By Carla Crivaro
I had a photo removed from LinkedIn. Not because I was naked but because I dared to look naked. There I was, standing in my power, in my skin, with books covering my body as a symbol of the stories that shaped me. The books weren’t to hide me, they were a symbol of me honouring myself, reclaiming lost parts and as a liberation from a past that kept me small and unexpressed. I want to be clear, nothing explicit was shown, you can see the photo for yourself. The image was ‘too much’, ‘too bold’, ‘too alive’, ‘too much woman’. And that, it seems, was the problem.
For me this isn’t just about a photo. It’s about the deeper discomfort our society still has with women who are fully expressed in their bodies, their sensuality and their confidence. Especially when that woman dares to lead!
My work lives at the intersection of sex, love and leadership. I support women, men and couples in building deep connections, erotic aliveness and authentic self-expression, taking that embodiment from the bedroom to the boardroom. So when LinkedIn removed that post, it didn’t just feel like censorship of an image, it felt like censorship of a message. A refusal to acknowledge that our power, our pleasure and our voice are professional.
As a society we are still so deeply uncomfortable with female embodiment. We applaud confidence but only if it’s polished, corporate and tame. We celebrate leadership but only if it doesn’t disrupt, provoke or arouse. However, I’m not here to be palatable, I’m here to be real and lead from that place of authenticity.
I speak about the uncomfortable truths many are too afraid to voice. Which are, that women still shrink themselves to be accepted. That being desired and being taken seriously are still seen as opposites. That we don’t feel safe to talk about the way disconnection from our bodies affects everything; our careers, our relationships, our sex lives, our creativity…
The reason I’m so passionate about this work is because I’ve walked this path myself. There was a time I didn’t feel sexy – I dragged myself through the day-to-day mundane life I had unconsciously created. I didn’t care for myself because I didn’t feel I was worthy enough of giving myself that attention. I didn’t feel powerful – and felt like things happened to me but most of the time this was because I was putting myself in rooms and situations where I didn’t have permission to be me. Often, I felt like I belonged in the room. I had to tone myself down so that I wouldn’t be a threat. All of this had me feeling resentful, because deep down, I wanted it for myself. I’ve battled the voice that said I was too much. I’ve felt the sting of comparison, of shrinking and of second-guessing my worth.
What I began to notice is that in fact the more I reclaimed my body, my pleasure and my voice, the more magnetic my work became because I was giving people the experience of the real me.
When I started showing up in my full expression, clients came faster, wanting to ‘have what she’s having’. When I stopped hiding my sensuality I connected deeper to myself and to others. Sensuality isn’t just about sex, it’s about connecting to our senses and feeling fully in our bodies, our desires and our somatic experience. When I started leading from wholeness, not just the polished parts, I saw I am creating real impact. I am actually giving women (and men) real permission to show up, warts and all and still receive acceptance.
The thing is, confidence isn’t just a mindset, it’s an embodiment. So, when a woman feels alive in her skin, her whole life expands. What happens is her voice gets louder, her standards rise, she asks for more and she settles for less. I see this especially in women in mid-life, who really have ‘reclaimed’ what they had abandoned to keep a family and a man. When this shift happens she becomes the woman she used to think only other people got to be.
This is what I see every day in my work… women who were unsure, disconnected, hesitant and now reclaiming their turn-on, their desires and their identity. Couples reigniting their sex lives not through tricks but through truth.
We have to stop pretending these conversations don’t belong on platforms like LinkedIn. Because your relationship to your body is professional. Your sexuality is leadership. Your voice, your energy, your presence all shape your business, your relationships and your impact.
What I see is that when women are still being told to cover up, tone down and be safe, we all lose.
I will not let a platform’s discomfort dilute my message. I will keep showing up in my fullness. I will keep inviting women to remember who they are beyond shame, beyond the rules and beyond the roles they were handed. Because I see and I know that when a woman is free in her body, she becomes unstoppable.
So here’s to the women who refuse to shrink.
Who is rewriting the rules!
Who is done apologising.
From the bedroom to the boardroom your sensuality is not a liability. It’s your superpower.
And if that makes some people uncomfortable then good. Because the world doesn’t change by playing small. It changes when women rise.
Fully. Boldly. Unapologetically.
Carla Crivaro
