that speaks not to being a tough broad but to being a full-whole person, willing and strong enough to reveal her strengths and weaknesses and to be intimate with these extraordinary men that she picked.
Mary
Host
45:30
Oh, yes, I love that. What a perfect example. You know, I dressed as her for Halloween one year Really I did and I wore this little aubergine button, beret and a beige vest and I had a press badge and it was a super fun costume.
Betsy
Guest
45:54
I love the fact that the way she treated Hemingway yes.
Mary
Host
46:00
And yet he could be quite. That's one of my favorite quotes from your book too. I'll just read that the seductresses follow the path of the eagle-clawed goddesses and that there was a brazenness about their erotic dynamism that required both pleasure and pain, solace and anxiety, quiescence and ecstasy. In short, they restored the life, death, ever-wirling goddess of everything. And what struck me about hearing you describe Martha Gellhorn was when you said she opened herself up. You know, and when I think about this autopilot of achievement and producing that so many feminine beings find themselves caught up in, it's like there is such a armoring and closing down, and so I just love that example of someone who went on to create enormous achievements in her life while also opening herself up. What a model to aspire to.
Betsy
Guest
47:10
Right, it's so impoverishing to armor yourself as you say like that. You're missing out on, so so much.
Mary
Host
47:23
Oh, Betsy, I love and adore you. I am so grateful for you and obviously will link to all of your social media website and books in our show notes. But if you'd like to just share how people can learn more about you and learn more about your work, how would they go about doing that?
Betsy
Guest
47:43
Well, I have two Facebooks, a personal one and a professional one, and then there's Instagram and also, if you want to know more, there are two other books besides. Seductress Swoon is interesting because they are a profile of the men that women desire, which is not what you would think at all, and I interviewed something like 14 men for that, which is really interesting. And then the other one, diamonds and Deadlines, which is just an incredible story about a seductress who is profiled in seductress actually. But this is a full-length study of this extraordinary woman who was really magnetic and achieved so much, and when men were mad for her and when she was in her 70s, she won the love of her life of a Spanish marquee who was the gentleman waiting to the king, who was very cultivated, a humanitarian, everything, and he was obviously a big catch.
48:58
So she was a person who was incredibly charming, not beautiful, but who wrote a great deal in its in Diamonds and Deadlines, about the equipment that women need for tomorrow in order to lead full lives and to have men, as she said, at your feet. You said this is their proper place. You're the queen, and don't ever leave your throne, because a man will always make you queen of his world, if you just stay there. So she was incredibly inspirational in her writing. She had a lot of wise advice to women. So I would say those two books, and of course you can always contact me too, I'm here, beautiful.
Mary
Host
49:51
Thank you so so much for being our very special, very esteemed guest. And so, again, if you'd like to connect with Betsy or learn more about her work, read her epic, gorgeous, just T-bone books in the bathtub, like I did back in the day. You can check out the link below this episode. And, betsy, you are such a gem and a treasure. Thank you so much.
Betsy
Guest
50:18
Oh, thank you. You are the gem and treasure yourself. So admire you and everything that you do. You are just dynamite girl. Thank you, it's true.
Mary
Host
51:01
Radiance is precious, magnetic and is who you are. All the layers of stress, obligation and overperforming have been stripped away. In a Radiance Renewal Coaching session, you'll be given the tools to identify the true blocks to your full Radiance and discover how to melt tension in your body and mind to reveal your most luminous light. Sessions are available for a limited time, so head to https://www.alifewellsavored.com/book-radiance or hit the link below this episode.
Break out the smelling salts and fluff the chaise lounge…today’s episode comes with a level 10 swoon warning! I am so proud and endlessly grateful to introduce you to my muse, teacher and friend, Betsy Prioleau.
Betsy is the author of Seductress: Women Who Ravished The World & Their Lost Arts of Love. Her work has been a guiding force of nature in my life for the last decade, and I’m so excited to share this conversation with you that features:
How to be “Human Catnip”
Inspirational stories of legendary women who ditched convention for their own convictions
The secret ingredient that every modern love potion is missing, and how to cultivate it in yourself
Tales from seductress history such as: the seductress who served herself as dessert at her own party, the daring dame who lived with four husbands at once that joyfully catered to her every need, the siren sensation who kicked Hemingway out of bed…and so much more!
Part history lesson, part rallying cry, part 1920's parlor party, this is one rendezvous you do not want to miss!
P.S. - I am very proud to say that the virtues of these legendary dames are what inspired the entire journey of The Come To Your Senses Coterie, my six month mastermind to release striving & survival mode, embrace beauty and embodiment, and begin a Renaissance of Radiance in 2024.
There is currently a juicy $1000 off savings, click here to snap it up!
