GetBullish

Bullish debuted in April 2010 on The Gloss as a column that promised to “take on issues related to the workplace, money, and entrepreneurship.” Since then, over 200 Bullish columns have also appeared on sister site TheGrindstone, and Bullish has expanded into other topics with which any gentlewoman must grapple: romance, friendships, travel, gender relations, fitness, philanthropy, and more. So why the term “Bullish”? Above all else, it’s about an attitude. As Jen said in the inaugural column: The bull has long been the totem animal of Wall Street — the snorting, aggressive paragon of masculinity associated with rising financial markets. There’s something to be said about the power of conducting your career bullishly, especially as a woman. The female equivalent of a bull is a cow – not exactly a model animal for business success. And yet, a bull’s power is generally considered to rest in his prodigious testicles — a rather delicate and idiosyncratic body part to choose as a metaphorical locus of power. Bullish readers are a unique bunch. They’re intelligent, driven, often motivated to succeed outside of the traditional 9-5 workplace — and don’t particularly want to be told to act like men. The column focuses on women, but it’s not exclusively for women; there’s a focus on youth, but it’s not exclusively for the young. The Bullish columns have even spawned their own vocabulary! There’s the reclaiming of ‘bullish’, of course, but also “bullicorns“, “future self“, “extreme advance planning“, and “gentlewomanly living“, amongst others.